Stoke 0-1 Liverpool: Back With A Win

When the Premier League fixture list was announced a few weeks ago, it was met with many a grimace from Liverpool supporters. The very first game of the season saw us return to the Britannia, the scene of our 6-1 humiliation at the end of the last campaign. As it turned out, however, it was a blessing in disguise; Liverpool exorcised the demons of last season by overcoming Stoke 1-0 courtesy of an outrageous strike from Coutinho. Although it was by no means a perfect performance, the result may well prove symbolic – we’ve left 2014/15 behind us, and are capable of big things this time around.

Amongst the positives was a fairly solid defensive performance. Although there were a few nervy moments (for a couple of awful seconds I was convinced Johnson was going to smash it home), on the whole Liverpool’s back line contained Stoke convincingly. Dejan Lovren deserves a special mention here – he looked confident and assured for once, winning headers and clearing the ball with apparent ease. Even his positioning, so often the thing that lets him down, was pretty much spot on most of the time. His central partner Martin Skrtel was also decent; dodgy underweighted backpasses to Mignolet aside, he did well. The much talked-about Joe Gomez also impressed – Stoke appeared to be targeting him due to lack of experience, but on the whole he stood up well to the test. Clyne was a little disappointing at first, wasting possession multiple times with misplaced passes, but soon grew into the game. As well as being solid defensively, he made some very promising runs forward to create space for Ibe: rather than overlapping he showed a desire to cut inside into the box, and this stretched Stoke’s defence. The Potters had scored at least once in their previous 12 Premier League matches, so keeping them out at their own ground is an achievement that should not be underestimated.

This newfound defensive assuredness did, however, come at a price. Presumably anxious to avoid conceding too many after the previous humiliation, Rodgers had clearly instructed his team to play with a degree of caution. Thus, chances were at a premium – the creative spark was very much lacking for a lot of the game, with Benteke looking very isolated for most of the match. Lallana, Ibe and Coutinho were the three carrying the main responsibility for chance creation in the first half, and none of them were at their best; Lallana barely had the ball, Coutinho was ambitious but wasteful and Ibe was regularly too slow to cross. It looked like a 0-0er for much of the match – had it not been for two astute changes from Rodgers, this may well have been the case. Renowned for making bizarre switches last season, this came as a relief to fans. His decision to bring on Can allowed Milner and Henderson to push further forward, thus piling more pressure on a Stoke side who were dropping further and further back. Firmino then entered the fray, immediately showing his talents – he was a real handful, keeping the Stoke defence very busy. This allowed more space for others, and Coutinho capitalised in full from this extra room by scoring a truly unbelievable goal.

There is a case to be made for this being the little Brazilian’s best strike yet in a Liverpool shirt, and considering he was shortlisted for goal of the season last year that’s saying something. A long way from goal, he got over the ball perfectly – the resulting shot flew sublimely into the top corner, the perfect combination of power and precision. Butland was helpless. The timing of the strike was also excellent; Stoke were given precious little time to recover, and Liverpool were able to see out the remaining few minutes without serious incident.

Of course, we cannot rely on Coutinho scoring those sort of goals every week (although they’re getting much more regular!). Moving forwards, Liverpool definitely need to up the intensity of their game and improve upon their chance creation. However, this is early days, and a win to start the season is truly excellent. It was particularly important after the disappointing end to the last campaign – this really shows the turning of a new leaf, a fresh start. It is also worth noting that when Firmino is fit enough to start, chance creation should be less of a problem; even in his 15 minute cameo, the new man showed a glimpse of how much skill he possesses. With other big teams tripping up this weekend, we look like we might be on for my predicted competitive Premier League season: I think that we’ll still have 6 teams in the title race at Christmas, and I believe that we’ll be one of them. Looking at our squad, particularly our attackers, there is no doubt that we have the players to challenge for the title like we did two years ago. The question is, can we put in the performances? To me, the signs are encouraging. Roll on Bournemouth!

-James Martin

Follow me on Twitter @JamesMartin013 

Liverpool vs Stoke- Pre-Match Analysis

At last. After a long summer of waiting, the time is finally upon us. At 12:45 on Saturday, Liverpool will get the 2013/14 Premier League season underway. They entertain Stoke at Anfield in their opening fixture, and most fans will be expecting a win.

When one takes a good look at Stoke, it is clear why the weight of expectation is with Liverpool. Stoke have appointed a new manager since the end of last season, replacing Tony Pulis with Mark Hughes. Admittedly they have had the whole of pre-season to adapt to his style of play, but it is clear from the poor start Liverpool made last year under the then newly appointed Brendan Rodgers that often, more than just a couple of months and a handful of games is needed. On top of this, their activity in the transfer market has hardly been inspiring. They have brought in two new players on free transfers, signed full-back Eric Pieters from PSV for just over 3million pounds, and bought Maurice Edu from Bursaspor for an undisclosed fee. None of these signings are bad in themselves, though I doubt that any of them will be setting the Premier League alight this season! Man for man, the Liverpool squad is (on paper at least) far superior.

However, Stoke’s pre-season has been relatively successful. They have played 5, winning 3, drawing 1 and losing 1. The key figure, however, is that they kept clean sheets in all of their last four matches. Towards the end of last season they were not as solid at the back as they had been, but it seems that they may have re-found their defensive form. Admittedly the games they have played were against relatively weak opposition, Genoa being the pick of their opponents, but the signs, for them, are promising.

Add to this the fact that Liverpool are renowned for their slow starts to the season (they have failed to win an opening day fixture since the 2008/09 season, which was incidentally the last time they qualified for the Champions League), and the fact that, as we saw against Celtic, we have a tendency to dominate a game and yet still fail to score, and our victory is not as secure as one might think at first glance.

Saying this, I do still think that Liverpool will manage to win the game. The Celtic game was the only match which we failed to score in, and our overall pre-season form in front of goal has been exceptional. Coutinho has continued to shine, scoring and assisting with apparent ease. Raheem Sterling has also proven himself to be ready for another run with the first team, playing some dazzling football in pre-season as well as scoring prolifically. He continued his goal-scoring form on international duty, scoring for the England U21’s against Scotland. New signing Iago Aspas has also looked threatening in front of goal, and Jordan Henderson, Steven Gerrard, Luis Alberto, Joe Allen and Jordan Ibe have also been on target for Liverpool. Daniel Sturridge also scored twice in a behind-closed-doors game against Newcastle. The fact that there are now so many potential goal-scorers in the team gives Brendan Rodgers the option to change things around if we are failing to score, which I think will be the difference from last season.

This is how I think the team will line up:  

                                                       Created using @footy_formation

 Before the transfer window closes I would ideally like to sign another centre-back for the first team, although to be fair Toure has impressed me a lot in pre-season. He will certainly be adequate to deal with Stoke’s mediocre attack. Aspas could play as a right forward in place of Sterling, but I think Stoke will find it very hard to cope with Sterling’s trickery and on-the-ball skill. If we are failing to score, I would expect Rodgers to replace Sturridge, who isn't fully match fit yet anyway, for Aspas. Joe Allen may also come on for either Lucas or Gerrard, as he has done very well in pre-season, and has shown himself to be good going forward as well as dictating the play from a central position.

To sum up, it would be a mistake to underestimate Stoke, who, though they don’t have the most inspiring squad, are solid at the back. However, I think that, unlike last season, we now have enough attacking options to find a way through the Stoke defence, and get our season off to a winning start.

-James Martin

Follow me on Twitter @JamesMartin013