Stoke City vs Liverpool FC post match thread

[JHP]

Well, TBH, I wouldn't trust BBC's stats (or Sky's for that matter)...just interested to know really, as it didn't feel that way unless they have some strange method of calculating possession.

Certainly not.

I'm in Gran Canaria relying on the BBC website through poor reception. BBC were showing 1-1.

[JohnDoe]

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 wanted this.

[BigChief]

I don't think there's an easy answer, it's easy to say "we need to take our chances" or "we need to score when we're on top", but the players aren't missing chances on purpose. Perhaps we need to work on our finishing and composure in front of goal, encourage people to follow up more. I don't know.

I don't personally hold any Liverpool player accountable for missed chances. They're trying their damnedest. Its up to the club/owners/manager to get the right output from the effort. Since Owen and an early day Torres we've not been the best at this. Top three clubs don't suffer from this syndrome.

[Exiled_red]

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"

It's true, good to see our manager bringing these types of things to everyone's attention, the other big clubs managers do this to put pressure on the referees.

[MrMichael]

Could be. Are you a mod? One answer fits both questions.

Actually I'm not, technically I'm the site admin. I get a slightly darker shade of red in the online list and everything

[Muddled]

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.

I think Kuyt struggled today, but Henderson, Adam and Downing all contributed towards - what was - a great start to the game. I should add that I don't think Kuyt was awful, just the game passed him by and he struggled to get involved. Henderson was substituted after he was being bypassed in midfield and Adam just ran out of steam, Downing kept going until the final whistle, but I'd much rather see the majority of his play on the left flank..

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.

This is a key point and very much links in with our game against Sunderland - we have to make our dominance pay and I think that will come with games (in terms of both fitness and playing as a unit). We get an early goal at Stoke - which we deserved - and the crowd turns, Stoke go looking for an equaliser and we can pick them apart as they push up. Unfortunately, it played straight in to Pulis' *tactical masterclass* of getting a goal and defending it.

[Shaggy]

It's true, good to see our manager bringing these types of things to everyone's attention, the other big clubs managers do this to put pressure on the referees.

Yep, good to see and I like his style - rather than just tearing into the ref as Ferguson and Wenger do.

[BigChief]

Actually I'm not, technically I'm the site admin. I get a slightly darker shade of red in the online list and everything

:impressed:

So I'll take the original answer as 'yes'.

[Exiled_red]

I don't personally hold any Liverpool player accountable for missed chances. They're trying their damnedest. Its up to the club/owners/manager to get the right output from the effort. Since Owen and an early day Torres we've not been the best at this. Top three clubs don't suffer from this syndrome.

I don't hold anyone responsible for the result, but as you say the other clubs don't seem to have the same problem (perhaps they do but we don't perceive it that way). I'd like to see us a little more clinical in front of goal.

[little dave hedgehog]

i reckon our biggest problem is that after the new influx of players, our pecking order on the pitch is all ****ed up without gerrard. when the game is going poorly, nobody knows who the leader is supposed to be. i think the natural instinct right now is to look for adam, but he's bottled it twice now under the weight of expectation. no slight on him, just needs a player with broader shoulders somewhere in the team. not everybody can be a leader, but somebody has to be.

[BootRoom]

I read Carragher's Times interview with Matthew Syed today. Talks a good game about the mistakes haunting him, etc. And always reading and learning. And I sat there thinking in ten years you never learned to pass mate. In football. Passing. So I pinched some salt.

Great servant, but not a great player. And definitely not the future Kenny envisions I'm sure.

I don't really see why such a poor footballer is regarded as a such a legend. He'd get nowhere near our best ever sides, and would be perfectly at home in Stoke's team.

[McDermotX]

Sky Sports Scorecentre

cheers

[little dave hedgehog]

carra's strong suit has always been blocking, tackling, not so much heading--but defending skills. he has never been great with the ball, but i think we've overlooked that for a long time because he has been so reliably good at keeping the ball out in the past. but if he's going to start conceding goals, then he must be benched. we can't carry him there. what a night he had in istanbul, though.

[Fredo]

i reckon our biggest problem is that after the new influx of players, our pecking order on the pitch is all ****ed up without gerrard. when the game is going poorly, nobody knows who the leader is supposed to be. i think the natural instinct right now is to look for adam, but he's bottled it twice now under the weight of expectation. no slight on him, just needs a player with broader shoulders somewhere in the team. not everybody can be a leader, but somebody has to be.

I wouldn't go as far as that IMO. We're now less reliant on Gerrard. Look at how many games we've played without him and we've done well for the most part. We're dangerous all over the pitch now. Don't think it's a problem of leadership.

[Muddled]

i reckon our biggest problem is that after the new influx of players, our pecking order on the pitch is all ****ed up without gerrard. when the game is going poorly, nobody knows who the leader is supposed to be. i think the natural instinct right now is to look for adam, but he's bottled it twice now under the weight of expectation. no slight on him, just needs a player with broader shoulders somewhere in the team. not everybody can be a leader, but somebody has to be.

I think you've made a good point about the influx of new players.

I don't think it particularly effects the pecking order, more so what players expect from each other; they're still learning each others game, learning a new style and learning instinctively where their team mates will be.

I am looking forward to seeing how Gerrard links up with Suarez though. I mean if Gerrard can make Torres look half decent, we're about to be spoilt.