What did you guys think? I managed to find a link, and it was good to see. Lucas has finaly settled and looks great with Merielles- who looks a real player at the moment. 3 in 4 for him. Skertle looked much better today, Soto was very good- useful sub against the big strikers. Agger is quality, he actualy runs with the ball rather than hoofs it. He's only going to get better wth more games; in terms of match fitness. New formation looks good. I'm one of Johnson's biggest critics, but he played well , and has done recently. Starting to look one of our better players. Suarez. Well what can I say? Kenny admitted after that he hasnt actualy trained with the squad yet! He scored a scrappy goal- they all count, but his passing, movement and skill was very good. Mark my words he will do well for us. Realy exciting player. Linked with Kuyt well. Gerrard is strugling a bit, but had some vital touches and some nice passes. Needs a goal to settle himself. MOTM? Kuyt. Immense! Thought he was over the hill. Nope. He was everywhere, holding the ball, nice, clever passing, crossing and shooting. You can just see that he is so much more comfortable playing where he was trained to play! All credit must go to him for playing out of position over the past four years. Hope we see him up front more. Credit to Kenny too. Big Andy is still to come, and I feel he is going to be great with Suarez. Kuyt was supposed to of been a stop gap to get the squad used to playing with two up front- but he blitzed it! Atmosphere was great today, for the first time all year the fans were settled and happy. This reflects on the players. Win at the Mafia's den is not out of the question. YNWA
I didn't see the match (work) but I've just watched LFCTV phone in thingy and they've said the oppsoite to you... They said that Gerrard was immense and Kuyt wasn't the best. :-s confused I guess i'll make my own mind up when MOTD show the highlights.... On a side note how ****e does MOTD's new opening video look..... ?
Kuyt played pretty well, Gerrard was a bit all over the place. Don't think he's played well in the last 2 games but they're games that we've won so can't complain. Suarez banging in a goal as well, be it a very lucky one!!!
Yup things are looking up for once. Sunday is a massive, massive game. Would love to ruin their party- **** in their nest so to speak!
I wouldn't get too confident Liverpool fans, take into account it was a Stoke side playing a 10-0-1 formation with Salif Diao playing with no attacking outlet and no idea of how to pass a ball. I would say it was Pulis' tactics that won Liverpool the match tonight. You have to admit we allowed you to play, and such was Pulis' abysmal tactics, it was only a matter of time before you broke us down. Having said that Liverpool look better under Dalglish and should finish in the top 8. Whilst we are staring down the barrel of the gun and we'll be relegated unless Pulis starts playing our best XI. When you get Carroll fit, you will have one frightening looking partnership up front, Suarez looks a cracking little player.
Seriously, when have Stoke not played with 11 behind the ball? The team were parked about 30/40 yards away from Carew all game! Until Fuller came on, then they showed a slight willingness to score.
To be honest we've been a lot less negative away from this season and have played with 2 wingers, and had a go. Tonight it was back to the old Pulis.
I disagree. I think Pulis was setting us up like it was the Liverpool side of yesteryear, Aldridge, Rush, Beardsley etc. If he played a positive side with 2 forwards and Etherington on the wing, and actually showed some adventure instead of sitting back and accepting a defeat, things might have been different. I'd rather lose 4-2 playing positively than losing 2-0 playing 10-0-1.
Stoke fans have known that feeling throughout Pulis' 2 spells as manager. It doesn't make me shudder anymore, i'm used to it, mind you it doesn't mean I'm happy with it.
i'm surprised you're so critical of Pullis, i very much doubt you'd have stayed up and established yourselves as well as you have without his hard-to-beat tactics. Anyway, i thought Kenny got the tactics spot on. The 3 centrebacks meant that the only threat we feared- the ball being pumped into the box, was completely nullified. We grew into the formation and Dirk did an absolute shift. I have to disagree bow4fowler with regards his 'natural' position as i think he offers the same in any position and it's more to do with him being the focal point as the only striker, rather than that being his best position. I think Kuyt is one of those players that only stands out when he gets a goal or assist, he doesn't have flashy tricks, and that's why opposition fans love to deride him. But he always enhances how the team plays and puts emphasis on his teammates. Unfortunately under Roy that meant he emphasised how rubbish we were as his hardwork was just part of the headless hoofball. But think about if we had Carroll up front with Kuyt and Suarez in wing forward/ 2nd striker roles. Kuyt would take so much pressure off the other 2, force mistakes they would benefit from, and his running creates extra space- am sure Suarez and Caroll would love being able to just get down to creating/scoring goals with Dirk shouldering more than his fair share of the work
What i'm critical of is his often baffling tactics, and his annoying habit of not picking our best team. He basically wrote this match off before it started and he does it so often. No offence but you aren't as good as you used to be and we should've looked at this game as a game we could put out a positive side, by at least picking a positive formation instead of leaving 1 man up there against 3 defenders. Pulis just doesn't seem to trust his players, which is greatly frustrating. Without Tuncay our attack looks woeful, Carew aside. Jones and Fuller are a pair useless lazy so and sos, Walters works hard, is a decent finisher but has no pace. There's no real guile up there. Selling Tuncay and our performances this season has really riled a section of Stoke supporters, plus without Tuncay I fear season ticket sales will drop a bit even if we stay up. I'd just like to add that despite the fact there is a lot of Stoke fans who want Pulis out and have done for a long time, I am not one of them. If we are relegated then I might have to think about it.
That's fair enough it wasn't a criticism like i say i'm surprised (being previously unaware of this anti-Pulis feeling etc), and i can empathise bearing in mind everyone sung Hodgson's praises but he was killing us on the pitch. Always rated Tuncay incidentally. I agree you set yourselves up negatively but i also feel that with the loss of Tuncay and just what may rightly or wrongly be considered your playing 'style', Kenny defensively got our tactics right. you didn't threaten at all. We also created enough up front in the absence of Torres to suggest we're well and truly round the corner as far as far as our season goes. You should always go for the win i gues,s but you were facing a team that has really started to click again. It would have been interesting had you really had a go, but from my point of view it was great to just get a nice comfortable win, and to make an attacking change (Suarez on for Aurelio) at 1-0 up.
But 3 wins and 3 clean sheets on the trot says we're on our way. The last time we did that we came 2nd. Not that we can get 2nd but y'know, it's better than it's been since then.
