Final 0-0. So disappointing to say the least. Another two points that I hope don't come back to haunt us.
Someone needs to explain to Benitez that the world will not come to an end if he makes a sub before the 60 min mark.
Worst game of the season. Gerrard, Yossi, Skrtel, Aurelio, Carra and Kuyt were all poor. Riera was our best player despite being on for only 55 minutes. Lucas and Masch did manage to keep lots of possession and never let the Stoke midfield see the ball however our outlets (Yossi, Aurelio, Kuyt and Carra) were all too poor for anything to happen. What bullshit at the end though! Hit the post after a great flick on by Torres. Cant wait to see Arbs/Degen at RB with Carra and Agger in the middle. Agger provides us with so much good passing from the back that goes unnoticed. His ability to run through the centre and pick out the CF, whoever it is, is unmatched by anyone except for Xabi. We missed out two best passes of the ball and although we had lots of possession, there werent enough passes that broke down the Stoke defence. We went back to the 5 touch passing, rather than the one and two touch passing that every player has been instructed by Rafa to do.
Yeah great call. Babel hasnt played a good game all season, Keane has scored less goals than our wingers despite being the outfield player with the 3rd most appearances behind Carra and Kuyt and Torres still isnt 100% match fit. You should go into management and take up a job in the premiership, you seem to know it all.
Gerrard seemed to experience the hangover that you would have expected against newcastle in this game. Lucas was abjectly poor. Benayoun was poor. Babel actually made a nice move on the play that led to tfree kick where stevie almost scored. terrible game overall. I guess the only thing is that we survive in 1st for another week. Thugh we have a very difficult game coming up. Everton have been playing very very well.
Just as well today was not a 'must win' game! Another 2 pts dropped. We have to hope that Chelsea and Man U draw tomorrow. No doubt the numpties will claim that it was all due to Rafa cracking up! We did not impose our game today - despite having about 65% possession. Stoke did well to look threatening from their chances and set-pieces. Credit to them. We have to look forward to Everton next match.
lucas was scared to attack their defense thus for all the possesion we had so much of it was back passing. It's not good when your true holding mid - masch- has to try to bring the ball forward and create.
has anyone noticed that Lucas seems to come back to balls passed to him in his half instead of letting the ball run by him and taking it moving forward. it doesn't matter whether a defender is 10 metres from him or 20 metres. what that tells me is that he's freaked by the thought of making a mistake. and don't get me started about Aurelio. i figure he had 5 or 6 passes blocked that he was trying to thread past a defender 10 feet from him. does he have an astigmatism?
That was awful. We are better than that. A. Lot. Better. I thought we weren't assertive. I love Kuyt. He's scored big goals. But he is not a cold blooded striker. He's the third best striker on our team. Put him wide right in the 442 or 4231 but NOT ALONE ATOP THE 451 (and yes, maybe Gerrard was the SS in the 451, so it was a fluid system of 442, but Kuyt was awful alone, and AGAINST STOKE HE IS QUITE SHORT) Time to cheer for a draw tomorrow.
not only that I think I saw 1 overlapping run from him all game. he should have been like carragher and living on their half of the pitch. btw - even Reina had an average game - despite the clean sheet.
I thought Lucas was awful. He gives away too many unnecessary fouls, and gives the ball away way too much or makes the very safe pass instead of trying to open them up. Masch had one of his poorer efforts as well. I don't understand the Riera substitution as he seemed to be one of the few players capable of creating something. Very frustrating day.
I dunno. Talk about the most predictable result of the season. Stoke are a well-drilled side when their gameplan amounts to nothing more than not getting beat, which is what they do against the big teams. That's why they can perform strongly against the likes of us and get battered by the likes of Blackburn, all in the space of a few weeks. Can't blame them for that, it's the most likely route out of the bottom three.
I dont get it...are you trying to be a smart arse or are you just stupid? Sami is clearly one of the best purchases this club has ever made. For only 2 million pounds, he has now made 700 appearances for the club with only a few patches of not his greatest football.
Originally Posted by Grinners89 View Post I dont get it...are you trying to be a smart arse or are you just stupid? Sami is clearly one of the best purchases this club has ever made. For only 2 million pounds, he has now made 700 appearances for the club with only a few patches of not his greatest football. Instead of being angry with each other, we should be angry with our team. We're all frustrated, but what good does it do to start bitching at each other?? The whole team played like crap today. We didn't play like a team at the top of the table. And if we keep playing poorly, against poor competition, we won't remain at the top. Nor will we deserve it. And for someone who says he's so desperate to win the league, Gerrard puts in some amazingly lazy efforts sometimes. Aside from 3-4 runs in 90 minutes, he did a lot of walking around. If he is our leader, he needs to lead for the whole game. Not just when he feels like it. I was hoping Rafa would take Lucas off, drop Gerrard back to midfield where i think he belongs, and partner Torres and Keane up top. My 2 cents.
What surprises me most about Benitez, having watched Liverpool a fair amount during the season, is how lacking in adaptability he is. If his system is clearly not working against a well drilled defence he doesn't seem to have a clue how to change the game in his favour. He just changes personel through substitutions but rarely (if ever?) switches away from a 4411 formation. Surely in these type of games he can drop one of those deep lying midfielders, and either use a second forward, or use Gerrard as one of those two midfielders and give him extra licence to advance? Too often I've seen Liverpool seriously struggle to break down these type of teams, and the personel is different every time they fail to do it. Is it time he tried a more adventurous attacking formation to grab those extra 2 points against these comparatively weak teams who are only really lookin for a point? Liverpool seem to be more likely to drop points against conservative teams than against top quality but more adventurous opposition.
I was looking forward to this rematch but it was the same story yet again...we could have kept playing another 90, maybe 180 minutes, and we still wouldn't score...the setup was too conservative with Masch and Lucas sitting too deep and not coming forward or making dangerous runs at all...there was again a lone striker in the box surrounded by at least 3 Stoke players when the cross comes in - that never leads to results - and yet we keep playing the same way against teams who defend with 10 players and keep dropping points in the process. Keane AND Torres on the bench - maybe somebody can explain this one to me (I'll read previous posts as soon as I'm done with my rant). A very disappointing scoreline - I'm definitely hoping for a Chelsea win tomorrow...we're putting ourselves in a far too difficult situation in the standings. PS we need Arbs to come back ASAP
Would Torres and Keane starting really have made a difference in this game? One could make the case that one of them would have found a way through but the way the rest of the team was playing I don't know if that would be the case. Stoke played in this game like their Premier league lives depended on it while all our players were subpar. It looked like it was going to be another 0-0 after 30 minutes or so. One has to wonder why Benitez didn't start either Keane or Torres, both weren't burnt out or anything. Sure, it makes sense to think that we shouldn't need either of them to beat Stoke if we are going to be serious title contenders but its not like we have another game coming up in two days.