Post Game Thread - Stoke (A)

[LeTallecWiz]

We have a serious problem with ShiteRB & ShiteLB.

Can't defend, rarely add anything to attack and well, they're shite.

When are Flanno and Enrique back!?

 

[LeTallecWiz]

Other thoughts:

* Sterling was having a very good game, before his rather soft penalty. There was contact but it was soft. Well done to him overall though, he's improved his ability to shield off players and he's becoming an extremely important part of the first term.

* Gerrard was very poor today. We will struggle to dominate midfields playing Rodgers' preferred system because Gerrard is no longer capable of being 100% active on the pitch.

* Lucas was average at BEST. He doesn't seem natural going up front either - and people wonder why M'Vila is on our radar.

* Mignolet ... need better.

* Skrtel - I don't know where we'd be without him. He's not world class, but he's been an ever present for most of the season and pretty consistent too.

* Suarez - what can we say? The best striker in the world right now ... unplayable.

* Studge - welcome back ... We've missed having another proper goalscorer on the pitch.

* If Coutinho can just figure out how to score, he'll be incredible.

* I am very happy to have won this game because we were bloody lucky, needed a dodgy penalty call and needed the sheer brilliance of SAS to finish it off. That's something we've lacked for years now ... Grinding out results, doing what that twat in Manchester used to have his team doing every year - winning games they didn't really deserev to. Back to 4th place ... Well done Liverpool, get healthy and let's smash the blueshite.

 

[reuque]

Suarez and storage WOW.

That is all.

 

[Frogfish]

What a match ! That is all 😉

 

[Red Mullet]

Suarez and storage WOW.

That is all.

Er...

 

[FoxForceFive]

So close. Thought we were gonna get beat for a while, but a late act saved us.

Cheers for that 'this has 5-5 written all over it' there dmishra, in the very spirit of gene hughes & did the trick.

 

[Frogfish]

Oh and this match was the epitome of an explanation for Modo of why we need M'Villa first before another striker.

 

[iseered]

Fuck me! Mayhem! And we won!!

 

[Red Mullet]

+. Happy with the win, broke the Stoke hoodoo. SAS back where they left off.

-. Need a lot better from the fullbacks. Coutinho needs a goal or practice shooting. Team seemed disjointed, midfield was all wrong - Gerrard was the primary reason for this. Too many hollywood passes.

 

[hamstrung_pigeon]

Poor first half; better second half, but our defending is so amateurish. And whoever said we're playing the worst pair of fullbacks in the league right now in the match thread is spot-on.

Suarez and Sturridge will steal the headlines again, but I thought Sterling was our best player over the 90 minutes. His effort and fight was great - you just have to see him measuring up to N'Zonzi's waist to see what he was up against. Won us a very soft penalty, and also his excellent screening and holding up of the ball was crucial in the buildup to the final goal that sealed the victory for us. On current form, I'd say Sterling should be the third guy rounding up the front three with Suarez and Sturridge.

Full credit to Stoke - they never gave up and they gave us scares up till the very end. Hopefully they'll play like this against the other top clubs that visit them, because they'll give those clubs a hard game if they can play at this intensity and commitment. Awful type of football to watch though; this is still very much Pulis' team.

 

[LeTallecWiz]

-. Need a lot better from the fullbacks.

We just need two fullbacks ... not shitebacks.

 

[FoxForceFive]

Stevie has just said he'll be playing dm a lot now.

Hmm. I hope he can improve there. He has the quality to play it, so he may well do.

 

[ibromurph]

Disagree on Gerrard. I thought he was fine today.

Thought Lucas was very poor today. Ambling around the pitch. We need better. He and Gerrard aren't so good.

Coutinho - poor defensively. Needs to seriously work on his finishing. Beginning to piss me off.

Cissokho is shite. Adds nothing but width and a bit of running. Don't know what's happened to him, he used to be shite defensively for Porto but awesome going forward.

Sterling was great but ran out of gas in the end. Brendan really should have made a change in the last 10mins.

 

[Red Mullet]

We just need two fullbacks ... not shitebacks.

I don't care if it's new players or a massive massive improvement from the current fullbacks. It NEEDS fixing.

 

[Dreambeliever]

If the following players stay fit until the end of the season we will win the league

Suarez
Studge
Coutinho
Sterling
Hendo
Sahko
Skretel
Enrique

Remarkable how good we look going forward

 

[Modo]

Great game for the viewers, terrible game for the manager, I guess.

We were very sloppy at the back and we were a bit lucky to be 2-0 up.

Was surprised to see Lucas play so far up the pitch and Gerrard playing in DM role. Something he failed miserably at.
I've said before Stevie is just not a good DM, he just doesn't have discipline and the positional sense to play there.

I think it would have been a different game if Lucas had played there, he would definitely have tried to close Adam off when he got his chance. Where was Stevie?

Touré also had a poor game.

My ratings:

Mingolet 7 - Some great saves mixed with some iffy ones.

Johnson 6 - Average

Touré 5 - Poor

Skrtel 6 - Decent

Cissokho 6 - Average, fluke goal but well taken shot.

Lucas 6.5 - Decent game

Gerrard 4 - Really poor game.

Coutinho 6 - Needs a goal

Sterling 8 - Sterling performance.

Suarez 9 - World class.MOM

 

[Spaghetti Legs]

What a match ! That is all 😉

Yep, Im in the camp of 'we will score more than you' and not caring if we concede 5 as long as we win so im happy.

Saying that though Mignolet is just one big sketch out now.

Toure amongst the chaos was brilliant, he held it together back there, we would of conceded more if it wern't for him, ok he was at fault for Crouch's goal but apart from that he was brilliant.

Love Sturridge and Suarez to bits.

 

[Modo]

If the following players stay fit until the end of the season we will win the league

Suarez
Studge
Coutinho
Sterling
Hendo
Sahko
Skretel
Enrique

Remarkable how good we look going forward

Yeah let's see how it goes when our only defensive midfielder gets injured.

 

[Lippy]

If the following players stay fit until the end of the season we will win the league

Suarez
Studge
Coutinho
Sterling
Hendo
Sahko
Skretel
Enrique

Remarkable how good we look going forward

Much as I'd love it too happen I just think City and Chelsea have too much squad depth and quality for that to happen. You never know though !

 

[Red Mullet]

Great game for the viewers, terrible game for the manager, I guess.

We were very sloppy at the back and we were a bit lucky to be 2-0 up.

Was surprised to see Lucas play so far up the pitch and Gerrard playing in DM role. Something he failed miserably at.
I've said before Stevie is just not a good DM, he just doesn't have discipline and the positional sense to play there.

I think it would have been a different game if Lucas had played there, he would definitely have tried to close Adam off when he got his chance. Where was Stevie?

Touré also had a poor game.

My ratings:

Mingolet 7 - Some great saves mixed with some iffy ones.

Johnson 6 - Average

Touré 5 - Poor

Skrtel 6 - Decent

Cissokho 6 - Average, fluke goal but well taken shot.

Lucas 6.5 - Decent game

Gerrard 4 - Really poor game.

Coutinho 6 - Needs a goal

Sterling 8 - Sterling performance.

Suarez 9 - World class.MOM

You got Johnson, Cissokho and Toure ratings wrong way round there.

 

[Dreambeliever]

If the above were fit for the 2 away game we wouldn't have got beaten

 

[Skullflower]

we need to win our next three games before we play arsenal if we want to stay in the title race.

 

[juniormember]

Stevie has just said he'll be playing dm a lot now.

Hmm. I hope he can improve there. He has the quality to play it, so he may well do.

Apart from his ridiculously shit short passing today, which is very uncharacteristic of him, I thought he did his job.
The problem was that Lucas had to then play in a position he will never succeed in so the midfield was disjointed. Having Allen there instead of Lucas, with Stevie deep may well work. Stevie certainly didn't desert his holding role during the game, which I was pleased to see.
Once he's match fit, he'll cut out the errors and we'll finally once again have a deep lying playmaker with two very active midfielders ahead of him.

 

[Spaghetti Legs]

Gerrard did actually have a good 2nd half.

 

[Red Mullet]

If the above were fit for the 2 away game we wouldn't have got beaten

What ifs are a poor argument.

 

[dmishra]

Stevie has just said he'll be playing dm a lot now.



Hmm. I hope he can improve there. He has the quality to play it, so he may well do.

It's not really about 'quality', is it? We deify Gerrard so much with this 'he'd be great at any position of the pitch' nonsense.

Fact is every player needs loads of experience developing instincts for a position. So this Gerrard would've made a better RB than Babbel or Gerrard would've made a better holding midfielder than Alonso is not only nonsense, but also insulting towards players who've honed their skills at certain positions. Gerrard honed his as an attacking midfielder - it's completely perplexing why we're trying to re-invent him.

A holding midfielder needs to defend space, intercept and play the most efficient pass. Gerrard's instincts are completely the opposite - follow the ball rather than defend space, tackle rather than intercept and play the most aggressive rather than the most efficient pass.

You can try to teach this old dog new tricks, but it's (a) either not going to work; or (b) take that much time that it won't be worth it. More importantly, it also takes away from the possibility of using Gerrard in his best position - where he can still get goals and assists.

 

[Modo]

You got Johnson, Cissokho and Toure ratings wrong way round there.

How do you mean?

Touré was responsible for at least two goals.

 

[LeTallecWiz]

Johnson 6 - Average





Cissokho 6 - Average, fluke goal but well taken shot.



Lucas 6.5 - Decent game



Gerrard 4 - Really poor game.

Seriously dude, what game were your watching?

Johnson and Cissohoko were absolute shite. If either were named Carra, you'd have given them a 1 and I'd have said 0.5 too generous too.

Lucas was average at best, but so was Gerrard. The rating here is based on your newfound apperciation and undying love of Lucas.

That being said - our best midfield, if everyone is healthy, is probably Lucas, Henderson and Allen.

 

[Red Mullet]

Apart from his ridiculously shit short passing today, which is very uncharacteristic of him, I thought he did his job.
The problem was that Lucas had to then play in a position he will never succeed in so the midfield was disjointed. Having Allen there instead of Lucas, with Stevie deep may well work. Stevie certainly didn't desert his holding role during the game, which I was pleased to see.
Once he's match fit, he'll cut out the errors and we'll finally once again have a deep lying playmaker with two very active midfielders ahead of him.

Yep, the midfield was dis-jointed pretty much because Lucas has to get used to his new position and Gerrard has to cut the hollywood passes out or get them working. Once this is sorted then it could work.

 

[juniormember]

Great game for the viewers, terrible game for the manager, I guess.

We were very sloppy at the back and we were a bit lucky to be 2-0 up.

Was surprised to see Lucas play so far up the pitch and Gerrard playing in DM role. Something he failed miserably at.
I've said before Stevie is just not a good DM, he just doesn't have discipline and the positional sense to play there.

I think it would have been a different game if Lucas had played there, he would definitely have tried to close Adam off when he got his chance. Where was Stevie?

There's no way Stevie 'failed miserably' today. He was rusty and his short passing was dire. But he generally kept to his position and did his job, covering for some hapless defending by some of our players.