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

Having watched sturridge's goal again and again, it reminds me massively of a fowler goal.
Hardly any back lift, beautifully precise and given some proper welly!
So impressed by danial in every passing game.

Having watched sturridge's goal again and again, it reminds me massively of a fowler goal.
Hardly any back lift, beautifully precise and given some proper welly!
So impressed by danial in every passing game.

Yeah good shout that about the Fowler similarity

Having watched sturridge's goal again and again, it reminds me massively of a fowler goal.
Hardly any back lift, beautifully precise and given some proper welly!
So impressed by danial in every passing game.

I've watched some of the old 70s and 80s Liverpool games and the difference between the new and the old Liverpool is the latter scored many goals from outside the box instead of trying too hard to create openings inside the box and we should emulate the Liverpool of the past.


 

I've watched some of the old 70s and 80s Liverpool games and the difference between the new and the old Liverpool is the latter scored many goals from outside the box instead of trying too hard to create openings inside the box and we should emulate the Liverpool of the past.


 

But teams defend much higher up the field than they did back then so its much harder to get your shots away from far out than it used to be. Creating openings and working it into the box is the much better option IMO.

  Mignolet didn't make any bloopy mistakes, not even once, 

So you didnt watch the first half?  He made mistakes. He didnt get caught and concede a goal, but it was very close at times. Their were 2 times he was almost caught and barely cleared the ball from the box. He also made a few clumsy, awkward saves.  He settled down the 2nd half but to say he was perfect is wrong.

So you didnt watch the first half?  He made mistakes. He didnt get caught and concede a goal, but it was very close at times. Their were 2 times he was almost caught and barely cleared the ball from the box. He also made a few clumsy, awkward saves.  He settled down the 2nd half but to say he was perfect is wrong.

If he isn't perfect for the rest of the season and does not let in any goals he will be ok for me.

. He also made a few clumsy, awkward saves.  He settled down the 2nd half but to say he was perfect is wrong.

Example of this?

If he isn't perfect for the rest of the season and does not let in any goals he will be ok for me.

If he isn't perfect for the rest of the season and does not let in any goals he will be perfect for me.

I've watched some of the old 70s and 80s Liverpool games and the difference between the new and the old Liverpool is the latter scored many goals from outside the box instead of trying too hard to create openings inside the box and we should emulate the Liverpool of the past.


 

I think you will find that in our Liverpool  teams of the 1960,s/70s/80s all our players except the goalie were capable(and often did) of putting the ball in the opposition net.We probably had the first attacking and goalscoring back in Chris Lawler,he scored 41 goals for us and never took penalties.That should give you an idea of how far ahead of their. time  Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley and Joe Fagan was.

I think you will find that in our Liverpool  teams of the 1960,s/70s/80s all our players except the goalie were capable(and often did) of putting the ball in the opposition net.We probably had the first attacking and goalscoring back in Chris Lawler,he scored 41 goals for us and never took penalties.That should give you an idea of how far ahead of their. time  Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley and Joe Fagan was.

I can fully agree with that and didn't realise how good Alec Lindsay and Chris Lawler were. Besides that, with the Liverpool of the old we can expect someone else to chip in with the goals if the forward line failed to do the job.

But teams defend much higher up the field than they did back then so its much harder to get your shots away from far out than it used to be. Creating openings and working it into the box is the much better option IMO.

I can agree that in the modern game, the opposition defence close down the space faster and players will have less time on the ball. Perhaps the players will need to be vigilant to recognise an opening to shoot and to take full advantage of. If I were BR, I'd put a target number of goals for every player to score except the goalkeeper In a deadlock situation we need a Toure or an Enrique to score the winning goal.

Is it only me who sees that liverpool are now playing the top4 standard football, in fact have been so since the arrival of Sturridge and Coutinho. Since January the team has really started to gel and it only seems to get better and better. Statistics show we were 4th in the league for points gained after 1st january until the finish of the season.

although stoke game was quite shaky, i think it was one of those games where you do everything right but one minor mistake almost changes the result. I was very happy with the quality of chances we were creating and the many patterns for attack as we kept going at their defense with great consistency and speed. I really think this team has got the character of a top four team because now we can pull out a win in a game like last week and more importantly we have so many ways of breaking defense and options of players and we look very comfortable doing so. 

stoke on the first day of the season was always going to be tough. a half fit sturridge, three debutants starting(aspas, toure, mig), and pressure arising from no opening day match win in 5 years.. the conditions werent great but we still played very well and gained three points. Id be optimistic even if ending this window with no more addition because we have a strong starting 11, good cover(cissokho, aspas when suarez returns, allen, skrtel), and skillful emerging youngsters who have every chance of making an impact(alberto, borini, sterling, ibe, kelly, wisdom).

with no doubt a worldclass LW and a solid CB/DM will immediately put us on everyones lips for top four but for me the idea of growing a squad is very charming especially with the likes of sterling alberto ibe borini kelly so it would be worth a punt giving our current squad chance to meet the expectations. If only one of these youngsters, who are more than mediocre talents for sure, can hit their full potential, they will be our own Willian, Mhkitaryan, or Diego Costa. That is a different, but a very exciting way of going forward for the club.

Is it only me who sees that liverpool are now playing the top4 standard football, in fact have been so since the arrival of Sturridge and Coutinho. Since January the team has really started to gel and it only seems to get better and better. Statistics show we were 4th in the league for points gained after 1st january until the finish of the season.

although stoke game was quite shaky, i think it was one of those games where you do everything right but one minor mistake almost changes the result. I was very happy with the quality of chances we were creating and the many patterns for attack as we kept going at their defense with great consistency and speed. I really think this team has got the character of a top four team because now we can pull out a win in a game like last week and more importantly we have so many ways of breaking defense and options of players and we look very comfortable doing so. 

stoke on the first day of the season was always going to be tough. a half fit sturridge, three debutants starting(aspas, toure, mig), and pressure arising from no opening day match win in 5 years.. the conditions werent great but we still played very well and gained three points. Id be optimistic even if ending this window with no more addition because we have a strong starting 11, good cover(cissokho, aspas when suarez returns, allen, skrtel), and skillful emerging youngsters who have every chance of making an impact(alberto, borini, sterling, ibe, kelly, wisdom).

with no doubt a worldclass LW and a solid CB/DM will immediately put us on everyones lips for top four but for me the idea of growing a squad is very charming especially with the likes of sterling alberto ibe borini kelly so it would be worth a punt giving our current squad chance to meet the expectations. If only one of these youngsters, who are more than mediocre talents for sure, can hit their full potential, they will be our own Willian, Mhkitaryan, or Diego Costa. That is a different, but a very exciting way of going forward for the club.

Agree, for the most part.  I think we need to make our assumptions and critiques after September. Since January we have played good football and its been great. However, I think we need to give it more time. You cant win the Title or Top 4 in August/September but, you CAN lose it. In order for us to contend for top 4 we need 25-27 points from our first 10 matches. That will give us a great start and will help us in the mid season grind. Plus keeping up as a contender will certainly work towards January. If were in contention in January, that will give FSG a solid reason to spend and will give us something to fight for going into the final 4 months.

Agree, for the most part.  I think we need to make our assumptions and critiques after September. Since January we have played good football and its been great. However, I think we need to give it more time. You cant win the Title or Top 4 in August/September but, you CAN lose it. In order for us to contend for top 4 we need 25-27 points from our first 10 matches. That will give us a great start and will help us in the mid season grind. Plus keeping up as a contender will certainly work towards January. If were in contention in January, that will give FSG a solid reason to spend and will give us something to fight for going into the final 4 months.

20-22 pts would be top four, 25-27 pts is league winning form. I'm kind of optimistic.

Agree, for the most part.  I think we need to make our assumptions and critiques after September. Since January we have played good football and its been great. However, I think we need to give it more time. You cant win the Title or Top 4 in August/September but, you CAN lose it. In order for us to contend for top 4 we need 25-27 points from our first 10 matches. That will give us a great start and will help us in the mid season grind. Plus keeping up as a contender will certainly work towards January. If were in contention in January, that will give FSG a solid reason to spend and will give us something to fight for going into the final 4 months.

absolutely, it may be too early to make any assuption at this point after just one league match, as it is for every team in PL. Liverpool, while we are definitely playing the right style of football to challenge top4, need to find out whether we can now turn more chances into goals this season, which i think is the key area to improve in our game because in too many matches we just cannot get the killing goal even after creating so many good chances. If we really imrove that attacking aspect of our game it may well compensate for our slightly shaky defense and get us the wins we need.

As for Tottenham, i bring them up cos people seem so scared of them, they are going to lose the firepower in Bale and need to rely on their new players to do what bale did, winning games. People say they are strong top4 contender because they have bought and will buy the likes of soldado paulinho chadli willian(?) Lamela(?) and so on, but why forget its real life football, its not easy to fill your team with a bunch of new players and suddenly get results. wonder why QPR finished 20th..

its too early to predict anything, but if the top4 spot is a fight between tottenham, arsenal, and liverpool, i think our chance is very, very strong because like you said the first 10 matches are decisive and our squad is in better shape than these two at the moment. All we need to do is play our game, continue the winning mentality from pre-season and the stoke game, and be a little, little bit more clinical in final third. Personally I have a feeling that at the end of this season brendan will get a lot of applaud for finally growing a top4 squad with limited funds. 

Don't know if anyone mentioned this but this game has certainly raised the team spirit.
Exciting times ahead!

Not sure I can cope with no football during the summer. I'll watch bits and pieces of the World Cup, but it won't sate me. Therefore I've decided to watch a half a day from this campaign. My keyboard's buggered and I'll keep this one brief as the onscreen keyboard's a pain and just do a player summary.

1st Half

Mignolet - A microcosm of his season, couple of flaps and a couple of great saves. Was fairly vocal but was kind of ignored.
Johnson - Flattered to deceive, go into good positions but largely wasted them, caught out of position more than once.
Enrique - Comfortable and tenacious.
Toure - Put undue pressure on Mignolet on a couple of occasions, otherwise not bad.
Agger - Standout defender, looked very comfortable.
Lucas -Alongside Coutinho, our best player in the first half. Everywhere.
Gerrard - Quiet though slowly became more involved.
Henderson - Largely anonymous.
Coutinho - Impressive, looked lightweight at times though.
Aspas - Got into some nice positions but, on the whole, looked ineffective.
Sturridge - Took both chances well, one correctly ruled out. Was guilty of doing to much at times.

2nd Half

Mignolet - Another flap and another great save.  Set his marker for the season.
Johnson - Some nice but ultimately fruitless forward runs.  Caught out of position several times.
Enrique - Comfortable and tenacious again, offred more of an attacking threat this half.
Toure - Good second half, his barrelling forward, to create a chance for Sturridge, was a joy to behold.
Agger - Uncomfortable second half. Tired towards the end.
Lucas - Looked out on his feet for the last 10 minutes, but solid until then. Showed some great leadership qualities.
Gerrard - Quiet again in the second half.  Few nice passes,another who tired late on.
Henderson - Much improved second half, should have scored though.
Coutinho - Toss up between him and Lucas for MotM. Squaring up to N'Zonzi was just a prelude to the aggression he added to his game this season.
Aspas - Got into some nice positions but, on the whole, looked ineffective.
Sturridge - Worked tiredlessly, until he tired late on.

Subs: Sterling -A little bit timid at times.  Marked difference to how he finished the season.

We were great in the second half, though it could be said, Stoke were lucky it stayed 1-0, we were lucky it finished 1-0.