Liverpool 2, Stoke City 1: Suarez Finds the Mark

strangely no many words from you guys on suarez's goal...what a strike it was,through the legs of the defender and beutiful curler like one he scored at world cup...he missed couple of sitters though but if keeps on scoring stunners,who needs sitters...

And here I thought when CheekyFellow brought it up he was joking, since the entire first half is built around the goal, with a paraghraph for the goal itself and a second devoted to the redemptive narrative of it after the past few weeks. But right, note to self, if something like that happens again, talk about it more.

nobody seems to score except suarez...anyway delighted with the win...HOO HA!

i love it when we win, cuz the posts on here are so happy happy joy joy... its like when the kids bring home good report cards, dad snags the big account he's been working on and mom get's hit on by the studly mail man all in the same day, and dinner that night just has a benevolent glow to it...
 
any news on carra?  just his rheumatism acting up again?  perhaps he forgot what he was doing in a locker room in stoke and just decided to wait it out till help came?

I didn't do any research on that, but it seems to me that Suarez is scoring more goals when paired with Andy. I'm all for playing AC till he finds his groove or else..

Spearmint is rough and tough. He brings a great amount of stability to our possession game. When it comes to Dalglish, I'm all for having Charlie Adam play games, even if he sucks, but for fuck sake, mix it up a bit. I'm actually upset about the fact that Suarez played. He shouldn't have to play so much. So glad he did so well though. So so so so soso. 

ya, i mean, to be fair wee jay didnt exactly light it up in the 2(?) other chances he had this year, but now that he did just that, I'd look for dalglish to play him some more.

the best thing about spearing is he allows us to purchase a developmental cdm or just wait for coady at that position, instead of having to splash for someone in january as cover for 'Ladies Love' Lucas Leiva

Someone please point me to some highlites or something. Not able to find anything. Diwali festival here so didn't catch the match.

http://www.matchhighlight.com/...

You guys did not talk up that Suarez goal enough!

For the first time, I felt it was justified for the Arab commentator on the highlight reel to scream "Allah" for 5 minutes straight. That move was cheeky as f*ck.

So we got that sorted out!
Fowler = God
Suarez = Allah

agreed.  that was J.Lo levels of cheekiness.  that move had so much cheek, i hear Charmin Ultra's interested in a sponsorship deal.  Jesus woulda been proud of the turn on that cheek...

I'd actually have given Agger an even more glowing review than "largely composed and effective," as I thought he was our MOTM (I probably overcompensate in my efforts not to give attacking players TOO much credit for scoring goals), but I think it's true that he can't match Enrique at the position.  Of course, you wouldn't expect him to-- it's not his position-- but beyond that he does somehow just sort of look out of place out wide.  Although, having said that, the freedom playing at left-back allowed him only emphasized how useful he can be going forward.  Also, I'm very pro-Agger, and not just because of the elbow on Torres (although that was tremendous), so I'm probably kind of biased in my evaluation.

I was again frustrated to see us wait so long to make changes in a match that wasn't going as well as we would have wanted, but then Henderson knocked in the cross that won the game, so uh... Nice patience, King Kenny.

agger and ledley king are really astonishing - dunno know of any other players that can be injured with such regularity, get thrown right back in the mix of things and play at absolute imperial form.  adam and downing should ask agger for tips on how to 'settle in' quickly...

lovely result for Liverpool, only worry is if Suarez is ever gonna get some rest? Wouldn't mind seeing him as a mid-game sub for West Brom. Would like to see Gerrard and Carroll get some playing time together at West Brom.

To be honest I don't think Suarez is ever willingly going to rest unless he's injured because he seems like the type of player that will push through everything and put his heart on the line every single time. I think that's why fans of the teams he's in love him and why everyone else is just jealous they don't have anyone like him in their team.

I missed the match live. But, I have to have logged a good 90 minutes of replaying the 1st Suarez goal to make up for it.

What a player.

C'mon draw, give us Cardiff City, Crystal Palace or Blackburn in the quarters! After conquering Herpes Stoke, we deserve an easy draw, dammit.

Too lazy to do some research...who else is in the draw?

United, Citeh, Chelski, Gooners

Carling Cup is actually interesting for once.
Be good if we could get a home game... been away every game so far. 

blackburn would be kinda cool, give kenny a homecoming of sorts...

I'd like to play ManCity at home. I wanna know where we really stand, and i guess it would be better to play them in the quarters with them perhaps resting some players.

o come on no body wants scum utd...they got away in the league game but this time we will make sure that they get their asses kicked...

united will get cardiff, guaranteed.

Whether it's written in the stars or in PFA books you're right.Why do we always have that feeling that their draws are most of the time fixed?

yup they usaully get easy draws in almost every competiton...would love to play them in final though...

wouldn't it be cool if they got Citeh?   Fuck, I'd laugh.

Will this game be recalled as a major turning point in our season? I don't know but I for one am happy we were able to chase the game and prevail in style in the end. Today should be remembered as the day we got rid of Adam(better for him to come off the bench from now on).

With more steel in midfield (without Gerrard and Adam) and relying only on Lucas and Spearing we admirably coped with the pressure at Britannia stadium and maintained a high ball possession rate despite some misplaced passes from time to time.

And ice on the cake is the return of our prodigal sun to his clinical finish,Suarez was a constant poison to Stoke defenders and I'm convinced he would've caused havoc had Carroll been more mobile on the pitch.

On the other hand Coates has finally gotten his bee stick that will set him free from any further suicidal gesture in the future showing us already he wasn't too much affected after he redeemed himself in the closing stages of game by making some energetic interventions.

At the end of the dzay I would call it a good game for our confidence but tbh I'm still preocupied by the future.Ah if only we can avoid the same mistakes we did so far,imho we must send on the pitch players with fighting spirit and not those with only big names on their shirt...

re: the whole midfield dynamic, i mean, i think the lesson here is using the options we have for different games.  if we had put norwich away like we should have, there would be no complaints about pairing an offensive guru with one of the greatest CMs of all time in the center of the park.  in fact, in games like norwich, swansea, wigan, etc, i wudnt put it passed kenny to play stevie and adam again as a pairing just to prove a point.  for a game like stoke, def a 2 CDM set up is needed, particularly at the britannia, and last night was exhibit A.  But no one should  be untouchable when it comes to tactics other than your absolute star player.  i think kenny's still kinda learning which of his players suit which tactics, and when to use certain tactics versus certain teams. its a process.  but he definitely knows how to play stoke now, i doubt we'll go anything other than 2 cdms against them again while he's manager...

this seems counter-intuitive.  Against stoke, why wouldn't you play one CDM and go full out attack.  That's what we did before and were unlucky not to score.

Or does the 2 cdm formation allow more attacks via better full back penetration?

look, im no rafa benitez, but my reading of it is stoke likes to invite your fbs up the pitch, pinch them while their up field and get balls to pennant and etherington to run onto on the flanks.  its physically impossible for one cdm to cover for the fbs and a stretched back two in that scenario, even for one with as much range as lucas.  the fact we did so well against them the first time had to do with our possession, their monodimensional approach to scoring goals and is a credit the work lucas puts in.  but generally speaking, 2 natural cdms allows the geometry to have ur fullbacks pushed up the pitch without leaving yourself vulnerable to the 2-3 man breaks stoke scores on.  this is why the coates mistake was so reprehensible - the cdms had that play covered, but the ball bounces to coates and even though he's gotta get to the sideline he's got more than enough time to put it out and reset, but instead, well, the rest is history... 

if you look at the game last night, agger and kelly were constantly up in the final third, even at the very end of the game, why?  because spearing and lucas both tend to sit deep and cover tons of ground while in those deeper positions.  in addition, they complement each other quite well - lucas is more of a reader of the game, and wee jay is an absolute Monster as man-to-man defender.  that type of central pairing is usually reserved for the CBs (carra/agger, pique/puyol), but if you have well paired CBs, plus well paired CDMs, its a boxed back 4 defending the breaks.  its rly difficult for 2 wingers and a forward to break on you and crack that 4 man box open with wide play, allowing the fullbacks to push up without worrying about leaving the CBs exposed...

does that jive at all?

Yes, very good.  And no, I can't jive at all.  The flexibility of a plank.

I do agree but would he use the same tactic (2cdms) against WBA as well? we'll see.

God a win feels good!!  Especially against Stoke.  Pulis complaining about pushing and shoving decisions is laughable, all black kettles and pots.   

Of course he didn't see Shawcross trip Suarez in the area which would have been a straight red had Luis gone down.

top draw goal for Suarez and then a simple header for the second - from a peach of a volley cross from Henderson.

Hendo lacks that driving force in midfield at the moment.  Almost like Spearing would be better in that position, though Jay looked a bit rusty today.

Into the quarter finals, along with Citeh, ManUre, Chelski and Arsenal.  Anyone wanting to win this cup is going to have some high hurdles to jump!!

Lets stuff West Brom this weekend.  Finish those chances!!

Jay Spearing and Lucas really take pressure off the back four, particularly the fullbacks.  Jay Spearing may never be a locked in starter but he plays that position really well.  It would be great to see Jordan Henderson become a really top class version of him.  I'm convinced Charlie Adam could never play like that so don't bother trying with him.

Yeah, part of the Adam thing is realizing that he's sometimes been played out of position and asked to do things he can't do well, which is not his fault. Once Kenny realizes he is a part-time player, not automatic selection, we will get the best from him.

Post this three more times in a row. Better chance for "people" to notice it.

lol

In other news:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/spo...

LMFAO

Wait till United try to float an IPO on the Singapore stock exchange and the same thing happens! 30% of equity for $1 bil when true market value is maybe $300 mil and now it will sell for$100 mil if they're lucky. United being by far the second rate side in their hometown is not going to go over too well in Asia. So the deal with the Devil the Glazers made to raise $250 mil thru that Del Corp will be coming due very soon.

Talk about ROTFLMFAO eh.

You should do a Guest Post on a comparison of the top clubs current financial position with knowlegde like that!

Where are you based JPR, we seem to be on at similar times... 

East coast pal. Manhattan and VA. Travel a lot too. I just read some and have an interest in the finance side and work in finance. Thanks for nice compliment. Jonny Singaore is up on this stuff too.

Indeed, I did a pigs ear of a post on their debt / float a little while back, and was rightly abused for it.

What sparked it, other than the valuation you refer to was the club profit declared at £110m last year to support the float, when they had barely made a profit since the Glazers arrived.  This coincided with a sudden £109m loss for the parent company that owned the shares to ManUre.

It's all accountants' shenanigans, probably designed to evade tax and offshore anything they can, but to then expect investors to cough up a fortune was clearly too big to swallow for the Singapore finance company that has to underwrite it.   

We wait and see given the markets should recover strongly now.

Firstly, you were not abused for the aforementioned War and Peace length post. That level of financial detail is just a little much here.

The financial shenanigans have two motives. The first is to increase a "financial analysts" evaluation of the market value of the IPO by removing significant interest costs and expensive PIK financing. Then selling the "profit" of the club corporation and inflating the true value in Asia. The second is to try to remove the perception in Manchester that the Glazers were sucking the soul out of the club with interest costs and not making significant funds available to SAF for quality player acquisitions.

The equity markets are now very weak and combined with the devastation last Sunday at OT, floating United stock for 3 times it's value in Asia is "hopeful" at best. The luster is now tarnished.

It's all being done with "smoke and mirrors". Raising $250 mil thru a Delaware to pay off the PIK's, "profit" at the club, losses at the parent, etc., etc. One of the interesting parts of the story is what "arrangement" the Glazers made to raise the $250 mil in Delaware. Hedge fund? Option to the Qatari royal family for purchase? It's likely to not end well for United and it's supporters.

Asked to describe the Uruguayan's ability, Dalglish told his post-match press conference: "Well you are the ones who are supposed to have the qualifications in English. You've got better words than me."

Class!

Delighted with the result. I said this on Twitter, but it sort of feels like Liverpool performed an exorcism tonight. Would it have been nice to blow Stoke out of the water? Sure. But a game where Suarez finally found his finishing touch, where Liverpool came back from behind for the first time under Dalglish (not to mention the first time this season), where we finally beat Stoke at their ground, where we advanced to the next round of a competition we stand a real chance of winning--yeah. I'll take that.

Also pleased to hear about Coates' general performance, mistake on the Stoke goal aside. For anyone who watched the game, do you think he and Agger could pair up well together in defence?

SURE...and both of them can pass the ball well...

Yes, definitely. Coates will never be fast, but he's a good player. He just turned 21 earlier this month!

coates also shows a natural tendency to keep his head up in possession and look for the best available pass, short, medium or long.  both tall, both athletic, can both mix it physically, and if coates develops half the passing range that agger possesses that could be a very interesting pairing indeed... so glad the boy settle again in game after that horrible period in the first half - thats wat the great CBs do, its not about whether you get beat or how badly, but whether you recover and how well.

SPEARING!! SPEARING!!

I love having proper protection for the back four and midfielders who can run and tackle as well as pass. :)

Just got to work; logged on with my fingers crossed and am delighted!

How did the 4-2-2-2 operate? LL and Wii-J operating as deep lying centre midfielders assisting the defence thus allowing the forward 4 a whole load of atttacking freedom?

Yes, Lucas and Jay both had some bad passes (quite a few, actually), but did their jobs well. Lucas even exchanged a 1-2 in Stoke's box with Maxi and centered to set up a sitter for Suarez (!).

that was a seriously good move - very arsenal.  Stevie G would have finished that.  Again, hopefully Suarez will learn how to finish the simple ones like his second.  He's chucking away goals not doing that.

thought we missed the forward drive out of midfield, Henderson doesn't have that yet, though a blinding volley cross for the winner.

Mostly. And I meant to mention it somewhere but ran out of space, but Maxi and Henderson both did a lot of running getting back. Henderson wasn't up to Kuyt levels of effectiveness at either end, but he was noticeably better than early in the year, and to be blunt Maxi's workrate was embarrassing for Downing—and I'm a fan of Downing.

From a tactical perspective, did todays set up feel like it was the right personnel in the right positions in the right formation?

It's probably the most convincing a two man midfield has looked for the club this year outside the few minutes Gerrard paired Lucas, though I'm still not convinced Henderson is the best fit in the role he's been playing.

Henderson didn't have that forward drive that Gerrard excels in and Adam does reasonably well.
that's where he really needs to develop, and I think that was the only thing we were really missing tonight.

that being said, it was a peach of a volley cross for Suarez to get the winner. Hopefully that taste of a simple goal will entice him to get a few more simple ones.

Henderson's game today was a huge improvement over his passenger/bystander performances in the first few games of the season.  He is ever so much more dangerous when he runs at the defense with the ball, and he also contributed and covered when his fullback needed help.  I can see now the potential that he wasn't demonstrating earlier in the season.

Lucas and Wee Jay Spearing are a much better pairing than Lucas and Adams.  Adams does nothing for our defensive shape, and I continue to question his utility going forward.  Spearing is more mobile, a faster short-range passer, and plays actual defence.

Bellamy and Suarez on the pitch at the same time are just delicious to watch.

the other thing that's encouraging about hendo is he came out before the game talking about how he's been a bit to tentative and he needs to focus on being more adventurous with his passing - well, his passing was fairly poor all game, but you could def see he was going for more of an unexpected, higher degree of difficulty type play and the assist on the goal is great cuz it totally falls under that category.  any time a player calls himself out to do something, then it comes off, expect a big spike in confidence levels

Thanks - In your opinion, is anyone else in the squad other than Maxi, well suited to the role?

I think Maxi and Downing are just very different.  Downing's got a great cross on him, though you might say he doesn't produce it often enough - though we don't often play that running in poaching a goal from the cross style of play (should do).

Maxi has an assured presence, cultured and experienced, quietly effective. 

Bellamy coming in just injects new energy into everything.  Mobility is always good and suits our style which is why Carroll finds it tough.

that said, carroll was much more mobile last night.  i thnk he may just be finding his feet.  west brom wud be a good time to give luis a blow and hope for a confidence boosting goal from the big man.

I love watching Bellamy come on.  That smirk on his face, no matter what situation we're in.  He just knows he's gonna stir up some trouble.  Priceless!

so long as it's just stirring things up on the pitch.