Match Day Thread PL: Stoke City vs Liverpool FC

Shaqiri has passed his medical and will be joining Stoke. Great signing. Glad we got our away game done early, Stoke are bound to deny a lot of our rivals 3 points.

 

Yeah, he'll be targetted alright Saint. He is understandably raw but undeniably talented so time will tell. As with most players half his battle will be mental, how does he bounce back after the inevitable stinker etc. The other half of his battle will be how well his winger protects him

 

How did that happen?

 

Just a reminder of what Skrtel has done - on more than one occasion!

 

...because at the moment with the new tv deal a whole host of agents will be pushing their clients to get in at a Premier League team....any Premier League team Stoke have got a very good player and he gets the biggest shop window in the world and I'd imagine a bloody health wage packet. Even Stoke will be able to offer wages only the top teams in other countries can offer.

 

Suppose so. Plus he'll get more game time with them.
I hope he stays there rather than get hoovered up by a top4 team. I think it's better for the league to see decent quality players outside of the money teams.

 

I felt Skrtel played well enough. Not fantastic but nothing to really complain about. I don't understand Lallana starting. He really doesn't deserve to be on our starting XI. Decent squad player but shouldn't be starting when we have better talent available.

Regarding Cout.

Yesterday was very typical of him. He's hot and cold in a single game. He's like the modern day Garcia at times. But he does score spectacular goals. You never know when he'll suddenly do something good. He never scored boring goals either.

I'm happy with both of them. Clyne had a very good game and Gomez had a decent debut.

 

We never really dominated Stoke. They were slightly better first half and we were slightly better 2nd half. Overall a draw probably would have been fairest result.

What we had that they didn't was one brilliant moment from Coutinho. Take away that and this game never looked like having goals in it.

It worries me. We've got a string of difficult games coming up soon and we still don't have a good goalscoring machine ready to unleash. All that money over summer and we still look most likely to score from midfield. You don't win a game without scoring a goal. I fear draws will bring our points down significantly this year.

 

Brilliant moments is why you buy brilliant players. If you want to set up for antifootball you don't get to whinge when a brilliant moment undoes you.

Stoke had 1 shot on target. From a setpiece. At home. #nosympathy

 

garica was worse cos he'd give it away in terrible areas too.. coutinho doesn't

 

Oh I'll take a crappy win from a moment of brilliance over a dominating performance that ends in a draw any day.

However, relying on rare moments of brilliance instead of a strong team performance may occasionally win you cups but won't take you high in the league.

I do have sympathy for Stoke too. That moment of brilliance could have come just as easily from Affelay instead of Cout and then we'd all be in a bad mood about an undeserved loss.


All in all, this wasn't a bad game and Rodgers has usually improved during a season than he starts them. We're better than this time last year. We just dont look good enough to challenge top 4... Yet.

 

No he doesn't. Instead he goes anonymous for long periods of some games. I loved Garcia playing for us and I'm very glad of Cout too...

 

Stoke have done well in the transfer window, Van Ginkel is quality as well. Funny thing is they've always been cloggers but their latest acquisitions don't fit that pattern. A change of direction for them maybe?

 

They're definitely not as combative as they were in the Pulis days. They're actively trying to score too. Their squad has better players as well.

I don't think it's an overnight change, they've been gradually evolving.

 

lads their direction has changed ever since pulis left... is this somehow a giant shock to you all?

Hughes wants a totally different style and he is applying it.

milk is right it has taken time as its been done on a lowish budget too

 

They weren't doing much of that yesterday

 

Only the cheating has changed.

Pulis: go in hard from the front.
Hughes: go in hard from behind and feign injury.

 

I don't know about that, I only knew of the signings because it was us they were playing and new signings were being mentioned. They were still really dirty though

 

T

hat was the throw back players

a team with shaqiri and bojan and van ginkel can't be kickers. adam and whelan etc... are what they are