Stoke City vs Liverpool FC post match thread

[Leyton388]

Next weekend aganst spurs i think.

[McDermotX]

Makes a change to lose a game on the back of a mistake rather than complete incompetence.

Think you're setting that one up for the Carra haters though mate

[cream]

Next weekend aganst spurs i think.

One whole week. ****ing bollocks.

[BootRoom]

Dalglish: " "Every game this season there has been a contentious decison and every one has gone against us. I'm doing my best to be respectful to refs body-but I'm going to talk to owners to see what course of action I should take in future"

I'm not sure what good this will do, especially since JW recently went on record saying how impressed he was by the standard of the officiating in this country. He may be thinking that he's jumped the gun slightly.

[rodo]

did anyone else here the aggro with aldo on radio city had to be told to sit down by his co commentator after the penalty incident

[Suarez]

Utd are leagues apart from us at the moment. Still think we can fight for the top 4 though.

[topscorer]

I cannot understand why so many people are turning on Carra, you'd think he had an awful game and he's the only reason we lost.

He's older and slower and will have to fight hard to keep his place this season but have some respect for the man, he's put in over a decade of inspirational service for our club so if you want to say he shouldn't be first choice anymore because of his age or whatever fine, but treat him with some respect. Some of you are treating him worse than bloody Konchesky.

It was a penalty in my opinion, but a soft one. He's got away with many similar tussles in the past and had it given against him this time. Not his fault and certainly not the referees fault for giving it.

But to say that we lost the game because of that is ridiculous. We still had over 70 minutes to score after that penalty and we completely battered Stoke and should have scored 3 or 4 goals easily but didn't. They had nothing in attack for the rest of the game.

We didn't lose that game because we had a soft penalty given against us we lost it because we failed to score due in part to incredible goal keeping by Begovic, resolute defending by Stoke and some incredible bad luck.

We had 2 or 3 shouts for penalties that didn't go our way, the one on Skrtel was clear in my opinion and I think the only reason it wasn't given was because he got his shot away. That was a poor referee decision.

But I still don't blame the referee, we had plenty of other chances to score and have some top class players on the pitch but didn't do it.

I'm as ****ed off as anyone about losing but lets not direct our anger and frustration in the wrong direction. It shouldn't be directed at Carra or the referee. It was an unlucky day.

Hopefully that's all our bad luck done and dusted in one game and we can get a few decisions in our favour in more important games such as the Spurs one.

But if we keep playing attacking football like that I think we'll score a lot of goals this season.

Well done Stoke, Begovic was MOTM in my opinion and that says it all really.

[danperkins]

Absolutely gutted about result, performance was ok. We did dominate them and deserved to win though. Hendo missing those 3 chances on the trot was shocking.

Thought Suarez was only one trying to make things happen, until Bellamy came on. Adam's passing was lousy, Downing IMO should always be on the left side, he's a good player but he ain't no Messi and is a bit predictable cutting in on the right. Hendo i just don't see it but he has time on his side. Typical Dirk, either incredible or diabolical, unfortunately it was the latter today.

If we beat Spurs next week, this result won't seem so bad. We are way behind United & City at the moment IMO, they are destroying opposition but i don't give a ****e about them, Arsenal & Spurs are the ones we need to worry about in terms of challenging our champs league ambitions, beating Spurs next week after beating Arsenal already, would make a bit of a statement IMO.

P.S. Carra needs to be dropped IMO, absolute legend but making too many individual errors over last year & is awful in posession. Still a hero but needs to play less. As fpor the peno, was a banker peno, if we are honest Carra has got away with murder for years with fouls, so can't be too sore about it.

[Kenneth]

I'm wondering how often this is the case, I haven't paid that much attention before to be honest I have tended to think he hoofs the ball far too much without looking at the reasons.

But if he plays 5 hoofs up field in a match and each time he had no other option that's different from choosing to hoof the ball up field when there are other options available. The former suggests something is wrong with the way we set up or that hoofing is a necessity, the latter just shows he likes a good hoof Before today I'd always assumed the latter

It must be bad luck that Carra ends up in these positions more than our other centre backs.

[Suarez]

Watching Utd this season and its almost like watching a different sport. We seem to have footballers and they seem to have athletes who can play football only better. By that I mean that they all seem to be really light on their feet, very pacey and they pass the ball about like lightening. We on the other hand seem to be heavy footed (with one or two exceptions), cumbersome and slow, we have no spring in our step, almost pedestrian.

Saying that, we created enough chances to win this today and it ultimately came down to us not being ruthless enough with our finishing. Henderson really should've done better, but he didn't look confident at all when approaching the keeper. We are desperately short of creativity and pace in the middle.

[Craig_H]

Well, just got back, had over 3 hours to try and get my head around that, and i'm still none the wiser as to how we didnt win, let alone how we lost.

Clattenburg was dreadful, but even alllowing for that, we'd win that game 99% of the time. Second half was like a training exercise, attack vs defence.

People will say it's sour grapes, and i'm only saying this because we lost - but Stoke are, by a significant margin, the worst footballing side i have ever seen in my life. All they have is long throws and long punts out of defence to a big man. The devil's advocate in me wonders if they should sign Carra

But seriously, they are so dire, it's laughable. Their fans wont complain because they won, they've progressed since getting into the PL and are on the up compared to where they were 5 years ago. But **** me, if i was paying good money to watch that ****e, i'd be in tears every week. The most definitive example of 'anti-football' you could ever get. And it's not about them not having the players or saying that they should try and 'out-football' better sides. There are teams in the PL with considerably worse players than Stoke, who dont resort to that kind of alehouse ****. Genuinely embarrassing.

Back to us - we werent at our best, but we ****ing pissed on them, they had one attempt on target all game (the peno) and we must have had about 20, altogether. We were plenty good enough to win that game, but due to a bit of sloppiness on our part, and some bizarre turns of events, we somehow couldnt score.

We werent totally blameless or faultless though - Charlie Adam's passing was ****ing ****e all day long, his worst performance thus far, needs to improve a ****load, because that was about a 3/10 performance today.

And Henderson - i know he's young and i know he's still settling in, but by lord, a professional footballer, and a technically sound one at that, with all that space, and all the time in the world - never mind MAKING a brew, he could've gone and picked the tea leaves and STILL would've had time to finish - one on one with the keeper and with THREE attempts at it, still couldnt beat Begovic. I'm not going to be abusive or call him ****, but that was dreadfully poor that he couldnt score those 3 chances (3-in-1).

Skrtel's effort at the latter end of the half was poor too, and Suarez's instinctive miss at the end, with an open net, was hard to take. Bellamy's header should've hit the target, Downing had a decent headed attempt too and Agger also skied one late on, from a good position. Those are just off the top of my head, but i'm sure there's other chances i've forgotten. All in all, with a touch more luck and better composure/finishing, we would've done enough to have won 3 games, let alone one.

So overall, gutted to lose but on that kind of performance, we'll be fine. If we play like that the majority of the time during the season, we will get top 4 with our eyes closed.

I'll close by saying, i'm a little worried about Carragher - aside from anything else, he should have the experience and intelligence not to be doing what he did in the box - i was behind that goal and it happened very quickly - my instant reaction was 'definite penalty' but i've heard people on the radio say it was 50/50. Having only had one look at it (same as the ref), and as quickly as it happened, i thought...not necessarily that it was a clear penalty - but it was clear that the ref was always going to give it, all day long. In which case, the solution is to not put the ref in that position, whereby he has to make a decision. The 'prevention' would've simply been to not let the forward get ahead of him in the first place. But yeah, aside from his hoofing, which is just Carra, i didnt think he needed to make the 'challenge' that lead to the peno.

One quick question - who put the pass through for Henderson's one-on-one? I didnt see who it was, but it was a ****ing sublime ball, with superb vision and it deserved to be finished with a goal. If it was Adam, then it was the one brilliant ball he played, surrounded by plenty of dreadful ones.

Big game next week at Spurs now, we need to bounce back and two consecutive defeats would be a major blow.

[Vermilion]

Watching Utd this season and its almost like watching a different sport. We seem to have footballers and they seem to have athletes who can play football only better. By that I mean that they all seem to be really light on their feet, very pacey and they pass the ball about like lightening. We on the other hand seem to be heavy footed (with one or two exceptions), cumbersome and slow, we have no spring in our step, almost pedestrian.

Saying that, we created enough chances to win this today and it ultimately came down to us not being ruthless enough with our finishing. Henderson really should've done better, but he didn't look confident at all when approaching the keeper. We are desperately short of creativity and pace in the middle.

Guile.

[Craig_H]

and does this way of playing give you encouragement going forwards? I know ultimately its about putting it in the net, but I can see a total change in build up these days and its refreshing to see.

The difference is astronomical - under the fraud, we werent just losing games - we were being beaten deservedly so and didnt look like winning - we werent even competitive in games.

It's chalk and cheese - all 4 of our games this season so far, we could say we have valid arguments as to why we could/should have won them. Under the fraud, i doubt that happened even four times across his whole horrible tenure.

Definitely cause for optimism.

I think we need to somehow learn to be more ruthless, but otherwise, there hasnt been a lot wrong, barring one poor half of football vs Sunderland, with our performances so far this season.

[Craig_H]

I'm going from a (****) stream, so my impression was a barge from Walters, with Carragher holding his waist to maintain his balance and stay on his feet; Walters leans in to him again, in which Carragher is now off balance and they both go over.

Granted Carragher shouldn't have been caught that side of him, but it was a soft penalty in my opinion.

I've since watched it back and TBH, i dont think i can argue with the decision - what Carra thinks he's doing, with his arm so obviously around the fella's waist, i dont know. If it had been at the other end, with Shawcross doing that to Suarez, i'd be fuming if a peno isnt given.

[pondus]

Well, just got back, had over 3 hours to try and get my head around that, and i'm still none the wiser as to how we didnt win, let alone how we lost.

Clattenburg was dreadful, but even alllowing for that, we'd win that game 99% of the time. Second half was like a training exercise, attack vs defence.

People will say it's sour grapes, and i'm only saying this because we lost - but Stoke are, by a significant margin, the worst footballing side i have ever seen in my life. All they have is long throws and long punts out of defence to a big man. The devil's advocate in me wonders if they should sign Carra

But seriously, they are so dire, it's laughable. Their fans wont complain because they won, they've progressed since getting into the PL and are on the up compared to where they were 5 years ago. But **** me, if i was paying good money to watch that ****e, i'd be in tears every week. The most definitive example of 'anti-football' you could ever get. And it's not about them not having the players or saying that they should try and 'out-football' better sides. There are teams in the PL with considerably worse players than Stoke, who dont resort to that kind of alehouse ****. Genuinely embarrassing.

Back to us - we werent at our best, but we ****ing pissed on them, they had one attempt on target all game (the peno) and we must have had about 20, altogether. We were plenty good enough to win that game, but due to a bit of sloppiness on our part, and some bizarre turns of events, we somehow couldnt score.

We werent totally blameless or faultless though - Charlie Adam's passing was ****ing ****e all day long, his worst performance thus far, needs to improve a ****load, because that was about a 3/10 performance today.

And Henderson - i know he's young and i know he's still settling in, but by lord, a professional footballer, and a technically sound one at that, with all that space, and all the time in the world - never mind MAKING a brew, he could've gone and picked the tea leaves and STILL would've had time to finish - one on one with the keeper and with THREE attempts at it, still couldnt beat Begovic. I'm not going to be abusive or call him ****, but that was dreadfully poor that he couldnt score those 3 chances (3-in-1).

Skrtel's effort at the latter end of the half was poor too, and Suarez's instinctive miss at the end, with an open net, was hard to take. Bellamy's header should've hit the target, Downing had a decent headed attempt too and Agger also skied one late on, from a good position. Those are just off the top of my head, but i'm sure there's other chances i've forgotten. All in all, with a touch more luck and better composure/finishing, we would've done enough to have won 3 games, let alone one.

So overall, gutted to lose but on that kind of performance, we'll be fine. If we play like that the majority of the time during the season, we will get top 4 with our eyes closed.

I'll close by saying, i'm a little worried about Carragher - aside from anything else, he should have the experience and intelligence not to be doing what he did in the box - i was behind that goal and it happened very quickly - my instant reaction was 'definite penalty' but i've heard people on the radio say it was 50/50. Having only had one look at it (same as the ref), and as quickly as it happened, i thought...not necessarily that it was a clear penalty - but it was clear that the ref was always going to give it, all day long. In which case, the solution is to not put the ref in that position, whereby he has to make a decision. The 'prevention' would've simply been to not let the forward get ahead of him in the first place. But yeah, aside from his hoofing, which is just Carra, i didnt think he needed to make the 'challenge' that lead to the peno.

One quick question - who put the pass through for Henderson's one-on-one? I didnt see who it was, but it was a ****ing sublime ball, with superb vision and it deserved to be finished with a goal. If it was Adam, then it was the one brilliant ball he played, surrounded by plenty of dreadful ones.

Big game next week at Spurs now, we need to bounce back and two consecutive defeats would be a major blow.

It was Jose Enrique after Kuyt had won the ball deep in our half