Stoke City 0-1 Liverpool: In game and Post Match debate

Hate going with one up top but maybe conservative to try and keep out of trouble .

F**k me it's the first half of the first game of the season _ it usually takes 12 games for the players to start settling into playing with each other.

We will tweak things at half time and get Benteke more involved.

Lallana is useless.

I thought we were flat. No spark. Still we outperformed the last game. BR might say fantastic on that.

fantastic performance on cold rainy windy sunday...

great character...we play some fantastic football - so many tika taka...

You tw*t.

Coutinho dropping too deep at times, can't keep possession very well, too many long balls and Benteke needs more support.

Not a fan of Can as a DM, but screw it, I want to see him on and free up Hendo and Milner. Coutinho 10 and Firmino next to Benteke, that is all!

Its not even half time in the first game of the season with new players settling  - its classic knee jerking ffs.

Oh do get off your horse.

We suffered with this set up last year. If one whole season of that rubbish wasn't enough you're asking to be patient with the exact same formation and system.

if we had come out looking like world beaters then I would be worried this is ok solid enough looking a bit rusty exactly as they should be.

You fool - what the f**k are you even playing at posting a link to that rag? F***ing WUM you are.

It was a mistake, i've explained there what happened, why the need to discuss that again ?

We're in the match thread here. Discuss the game.

Fimino on for Lallana.  He almost got himself sent off there because he is frustrated at his own shitness.

Poor but nobody has it easy here, I would have taken a point all day long,...

Ordinary game, neither side really opening the other up.
At the back, we're doing well. Lovren winning some good balls. Though Gomez has been a bit rusty looking.
Milner and Hendo - industrious, but not far enough forward to do any damage.
Cou and Lallana have been anonymous, Ibe's done well.
But not enough service for Benteke, who had the odd good moment, but in other times looks a bit slow over the ground.

Even match. Could see Lallana off first if he doesn't improve, maybe bring on Ings.
Need Cou to improve, so much depending on him to create.

0-0 at HT is better than 5 down. This one could go either way ...

Not a great first half, thought we looked unbalanced front end of team need to change

Anyhow - have to get Lallana off here. Offering nothing at all and to be frank his is the only performance I've been disappointed by. Henderson needs a greater understanding of his role as well.

Par for the course for both sides at half time though. Needs some innovation though.

sh*t half from us that, very disappointing going forward. Think both Lallana and Coutinho can do a lot more, as for Benteke he's lost the ball on almost every touch partly due to the lack of support to be fair to him.

Milner and Henderson cancelling each other out rather than complimenting, really Milner needs to be freed up as he's looked the most likely to support the attack. I'd like us to switch to 4-3-3 in the second half as the idea of "Ibe or lump it" isn't working at all and Stoke are double teaming or more on him.

Gomez has been put under real pressure (unlike in pre-season) and you can see he's not natural at the position, can see Stoke getting joy down our left if we're not careful, unfortunately Moreno isn't exactly an option you put on to become more solid. Lovren, with the hand holding, selling himself when Gomez got exposed and compounding the error and then not being able to close down Johnson has been his usual self I'm afraid.

Migs looks shakey.

Positives, thought Ibe, Clyne and Skrtel have done well, Ibe just hasn't had any help from his midfielders. In summary, this system doesn't suit the players at all and would love to see the gaffer change it now rather than wait until we go a goal down.

Attitude, not good enough in my opinion, we've been second to too much and generally I'm not impressed as you can tell.

I want Firmino and Emre on the pitch but I am not quite sure how to put them in as I think Milner and Henderson stll need to be on.

I know it's the first game of the season and that but that was grim. Don't really know why we persisted with that setup when Benteke was so isolated.

At least we're not 5-0 down though

Truth is, Benteke is like Andy Carroll. Not a perfect fit for LFC.

Origi and Ings fit better.

Origi being also very creative.

Poor but nobody has it easy here, I would have taken a point all day long,...

They've got four players on Ibe.

Ings and Firmino on please.

Love Milner and clyne though...

So why did you remove it and apologise then if it was just from that paper? Just saying...

Anyhow - have to get Lallana off here. Offering nothing at all and to be frank his is the only performance I've been disappointed by. Henderson needs a greater understanding of his role as well.

Par for the course for both sides at half time though. Needs some innovation though.

I didn't removed anything mate. I quoted the news from teamtalk that quoted WRONGLY that rag, the same story was on eurosport and the same quote was atributted to the Birmingham Mail.

Oh do get off your horse.

We suffered with this set up last year. If one whole season of that rubbish wasn't enough you're asking to be patient with the exact same formation and system.

Sorry i forgot we had Benteke up front last season as well as better fullbacks - sorry forgot that this time in the game last season we were 5 nil down - yep exactly like last season.

Its pathetic the knee jerking - we have new lads playing getting used to things and its going to take a bit of time for things to settle down.

So far not one team has looked solid or fluid because its the first game of the season