Stoke vs Liverpool |10th Sept | 1500BST |

Dissapointed...

Jamie needs to start getting benched. I'm sick of him getting games because of his legendary status. >.>"

Should of won that.

Thank god i watched that match without anything near me .. I would have stabbed my self .. FACT.


Hendo learn to finish for christs sake, If not in one shot at least get a goal if you have 3 shots..

Very dissappointing...I dont have anything to say at this point...have to get over this anger first.

When you have that much possession, you must create more chances and better ones. We are clueless in and around opponent's penalty area (bar Suarez). Not only in this game, but in general.

And Carragher, well, second game in a row where the only goal we concede is because of Jamie's mistake.

Ah, well. If we play like this against Spurs, we'll batter them. Just wasn't our day...

We created more than enough chances to win the match.So cant blame the midfielders.More the fault of Suarez and Henderson failing to finish those chances.

Suarez is really missing few easy chances this season.Also once we conceded the first goal its always an uphill task at Brittania stadium due to the small size of the pitch which makes defending with 10 men very easy.So its great of us to create that many chances but for the finishing.

Also its time Carra is dropped.I said before the start for the season still maintaining it its time Carra is dropped to the bench and replaced by Skrtel or Coates.

Frankly i would have worried if we failed to create chances but we just missed those easy chance.Its one of those days.Happy with performance tbh just need to be clinical.

Maybe I see it differently, but I don't think we're creating too many quality chances.

We manage to bring the ball up very well now, but then you'd need that one killer pass, that one flash of brilliance to set someone up inside the box or give him a good shooting opportunity outside of it. I'm not seeing but a few of those. Most of the time we play it to the wing and cross it or try a pass into the penalty area that is lacking that brilliance and is too easy for defence to cut out.

Sure today we had Henderson's break-through, Suarez' late chance plus a few other, less clear-cut but still decent opportunities, but when you've got 70% possession, you ought to create more truly fantastic opportunities.

We aren't clinical.

United scored 5 goals from their 8 shots on target. We scored 0 goals from our 11 shots on target.

When we don't score 5 1 vs 1s in 60 seconds, we deserve to lose. That was absolutely ridiculous.

There is more chance more clear cut than that...especially at a ground like Brittania

a sad performance in terms of finishing. . we still lack the killer instinct to finish off games. . .and as Superb as our Uruguayan is it is noticeable that he has been a little lacking in finishing off chances. . chances have been created but i agree with Sepi we haven't finished well . .

If one looks at ManU they have been as clinical as possible! ! ! they scored 5 out of 8 chances they got! !

Hopefully our strikers would come in form soon . .to much reliance on Suarez to finish off . . .Carroll needs to start shooting some! ! Also Downing needs to have more goal scoring chances! ! AND PLEASE SOME ONE SHOULD HENDO TO KICK A BALL! ! ! he reminded of MAXI in his worst form missing goals inches from goal! !

Tbh Fahim,

Maxi would have got atleast 2 goals from those 5 shots at goal.

Fahim89 wrote: chances have been created but i agree with Sepi we haven't finished well . .

Carroll needs to start shooting some!

I must still insist that not enough clear-cut chances have been created.

And Carroll is facing away from goal so often when he receives the ball on the ground that he can't really get into shooting spaces. When he is facing the goal, the ball is almost always arriving to him in the air (i.e. crosses).

Nishank wrote:Tbh Fahim,

Maxi would have got atleast 2 goals from those 5 shots at goal.

If take Maxi's last season end form! ! then he would have nailed all 5! ! . . but i was talking about the days when Maxi used to miss 2 feet away from goal without any keeper or defender infront. . most probably the Chelsea game. .

Art Morte wrote:I must still insist that not enough clear-cut chances have been created.

And Carroll is facing away from goal so often when he receives the ball on the ground that he can't really get into shooting spaces. When he is facing the goal, the ball is almost always arriving to him in the air (i.e. crosses).

Now see the Suarez chance . .Hendo. .then the one with Downing's header which was an open header he put it the GK's hands! ! should have been 2 goals without a doubt! ! the penalty was bad judgement from the referee. . but see i compared ManU's game where they took out 5 out of 8! ! maybe most chances were not clear-cut but the three i mentioned are obvious ones . .and to be somewhere in this league in this year this cannot be excused . .

On Carroll i totally agree with you on the playing style employed for him . .it is like we forget the game is called football & not "HEADBALL" . . .

First off, let me state that I was not able to watch the game, as I was working. However, from what everyone has been saying, it sounds like we dominated the game, but were simply unlucky to concede early from the penalty spot. Perhaps I can offer a little more positive perspective on the match:

1. It's impressive that we dominated the game as much as we did with a poor performance from Adam and Hendo.
2.Our attack is far from firing on all cylinders yet. Carroll has yet to really hit form with us, Kuyt has not been regularly starting (ans subsequently hasn't been as influential as the end of last season), Downing hasn't scored yet, Hendo has squandered some chances and Gerrard has yet to play. I know that sounds depressing, but you can't expect all of those to continue, and we have still been controlling (and winning) games. I really want to see a slightly different combination of Downing, Carroll, Suarez, and Kuyt.
3. Even though our defense made mistakes yesterday (one significant mistake in particular), we have plenty of viable options for our backline with several of our best players (IMHO) coming back from injury at RB. Don't forget that we have new options at CB with the signing of Coates, and Skrtel has been putting in very good performances when called upon under Daglish.
4. Did I mention that Captain Fantastic is almost fit again? This season he should not feel as though he has to carry the squad on his back and play every position at once. Perhaps we'll see him a rejuvenated Gerrard in that free role from which he can be devastatingly effective.

I know this is an unabashedly positive outlook on several topics, and it certainly isn't a comprehensive analysis of our season to date. However, I was sensing a lot of negativity and felt the need to counter it was a little ray of sunshine. I will now go sit in the corner for a little while as punishment for actually using the phrase, "a little ray of sunshine."

donttreadonred wrote:First off, let me state that I was not able to watch the game, as I was working. However, from what everyone has been saying, it sounds like we dominated the game, but were simply unlucky to concede early from the penalty spot. Perhaps I can offer a little more positive perspective on the match:

1. It's impressive that we dominated the game as much as we did with a poor performance from Adam and Hendo.
2.Our attack is far from firing on all cylinders yet. Carroll has yet to really hit form with us, Kuyt has not been regularly starting (ans subsequently hasn't been as influential as the end of last season), Downing hasn't scored yet, Hendo has squandered some chances and Gerrard has yet to play. I know that sounds depressing, but you can't expect all of those to continue, and we have still been controlling (and winning) games. I really want to see a slightly different combination of Downing, Carroll, Suarez, and Kuyt.
3. Even though our defense made mistakes yesterday (one significant mistake in particular), we have plenty of viable options for our backline with several of our best players (IMHO) coming back from injury at RB. Don't forget that we have new options at CB with the signing of Coates, and Skrtel has been putting in very good performances when called upon under Daglish.
4. Did I mention that Captain Fantastic is almost fit again? This season he should not feel as though he has to carry the squad on his back and play every position at once. Perhaps we'll see him a rejuvenated Gerrard in that free role from which he can be devastatingly effective.

I know this is an unabashedly positive outlook on several topics, and it certainly isn't a comprehensive analysis of our season to date. However, I was sensing a lot of negativity and felt the need to counter it was a little ray of sunshine. I will now go sit in the corner for a little while as punishment for actually using the phrase, "a little ray of sunshine."

Agreed completely with everything you just said. It's impossible for almost any team to score with 10 defenders in between ball and goal, and even in those circumstances we got real chances, simply failed to finish them. Everyone should remember that if gerrard was fit, he probably would've started over hendo... meaning we'd have at least had an equalizer if not more. and that's just one improvement, while we know adam/hendo will do better in the future, maybe sometime referees will like us (maybe), suarez won't blow his open chances, etc. etc. none of these are stretches, it was just an unlucky day, but the performance wasn't as poor as we're saying (or as mancs would like us to believe)

Was reading in stats, that Man City have created 59 chances this season scoring 18 goals.

We have created 59 chances as well, and guess what, have only scored 9 goals

What can I say about the game as I've never been so frusterated.

I'll try to keep this short as they're isn't much to talk about.

Stoke at Britannia is simply a team who close all the gaps into a narrow channel and ask the opposing team to come at them as this was evident by the 8-9 men parked within the box right after the goal as 2 strikers only roamed up front.

Which is why downing caused terror on his flank.

I feel our general play was superb but we NEED to be more CLINICAL and NEED to FINISH.

Suarez was excellent today but needs to stop being so individual when up against 3 defenders in the box.

I disagree on Carra being benched as for pretty much all our matches this season and the last he has been our leader and commander in the back and what he lacks in pace he makes up with his command and aggression. Carra simply goes through concentration lapses at times.

I can't believe no one here has spotted that it was NOT a penalty as Walters made a complete meal of it. Not a penalty by any stretch.

Henderson? Really really bad game as most of the time he chose to be hidden in the game and when he came out, he literally squandered his chances with his long range shots to seemingly decapitate the stoke kop. Of course his finish was woeful.

Yes, yes I understand he is young and needs more confidence as confidence is the only single problem of his, but we need consistency from him just a little more.

Honestly I'm not worried a single bit as stoke are known to park a sky bus in britannia as how can more chances be created when their is a wall of men blocking the goal.

Finishing is crucial as this is the final piece.

Liverpool are like Prandelli's italia as we are good in every segment except finishing. Replica teams IMO

My MOTM was Lucas and Downing as the latter was a beast.

And Mark Clattenshit should never referee a game in any spectrum of sports.

YNWA

Yeah, MOTM Lucas for me too. I need to give my ratings in the other thread.

Anyway, work the finishing and we'll finish this season strong.

I'd much rather lose 5-6 games this season, instead of settling for 100000 draws like in 08/09. :\