Phew. After a thrilling contest yesterday against Stoke, Liverpool finally prevailed as victors. Though the win
was certainly significant (a win away at Stoke is a tough result to get at the
best of times), the most poignant aspect of the match was perhaps the return of
Daniel Sturridge from injury. As the title suggests, he immediately managed to
pick up where he left off with strike partner Luis Suarez, scoring one and
excellently assisting another.
The game started quite well for Liverpool .
Though Stoke looked half-decent going forward, they also looked very shaky
defensively. Their problems were compounded after just 5 minutes when Aly
Cissokho’s wild shot took a wicked deflection off Ryan Shawcross and into the
back of the net. It was a comedy goal, but Liverpool
were worthy of their lead. Stoke continued to be uncharacteristically shoddy at
the back, a problem which the second goal they conceded summed up perfectly.
Pieters failed to deal with a bouncing ball, heading it into the path of
Suarez. The Uruguayan was then left with the simple (for him at any rate) task
of getting to the ball before the hesitant Shawcross and smashing the ball into
the net past Butland.
Unfortunately, the tide began to turn at this point. Our
ex-players came back to haunt us- Peter Crouch scored the first goal for Stoke,
beating Toure easily to score the Potters’ first headed goal of the season. 6
minutes later Charlie Adam scored a most unlikely equaliser, emphatically shooting
the ball through Skrtel’s legs into the corner of the net from outside the
area.
I’ll take this opportunity to moan about Gerrard. For this
game Rodgers deployed him in a very holding, defensive role- as such it was not
unreasonable to expect him to do some actual defending! Admittedly he made a
couple of decent tackles, but mostly he was drifting forward in order to play
ridiculous, usually inaccurate long balls up the field. Those determined to
make excuses for Gerrard are saying that he “took one for the team” by playing
out of position- this would all be very well if he had in fact fulfilled the
role he was entrusted with. The sad fact is he’s too slow and frankly too much
of a blunt instrument to work in the Liverpool
that Rodgers has created. Don’t get me wrong, I love Gerrard as much as the
next Liverpool fan, but his time has come.
Playing him in new positions won’t solve the problem- if he’s playing in a
defensive role and we fail to hold a comfortable 2 goal lead against Stoke,
it’s clear there’s an issue! For me he was the worst player out there in this
game, and that’s saying something considering we had Cissokho and Johnson
playing!
Right, back to the match. Sorry about that. Anyway, the
second half saw Liverpool come out strongly.
There was worry that we might have been deflated by two goals conceded late in
the first half, but if anything it seemed to fire us up. Indeed, we re-took the
lead just 6 minutes after the restart, Gerrard finally making a positive
contribution by scoring extremely coolly from the spot after Sterling was knocked to the ground. Some are
accusing him of diving, but it was definitely a foul. Admittedly it was very
soft and they aren’t normally given in the area, but by the letter of the law
it was indeed a penalty. Nothing much of note happened then until the 66th
minute, which marked the very welcome return of Daniel Sturridge. He came on to
replace Philippe Coutinho, who had played decently but sadly once again failed
to reproduce the form he first showed on his arrival at Liverpool .
He was an injection of life into our attack, and really reminded everyone how
much we’ve missed him. Just 5 minutes into his return, he ran past two players
then played an absolutely exquisite pass into the path of Suarez, who did what
he does best, curling the ball beyond Butland with a first-time shot.
So, 19 minutes to play and 4-2 up against a side who prior
to this game had scored just 19 goals all season (less than one per game).
Surely this was in the bag? Apparently not! Liverpool
decided to give us all a scare by conceding yet again, this time to Jon
Walters. Mignolet was at fault for this one- he saw the ball late, but still
should have been able to prevent it from rolling tamely past him into the net.
Thankfully, Sturridge was on hand to put our minds at rest. Suarez played in a
nice ball, and Sturridge saw his effort smartly saved by Butland. He then
managed to keep the ball in play superbly, before cutting back in and firing
the ball powerfully into the back of the net.
In conclusion, although it was an absolute rollercoaster of
a game, I can have no qualms with the result. A win against Stoke is something
any team can be pleased with, and the return of our deadly partnership of
Suarez and Sturridge is certainly a huge boost. If they both stay fit top 4 is
practically a given- they are currently one of the best, if not the best
outright, strike partnerships in the world. However, the game did further
highlight our need for some squad strengthening- it is clear that we need a new
defensive midfielder, as well as (ideally) two new full backs and another
centre back. Still, it does not do to dwell on the negatives, especially after
a win that fires us into the top 4, and on the whole I am feeling very positive
going forward.
-James Martin
Follow me on Twitter @JamesMartin013
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