Topic: FT: Stoke 1 vs Liverpool 2 (Walters 44', Phil 69', Bob 72')

[Rush 82]

bet365 Stadium


Liverpool: Mignolet, Clyne, Lovren, Klavan, Matip, Milner, Can, Wijnaldum, Alexander-Arnold, Woodburn, Origi
Subs: Karius, Moreno, Grujic, Sturridge, Firmino, Lucas, Coutinho

Stoke: Grant; Johnson, Shawcross, Martins Indi, Pieters; Shaqiri, Allen, Cameron, Arnautovic; Walters, Berahino.
Subs: Given; Muniesa, Whelan, Adam, Diouf, Crouch, Ramadan

Quite an unexpected line-up today from Liverpool - good luck lads.

[Rush 82]

0' - Stoke kick-off. Our lads are wearing the black away kit.

Stoke start well and are up in our final third. Blown for offside.

[Rush 82]

1' - Not too sure what to make of our shape yet...

Shaquiri scores but it's offside.

Carved us wide open

[Rush 82]

3' - We work the ball up into their half but soon find ourselves back in ours.

Looking somewhat disjointed - here's hoping we settle.

[Jake]

I'm going with 10-1 to Stoke.

It's like the last half hour of the Bournmouth game, with worse personnel

This is gonna be painful mate. Thanks for the comms.

[Rush 82]

4' - Stoke continue to harry us - Matip miscontrols a pass but is fouled by Berahino

[Rush 82]

5' - TAA with a neat foray down the right - his cross has just a touch too much on it for Origi to control.

[Rush 82]

7' - Stoke carve through our midfield at will. Three forays now that have resulted in the ball landing in dangerous areas in our box.

When we do venture forward we lose it easily

[Rush 82]

9' - Stoke look the more assured in these first 9 minutes. TAA is rather easily bypassed but the ball is put well over.

[Rush 82]

Bound to take a few minutes for us to settle down, really interested to see how they younger guys do.

[Rush 82]

12' - TAA with a really good cross into the box but there's no one to receive it.

Brilliant ball in there by TAA. Shame there were no one there, the goalie was flapping.

[Rush 82]

14' - Liverpool corner. Milner to take. Stoke clear and the 2nd ball comes in tamely. Goalie collects and clears.

[Rush 82]

16' - Stoke with a really dangerous potential chance right in front of our goal. Berahino is too slow though and it comes to nothing

[Rush 82]

17' - Our touches in the middle and top half the field have been loose - with the ball consistently not finding a black shirt.

[Rush 82]

18' - Woodburn shows a bit of his inexperience as he tries to pass the Stoke RB but is easily dispossessed.

[Rush 82]

TAA is doing some excellent defending, loved the way he chose his moment, and didn't go diving in.

He is - problem is I can't see where our goal/s are going to come from.

[Rush 82]

21' - Dare I say that Stoke look like they're tiring just a tad and Liverpool are starting to press forward with a bit more menace?

[Rush 82]

22' - The fans might feel a touch of frustration at the amount of balls going backward rather than forward.

24' - Woodburn with a great run through the middle, bounces off wee Joe but is then surrounded by 3 redandwhite shirts and falls over on the edge of the penalty box.

Stoppage for injury to wee Joe - looks like he may have to go off.

[Rush 82]

26' - wee Joe off; Charlie Adam on - it's a veritable convention of former LFC players

[Rush 82]

We have options on the bench, so its not as if we don't have other alternatives, via the goal scoring. At the moment the Stoke crowd are lot quieter. Hopefully we can start to threaten a bit more.

An excellent point with respect to the bench.

[Rush 82]

28' - Stoke with a shot on goal - easily gathered by Mignolet.

Shaquiri hooks his leg under Milner's and brings him down. FK given.

Meanwhile we cut to Woodburn who is still down.

We play on with 10 - Milner lofted that in and Stoke clears

[Rush 82]

31' - Woodburn back on.

Sudden break down the left and Arnatouvich hits it into the side netting at the near post - Lovren made a bit of a hash of that.

[Jake]

He's been OK but is weak as heck, if he comes on, lets give Studga a go.

[Rush 82]

32' - Liverpool haven't threatened the Stoke goal once yet.

[Rush 82]

He's been OK but is weak as heck, if he comes on, lets give Studga a go.

Needs a bit of bulking up like

[Jake]

Needs a bit of bulking up like

He'll hit the ale when he's old enough to buy it - easy calories for the lad

[Rush 82]

35' - Liverpool Kryptonite approaches - Stoke have a corner.

Mignolet with a strong punch out - ball comes back in immediately but there's an offside in the mix.

[Rush 82]

36' - TAA with a really good run and pass through - Gini mistimes his run and is caught offside.

[Rush 82]

39' - Everything we've done today so far has just been a shade 'off'

Corner to us as Origi drives foward.

Milner lofts it in and onto Origi's head but he can't control and it's well over.

[Rush 82]

42' - Can with a ball to Origi, he slips it on but it's slightly behind

Woodburn goes down in penalty area but ref waves on

At the other end, Stoke break and Shaquiri puts it on Walters head from the byline.

Stoke 1 - Liverpool 0

Replay shows that was a pen 9 times out of 10.

Shocking defense nonetheless.

[Jake]

No surprise there.

Noone marking Walters.

Dog shit defence. As usual.

[Rush 82]

45' - 3' added on.

[Rush 82]

HT

The experiment hasn't worked too well in this half. Looking forward to some changes in the 2nd half.

Would have to be walters wouldn't it.

[Rush 82]

45' - Firmino and Coutinho on.

TAA and Woodburn off.

[Rush 82]

46' - Improvement is immediate - suddenly the ball is to be found up in the Stoke half.

[Rush 82]

47' - Away fans attempt to get a chant going. Klavan earns a yellow for barging Shaquiri who was about to break.

[Rush 82]

50' - Stoke corner.

OMG - what was Gini doing? He headed the ball straight back to the Stoke players - he owes Mignolet a fucking beer for bailing him out there with a a reflex save.

Holy deity!!!

Wait, how are we setting up now? Still 3 at the back?

[Rush 82]

52' - Liverpool look completely different going forward.

Phil and Bob terrorise the Stoke defence - corner earned. Well taken but comes to nothing in the end. Followup ball is fired in by Milner but it's wide.

[Rush 82]

54' - Ball is moved forward quickly and Origi shoots from the edge of the box - he attempted a curler into the right corner but it doesn't curl enough.

Seeing waves of attack now  - surely our goals will come.

[Rush 82]

56' - Goodness - how did that not go in. Corner fell to Lovren who fired one through the traffic  - it bounces around before being cleared.