Stoke 1-1 Liverpool: Post Match Discussion

How can we let a team who is good in the air have 13 corners against us???

just a glimmer of hope here. a draw but some sub par performances but showed some passion. defense is our big problem especially the last 5 minutes. cant understand why liverpool never even had a corner thats disgustiing. think rafa should take 3 months holiday then he will come back refreshed. get a  guy to come in a swing the axe and some heads can roll in those 3 months

shocker - absolute hocker...

I cant blame the players or the fans today - but the substutions made at the end cost us a win today. Taking Ngog off and leaving no attacker on the pitch sends a negative message to out players and the opponunts. No wonder they were all over us for the last 10 mins... Why not throw on another attacker as Ngog was having a poor game and do this around 70 mins in an attempt to actually F**k*ing win a game - way too negative again...

I feel so empty and slightly sick...

When Aquilani came on for Ngog, Kuyt took Ngog's place and Aquilani replaced Kuyt who was playing behind him.  There was no change in formation.

Therefore I think your argument is flawed.

I do blame the players for panicking in the last 10 minutes and trying to defend defend defend for the last 10 minutes. Rafa, and Reina even were urging them to continue moving forward as they had for the last 80 minutes again.

The defending of that final corner was simply embarrassing player error. Nothing more nothing less.

How can we let a team who is good in the air have 13 corners against us???

They obviously play in a manner to try and win corners and free kicks.  They get the ball out wide and do all the tricks such as kicking it at players legs and it rebounding out of touch.

They know their main weapon is corners and throw ins near the touchline.

Whereas other clubs are more likely to go for the cross in to the box, they are more likely to try and land a throw in from their wide positions.

I'd imagine they get plenty of throw ins and corners for most games.  Be no use to us seeing as we are sh*te at corners.

And the cross to Kuyt as well, which would have won him MOTM if it were converted for two assists IMO

defensively he is poor but he is young and improving.. but i agree with you.. he does do well when going fwd

  .........but hey never mind why cant things go right for us,because weve lost our basic footballing principals thats why

i have no idea how Carragher and Kuyt can start every games actually..

Big greek and Agger at the back and Maxi on wing right pls..

Rafa pls do something bout this.

nthing but a shower of nobodys on this site, trying to justify lucas as a good player, he is one of the main reasons we arre so sh*t this year. for gerrard to b good he needs quick balls played into him which gives him a bit of room to work, lucas is so slow that when gerrard finally gets the ball he is surrounded by at least 3 players.kuyt cannot get the ball near him or we are in serious trouble and if somebody is runniing at insua we need to put everyone bhind the ball. the only way we will improve is if kuyt, insua, lucas and ngog are dropped from the team.

The problem today was there was one, maybe two consistant players out there for us, Reina and Kyrgiakos. I say one because Reina did not have an awful lot to do at the start. Kyrgiakos was outstanding I thought, the only outfield player that looked like he'd been here a million times before. If we come up against a team so dangerous in the air, like Stoke, his name should be put down first on the team sheet, he was beating his Aeriel opponents 90% of the time, something we look a little shabby on most of the time.

By no means is Stoke an easy place to go and get 3 points but a club with the standards of Liverpool should be able to win, once they are 1-0 ahead. What I believe Rafa should have tried to do once we were 1-0 ahead was go for the second. 2 subs in the first half an hour and Stoke would be getting tired and a second goal would have killed off any hope of comeback. He left bringing on subs to replace the players that weren't doing well too late when it was obvious that Stoke weren't gonna sit back and let us come attacking with 10 minutes left. I'm annoyed, just as annoyed as anyone on this forum, keep these performances up and it does not look like Liverpool are moving anywhere higher this season...

It's difficult to take because for 89 minutes we were winning, and then after Stoke's equaliser we could have had a penalty. That could have changed everything. We got one point when it could have been three, so we've lost two points."
 
Stoke boss Tony Pulis also praised Liverpool's performance, saying: "It was a scrappy game but I thought Liverpool's attitude and commitment today was first class. They had a right go."

I am disappointed with the result and once again I am more disappointed with the standard of football we are playing.When are our defenders going to learn to cover the posts when the opposition are taking corners,every time there is only Reina on his line and the backs are nowhere to be seen.
                                       

Don't agree with this comment Billy.  There was a player on the post for their goal, albeit the opposite one that was needed, but if that player hadn't been on the post Huth would've been offside. 

we will improve is if kuyt, insua, lucas and ngog are dropped from the team.

But replace them with who?? Kuyt - Babel who everybody hates and cant even make the squad. Insua - Aurelio who is injured every 2nd game,sold Dossena and Rieras injured all the time aswell. Lucas - Aquilani injury prone,soft but at least a decent prospect otherwise reserves Plessis or Spearing. Ngog - dont even have another striker in the squad i guess Babel..

Squad is a joke due to both poor investment and poor buys with the money. I guess until the owners give more money for investment people will always remove the blame from Rafa BUT when Rafa gets some kind of money hes gonna be expected to get results and fast. Either way pressures only gonna increase on him from now on..

defensively he is poor but he is young and improving.. but I agree with you.. he does do well when going fwd

I dont think Aurelio is that young mate.

nthing but a shower of nobodys on this site, trying to justify lucas as a good player, he is one of the main reasons we arre so sh*t this year. for gerrard to b good he needs quick balls played into him which gives him a bit of room to work, lucas is so slow that when gerrard finally gets the ball he is surrounded by at least 3 players.kuyt cannot get the ball near him or we are in serious trouble and if somebody is runniing at insua we need to put everyone bhind the ball. the only way we will improve is if kuyt, insua, lucas and ngog are dropped from the team.

Didnt think Lucas played that badly yesterday although i agree that Kuyt, Insua and in particlular Ngog are not playing anywhere near good enough to be in the team but our options are so limited at the moment.

Another day in the 2009/10 season where Liverpool failed to defend properly for 90 minutes.

I actually thought we defended quite well for the vast majority of the match, then we failed to clear a long throw and ended up knocking it out for a corner. Corner comes in, Higginbotham showed more desire to win the ball than Kuyt and Huth was allowed to come round the back because nobody followed him in.

Going forward we never looked like we were gonna score, we were a F***ing disgrace going forward. The goal we did get was a sh*t ball in which went straight down Sorensen's throat only for him to make a mess of and the Greek fella bundle it over the line.

How the F**k Kuyt missed that header I don't know, it was a F***ing sitter.

Lucas should of had a pen but we can't blame that for us not taking three points. We weren't good enough going forward, neither were Stoke. It was just a dull match that came to life with about ten minutes to go.

Doesnt anybody here at least think we could have used Babel off the bench at least in this match!??!? Instead we get more defensive just confuses me big time!!

Liverpool midfielder Javier Mascherano thinks his team are cursed following their draw against Stoke on Saturday.

The Reds were undone by a late equaliser from Robert Huth at the Britannia Stadium, having taken the lead through Greek defender Sotirios Kyrgiakos in the 57th minute.

In a week when they also crashed out of the FA Cup after a home defeat to Reading, Mascherano is beginning to feel like there is a spell on the Anfield club.

"It seems like we are cursed in terms of injuries and letting in incredible goals in the last minutes of games," he said in The People.

"The situation is enough to get anyone down, but this team is going to keep going forward because of the spirit and history of the club.

"It is normal that we are being criticised - we are all to blame for going out of the Champions League and FA Cup."

Manager Rafa Benitez has come under severe pressure following a dreadful season for the Reds, which has already seen them slip out of the title race in the Premier League.

Responsibility

However, Argentina international Mascherano says the whole team must take collective responsibility for their bad form of late.

"We share the credit when things go well and the blame when things go badly," he added.

"Rafa has a difficult job because this season key players are getting injured, which would upset the plans of any coach.

"Torres (Fernando) and Gerrard (Steven) are fundamental for us and any team would miss them.

"It is true we are not in certain competitions now but there are still things to resolve.

"Being champions of the first Europa League sounds good and getting into the top four after all the problems we have had, anyone of us would sign up for that now.

"They are the objectives and nobody is going to drop their guard, because it is impossible to do so with our manager.

"We have to sort out the problems and win. For once, I'd prefer to get the points over the level of our performance."

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11669_5866747,00.html

Why don't the players just admit that they are playing sh*t and start doing something on the pitch FFS

Why can't we win a match anymore??

More talk. Get's boring.

However, I really think we could be cursed!!

Spot on. Not defending both posts at corner-kicks is crazy and costly. For someone who often talks about "little details", Rafa has a blind spot about this.

In the meantime we try to fix the problem of not conceding a goal in the last 10 minutes, instruction must go out immediately to all players to go behind the ball defending the goal behind, since we can't counter-attack effectively.

Our bigest downfall yesterday was we sat back once we scored and to give Stoke so many corners well it was inevitable. I hate the way we keep all our players behind the ball on corners. We never seem to be able to break, the ball just comes back at us and puts the team under more pressure

Our bigest downfall yesterday was we sat back once we scored and to give Stoke so many corners well it was inevitable. I hate the way we keep all our players behind the ball on corners. We never seem to be able to break, the ball just comes back at us and puts the team under more pressure

Said exactly this to my fella yesterday.  We insist on having all 11 men in the penalty area to defend a corner, free kick or throw in which gives us no outlet.  It also means it's very crowded in the 18yrd box and players are getting in each others way when we try to clear the ball.

We played 8 defenders + keeper, what would you expect the score line to be? Our goal was cause Kyrgiakos had a good aerial game and their goal was a mistake of our defenders not to guard the far post.
Other than that, when you park the bus you concede corners, that's the way it is.

I sat in my mates living room, half drunk, thinking that the 90 minutes before the goal they scored were meaningless, because that is when we usually cock up and give 3 points away and what happens? They score.

I'm beyond explanation into what is going through these players' minds. Especially Carra. I'm sorry lad but your main reason for being there was to be your great judgement and ability to organise the defence. Well, we haven't seen him make good decisions and organise our defence all season and once again his mistake led to an equaliser thanks to him coming off the line, leaving a man unmarked, missing a header and them scoring. It's time for him to be dropped.

I started watching properly in the second half and it was scrappy. It wasn't good at all. Ngog lost it so many times, Dirk offered nothing, the midfield had no targets to hit and we continually failed to cause harm at the back.

However the rare smile i do make during a Liverpool game this season was once again thanks to Pepe Reina. He did his job, and did it superbly. No fear, just did it.

What we need is pace and no one offered it.

And finally, that was a F***ing penalty. Held down, pulled off it and kept away from challenging the ball - PENALTY. Dirk's header just summed it up for us.

We played 8 defenders + keeper, what would you expect the score line to be?

0-0.

Do I win a prize. That is unless we were actually just playing with the 9 men. And then I would go for 0-3.