Match Day Thread PL: Stoke City vs Liverpool FC

He wasn't "very bad". It wasn't his best game by a long chalk- but polarising things in this way leads to arguments rather than debate.
Even those who aren't his biggest fans will defend him because they cringe a little at over- exaggerated criticism.
Sakho is not god, and Skrtel is not ****- the reality for both of them is somewhere in between and, imo, we would have a better discussion of their relative attributes if we didn't take such antagonistic points of view.

 

http://www.liverpoolfc.com/match/fixtures

 

Fair enough.

Rules of this board - don't criticise fan's favourite because you'll be seen as negative.

 

I agree, at this point in the season no Liverpool player deserves any real wrath, there may come a time where as fans we get frustrated with performances but surely after winning the first game it should all be sweetness on here?

 

No mate, but we shouldn't be getting at anyone at this point, we should all be happy with the win and hoping that even Mario turns into a worldie this season.

 

Fans favourite Scraping the barrel there Jimmy!

You won't be seen as anything but negative for a while Jimmy, you are the new MFG

 

Polarising? I do find it funny how I have given examples of why I think Skrtel performed poorly but I don't think anyone has come out and said why they think he performed well instead of hiding behind the clean sheet.

Every time I make a point, I give reasons why. Yet when some posters reply, they talk about me having bias or an agenda. you can't accuse me of not trying to have a debate.

And my criticisms were just a fraction of my thoughts of the game - but as per usual, the same few focus on the negatives and bring that up - which then leads me to responding in such a way, which then leads to more negativity.

Some fans can have their heads in the sand because we simply won - some fans actually want to dissect the performance and look at where we slipped up and can do better in the future.

 

Well that's unfair. Just because people don't share your opinion doesn't mean they're blind.
Look, we all want the best for our club, and I appreciate that your comments are made in good faith, but maybe you should see that is true of others, and we're not all wrong because we don't agree.

 

Jimmy were you pleased when Skrtel cleared off the line?

 

Skrtel and Lovren were up against Diouf and Walters ffs.

Stoke offered virtually nothing in the final 3rd yesterday

 

Or....be a bit more balanced and stop targetting one particular player after we've scraped what was a bloody decent result. For all the criticism you gave others for "scapegoating Mario" last season it's a tad rich to then do the same to Skrtel (especially after a clean sheet first game of the season).

There are no particular rules to the board and let's be honest, we all have a pretty decent sense of humour about things (you included) but can you not see why the constant nit-picking of a player who you can rarely fault for effort or commitment gets a little bit grating. He isn't the best out there, we all know that but he really isn't as bad as you paint him.

Personally (and it's just my opinion) I think mentioning the fact that he played poorly once after the game would be giving a fair assesment....mentioning him in a lot of posts is just pushing a bizarre "I told you so" agenda. Bizarre because he wasn't "very bad" at all. Bizarre because yet again he's alongside another new group of defenders (two of whom are very young). Bizarre because we were rarely threatened at a very tough ground against a bloody tough opposition.

It's too early to be picking faults with anyone and equally too early to be getting carried away with anyone either. Analyse the game, enjoy the three points and let's see how we get on against Bournmouth.

 

Baloteke was useless. Whacking the ball up to him all game long, hopefully not a sign of things to come

 

Fair point mate

 

Agreed - apologies for being a bit strong.

 

There was much more 'route one' stuff than usual.

 

No problem.
Like I say, we all want the same thing- we just have different ways of expressing it.
Let's all be happy we won- Stoke away is always a tricky one.

 

You turned up just in time to take some of the heat off Jimmy

 

Not all the time- we just mixed it up a bit, something we're not used to seeing.

 

For the record...I agree with your assesment of the game and as you know I totally agree that we should look at Can in midfield whether as part of a 3 or a 2

Skrtel didn't play particularly well. Lallana was poor, Cout had a 'mare until Can came on, the rest looked unsure of what to do a lot of the time but...we were solid in midfield and not too bad at the back considering we had Lovren who must be low on confidence and two new full backs playing (Clyne played well, Gomez looked ok for a youngster). Benteke didn't get much service but his runs/positioning were decent in the main. All in all there's much to work to be done but we're all happier sitting here with the 3 points from such a tight and scrappy game.

 

I agree with this. There are a lot of people raving about him, but I think he looks a little raw still. He might be in for some tougher tests in the next few weeks, then we'll see.