Stoke City vs Liverpool FC post match thread

[Kenneth]

This is true -

Kick in the balls
Punch in the face
Shoot them
There are many ways...

Well if we're going to concede, may as well make it worthwhile,

[Le Chef]

I have to admit Carragher's hoofing today left me in a rage. He is the antitheses of everything about the way we are trying to play football these days

Last two games he's cost us goals, add in the hoof and he's not performing

[calvoboy]

We didn't play particularly well but we dominated the game

................LFC.....SCFC
Possession..72.6%..27.4%
Shots.........14........2
On target.....8.........1
Corners.......12........2

I can't believe we lost

I thought we were poor in some area, final ball was poor at time, we wasted some very good chances. But if we had won that game by a couple of goals I don't think anyone could have had any complaints, we were unlucky IMO

Fair play to Stoke they defended extremely well, they got their goal and parked the bus very effectively

I know the comparison games aren't much, but that's our best performance at the Britannia since they came up to the Premiership by a long way. There was some outstanding backs-to-the-wall defending by Stoke at times, but we battered them for most of the game and it's amazing we've not come away with at least a point.

[BigChief]

I don't see him as a natural leader at all personally, a class act, but not a leader

Without wading into this too deep, you can't have two organisers working against each other. Carra has done a fantastic job organising, but its to Agger's credit that he's simply obeyed and not interferred. Who's to say he can't now that Carra can be phased out?

[Pablo]

Without wading into this too deep, you can't have two organisers working against each other. Carra has done a fantastic job organising, but its to Agger's credit that he's simply obeyed and not interferred. Who's to say he can't now that Carra can be phased out?

Yeah, that's a fair point

[Muddled]

we kept banging away through the middle too much.

I agree with this, I'd have a guess that a high percentage of our attacking play was through the middle, followed by a small amount on the right and even smaller amount down the left.

And each time Downing got the ball on the right, the Stoke defenders showed him on to his right foot - and whilst he did stand a few crosses up, he can't whip them in like he can with his left.

[Shaggy]

The last three champions have won at Stoke with goals between the 85th and 90th minute, which shows how tough they make it. I know we lost like but as already stated we were all over them.

[Fredo]

Downing played well IMO, he was a constant threat in the last 10 minutes or so. Some of his crossing with his right foot are a delight and we need to do better attacking them. It's going to be a real asset, the lad's a quality player.

[BigChief]

Haven't seen the game yet, but I'm pleasantly surprised to see the stats despite 6 or so key players all having a bad day. I was expecting to lose this 2 or 3 nil when we went a goal down. For them to only have one shot on target all game (a dodgy penalty) is a step in the right direction.

Manure/Chelsea/Arsenal have always had similar stats and lost the occasional game like this.

[el matador]

theres lots of plus points from the game. For the first time in while we no longer look predictable, there's movement all over the place. The fullbacks look good both defensively and attacking wise, central midfield works better with adam (even though he didnt have his best game today).

The only thing i dont like is the inverted winger business. Downing is obviously a quality player and some of the crosses he dug out with his right were sublime and ridiculously good but i still think he'd be better from the left.

Bellamy looked very sharp from the left and his link up play with enrique isnt something we've seen at anfield for a very long time.

not happy with the result but the performance was good

[Icon]

12 at the back is hard to punch through...

[Exiled_red]

The match stats posted by Exiled_Red are incredible.

I think if you want to break it down in to individual performances (without wanting to incite a 'I hate xxx' conversation),

Adam drifted out of the game; Downing constantly on the right was to hide a below par performance from Kuyt and to accomodate Bellamy; of all the players to be free through on goal, you wouldn't want Henderson leading the charge and Carragher (penalty apart) wasn't that bad - mainly because Stoke didn't threaten us.

I'd always thought out loud that top four was our target, but deep down I'd always wanted a title challenge until (at least) April - top four can be achieved with an average of two points a game, which is (just about) on target and let's face it, I don't think we'll be the only big team to lose at Stoke this season. Our season will be shaped by our performances against Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea, Arsenal and Spurs.

I thought that some players had below par performances, but I don't think that anyone played *that* badly. I think that Stoke just defended well they were tight and closed things down well and denied us space in the final third. Obviously this resulted in alot of our balls in the final third not reaching their targets as the Stoke defence cut them out. IMO This makes people perceive that certain players had worse games than they actually did. Of course there were some sloppy passages of play, and some performances weren't as good as you would like, but that's just part of the game. On most other days something would have gone our way and at worst we'd have got a point, probably have won.

The thing that disappointed me was that we didn't score when we were on top early on, we had a great start to the game, if we could have got a goal in that period things would have been different. Games like this are always difficult if the opposition go in front as they have something to defend and will likely park the bus as we saw today, if we'd got an early goal they wouldn't have been able to sit back as much and ot would have perhaps been an easier game to win.

[McDermotX]

Mate...where are those possession stats from ?
We held the ball, but it looks a little high IMO, especially considering the stop-start play Stoke had going.
Felt like closer to 60-63% really.
Not that its important anyway, as the only one that matters is goals I suppose.

[Fredo]

Adam's a quality player but he needs to be more consistent with his passing. He seems to lose concentration a bit when he tries an easy short pass - went off a couple of times today but I guess the fact that he tries to play them early makes those passes not so easy. I think he still gives us an edge though and he does complement Lucas well.

[malg]

Same old same old,unable to break down poor teams,costing us points. It shows we have a long way to go before dreaming of a title or even maybe a top 4.