Match Day Thread PL: Stoke City vs Liverpool FC

Lallana is hilarious. He's made one good run and just got nudged off it. I think it was a light breeze that did the nudging.

Gomez will learn from this but he's done ok.

Coutinho needs to up the effort here. I'm not impressed at all with him.

Everyone else is OK.

 

I feel sorry for benteke. It won't be long until he's turned against and all because he's been shoved up top as the target to cluelessly hoof to. Hope Rodgers has a plan, not just for this game but for the long term cohesion of these players.

 

Lallana needs to go back to the bench

 

For a club that have always liked to get in to the opposition its jaw dropping that their supporters are always screaming as soon as one of their players is slightly nudged... Inbred webbed fingered ******s

 

Best two chance to Stoke imo.

We drew the half. ..yay!!

 

I'm disappointed the refs have been told for another season that Stoke players are allowed to leave a boot in on every challenge and never be booked for it.

 

Anyone feel sorry for pieters

He really looks ****ed

 

Fixed

 

He's already on the beach mate. ****ing lightweight.

 

Basically that was shyte!

 

Not much to get excited about going forward - certainly very little to cater to Benteke's game, but at least we have the options on the bench to change that.

I've beenr easonably satisfied with our defence. Lovren's looked relatively decent and Gomez, apart from a couple of moments of inexperience, has done well

 

Not a bad first imo, not great either and we need to change things a bit to get something. 0-0 is deserved atm.

 

That was ****

 

Interesting first half.

Disappointed in Clyne - think he's been good defensively but expected more going forward. Seems to play the long, ambitious ball more often than not.

Skrtel is just Skrtel - I have no faith in him whatsoever. Lovren on the other hand has done the basics well so credit to him.

Gomez has held his own bar a couple of lapses - which Moreno would have been slaughtered for.

Lallana is the worst player on the pitch - he needs to come off and Firmino needs to come on ASAP.

Milner and Henderson have done what was expected - worked hard and provided us with more stability. However, they're not offering anything going forward. Milner could have played the ball out wide to Ibe in the opening mins but picked the wrong ball, and he fluffed the clever corner as well.

Ibe is now being double teamed as has no space. Benteke has done ok and surprised me on occasions but as we saw last season, he's isolated. He does win absolutely everything in the air though.

We do look a bit more solid and playing as a unit. But we need Coutinho to drop deeper to link mid with attack, and we need Lallana to come off. Offers absolutely nothign other than running around and pressing.

And for the love of God, why aren't we attacking Johnson's side? Lallana is crap and Gomez can't attack the left side. Would switch Ibe to the left ...

 

Rodgers? Plan? Of course he has a plan. It's to force square pegs into round holes, then turn on them halfway through the season when they need encouragement. It's to refuse to play what everyone knows is our strongest 11 because he has some Van Gaal-esque philosophy.

Seasons where he played one striker:

12/13 - Finished 7th.

14/15 - Finished 6th.

Seasons where he played two strikers:

13/14 - Finished 2nd.

I sense some sort of correlation but I can't put my finger on it. I'm pretty sure it's all part of his plan though.

I'm moaning 45 minutes into the season, but tbh he's persisted with a strange formation and a clearly out of form Lallana. I hope we work it out, but not a positive start.

 

Apart from Ibe and Clyne down that right side, there isn't much speed in this team.

Not sure how Lallana stays in this team and Markovic is left out.

 

Wonder if we're also suffering from such a tame preseason? The best we played was bloody Swindon

 

And the moaning as begun!

 

Markovic has been sloppy in preseason

Laala is too and his nice ad is an embarrassment

Firmino will be on on 60 mins.

 

That's what happens when you have a committee signing players and the manager signing others. Let Rodgers make all of the signings or none of them. Not playing our best players just to prove a point is harming our chances of being successful IMO.

Not moaning, btw, just stating a fact, that the way we do our transfers is a complete shambles.