I don't get the criticism of Stokes style at all. Personally I have great admiration for Pullis as a man and a manager. Its been many many years since I've seen a manager at Anfield who can get players to run through brick walls for him without asking "why boss?". Why should we care what "style" they play other than to ask ourselves why the **** we still can't find a way to counter it? We need to concentrate on our own ****ing massive issues and stop criticising others for finding a piss easy way to make our ****ty system look completely unsuited for Prem games like yesterdays. Some of you lot should try taking a trip to the Britannia and listen to the passion and noise created before being so quick to follow the media myth about Stoke being a boring team to go and watch. Every time I go there I get the sort of buzz from the atmosphere I haven't had at Anfield for 4 or 5 years. Sad but true. Are Stoke man for man a more talented team than us? No I wouldn't say so. Do they play to their strengths more than we do? Yes, in fact I'm not even sure what are strengths are anymore. I'd have said our defensive unit before this season was as strong as anyones but since Clarke left we've looked as useless there as everywhere else on the pitch. Stokes on the other hand is like a wall of granite. Our midfielders in this system just aren't functioning. Our forwards are lost in a sea of uncertainty. I watched Crouchie coming off the Stoke bench last night and saw yet another player who would have served us better than most of the ****e we've signed since he left. All in all what I witnessed yesterday was a shambles but hardly an unexpected shambles. It was the perfect example of a team of well organised, committed players vs a group of rather confused individuals.
what has passion of the fans have to do with how Stoke play? Most don't like the way Stoke play and entitled to their opinion as much as you, don't think Stokies give a monkeys what rival fans think of them to be honest and no reason why they should, we are the same we get lots of crap thrown at us by rival fans, do we care? not normally. i just dont like the way they play, that's my opinion, but no point playing pretty football and struggling each season like a Wigan, Stoke just play to their strengths, fair enough. we need to try and get a settled team going so we can have some consistency, and looked like that was happening with using the same lineup, but where do we go from here, keep changing it as it didn't work against Stoke or try and get some sort of settled team, that's what bothers me, we keep changing it too much and wont get consistency.
well said, I dont understand the crititcism of our play as all we did was hustle and close you down, and I cant remember a tackle where I thought "you dirty bastard". At times I thought that we actually played some very good football. We have a stigma attatched to us now and I think it will be very hard to shift and so we get hardly any compliments or credit when we play well. All the best for the rest of the season!.
Brilliant post from a fan that actually went to the game and witnessed it in real time. Everytime we have a big game like this Pulis is in our local paper calling for the fans to be has vocal as possible. He knows that when the fans are in good voice it raises the tempo and the players. he is no mug as most would believe and I have sat at the Brit and watched the fans turn a game. Not possible you might think but they really do! Sadly we have a label that we can't shift, but I myself know that Pulis does not care about labels or brands or whether we are liked or not, all he cares about is the result. We are getting stronger every season bringing in more and more quality. As for Shogun check the earlier posts I was on here pre match wishing all Liverpool fans a safe journey to the ground and wishing them all the best, along with a picture of a Stoke fan that had dyed his beard with "96" on it. Hardly a WUM I would say!
dunno why people talk of how stoke played. Last night they were great. They outplayed Liverpool in every important factor on the night. Last time we played they were as accused, awful thuggery but it was a totally different Stoke last night. Liverpool played yet again this season like a poor league 1 side. Literally.
cant argue with that BBF, they pressed us from the word go and i was surprised we went 1-0 up to be honest, if we had made it 2 might have been a completely dif game, but sadly didn't happen. we got what we deserved, fook all and a reality check. just add, i was expecting them to be very physical, but they didn't need to be as we didn't compete with them anywhere on the pitch, the better team won
Shogun We're not wumming you idiot.. take a looksee at my messages my INBOX Oh yeah a massage that I would not post on ANY board. Doodaddee whatever the morons name is.. yes YOU. Why not post what you said to me on this board? As for you Shogun, ?? Anyhow, ALL the best to Liverpool, most of you (were gracious in defeat) if you have internal problems with certain player's not performing, that is not Stoke's problem is it? We played very well, let you have the ball especially first half and we broke quickly and with 2 wide men. It worked we now move on. Good luck for the rest.
Stoke won fair and square , we were **** but that doesnt take from Stoke. They can afterall only play whats infront of them.
everyone's saying Stoke were very good AND we were naff. Both can be true without taking from Stoke and their good performance and win.
Passion of the fans is part of the reason Stoke players play with such a great attitude that's why I personally think it was a valid point to raise. Most might not like the way Stoke play but as I said, that a) shouldn't be our concern and b) can lead some fans to show an ignorance of just how good Stoke can be to watch. Not all the time granted but I just think it's a bit rich for any of us lot to be criticising anyone elses style of play when our own is practically useless in games like yesterdays game. I agree that Stoke fans shouldn't give a monkeys and in the main they really don't. What I think they do care about is not getting the credit they deserve. Well I'll give their team plenty of credit because yesterday their players showed the sort of willingness, tenacity, organisation and spirit I want to see more of from our lot (a few players apart). It's fair enough that you don't like the way they play. For me it makes perfect sense for them. Would I want us to play that direct style at Anfield? Not in terms of how we play in the long run no but ultimately we need to play a style that gets good results right now. I honestly couldn't give a **** what label was chosen to put on any style that will start bringing us better results again. The fancy stuff and Barcelona aspirations can wait a ****ing while longer as far as I'm concerned (and have said the same since BR got the job). Learn how to defend again, then learn how to win again and he can stick the flairy, nifty, namby-pamby bits on later You're right about consistency though and really we shouldn't be chopping and changing the team with such a small squad anyway. However, presuming that what worked against a dire Fulham team at the weekend would work against Stoke last night was naive. BR should know by now what his best available 11 is for each type of game. I'm not sure he does so he needs to learn and fast. Stoke set up not to lose first and foremost. At home they're more adventurous granted but they were always going to set up to hit us on the counter last night. So why did our players look so shocked and ragged at times when Stoke counter attacked? Why did we look like we just weren't prepared for it at first? The simple answer is it's because the players and formation just weren't set up for the job. It's not the first time and BR's certainly not the only manager in recent times to suffer at the Britannia and he won't be the last so I don't want any criticism to sound overboard because it isn't meant to be. I think we're better than the last few results have shown but not much better and overall mid-table is just about what our performances have deserved in the first half of the season.
I watched the game, anticipating a clash in styles, with Liverpool dominating possession & creating plenty of chances........ However, what I saw, was a dis-jointed very poor performance, lacking in quality & spirit from the reds & tbf a very good performance from Stoke who thoroughly deserved the win. I've no idea what Rodgers tactics were tbh & it would appear his team didn't either. It was a shocker, given that you were gifted a first minute lead with a referee finally penalising that yard dog Shawcross.
His tactics were play our game. The game he wants played, he made little allowance for the way Stoke are at home and given our current form we were hardly favourites. We should have been looking to draw stoke out not bash ourselves ineffectively against their defence, Shelvey had the lowest pass conversion rate and given his central role and that most passes he fked up were forward passes, we were never going to put serious pressure on stoke and we failed to get them properly turned all game. We should have been drawing them in to the middle and using our wingers. The one time we managed to turn them proper we got a penalty. No guarantee it would be effective but we certainly needed to get behind them
Rodgers has his system and plays it 100% of the time. It doesn't matter to him if it is not the best tactic for the day, if it doesn't fit the players available or if we are losing on the day, we play 433 and pass the ball. It reminds me of Shankly/Paisley (can't remember which one said it) in that it is a 'this is our eleven, come and beat us if you can' approach. Problem is, they bloody can beat us and do!
Christmas was OK. Didn't see as much of the girls as I would have liked, but I knew that would be the case where their mother is involved. I did get massively vapourised. It was expensive, bit it does the trick good style. I'm busy at work as one of my clients called last Friday wanting 30 clinical trial administrators I only wanted to wish him happy Christ,as.
