Liverpool (1) Stoke City (0): Unconvincing Reds Tell a Different Tale
It’s three points in the bag and I’m not about to complain too loudly about it; it may not be a corner turned, a page flipped or a wrong set right, but with Liverpool losing three Premier League matches on the hop and looking destined for a fourth, putting a notch in the win column comes as a welcome reprieve from the constant jabber of the doom-sayers.
That being said, throughout the first half, neither side did too much to stake a claim for the points. A lack of composure off the ball and a lack imagination on it was the story of the day, evidenced by the fact that a shot on target wasn’t registered until the second half was well under way. Thankfully, the tide turned somewhat from that point forward, but if not for a bit of luck and a handful of good saves from Simon Mignolet, this story would have had a drastically different ending.
Jordan Henderson, wearing the armband in the place of the benched Steven Gerrard, cannoned a volley into the side netting to get the half rolling, but Bojan Krki?, who was without a doubt the best player on the pitch for long stretches, really turned up the heat when his picture perfect pass behind the Reds defence found Mame Biram Diouf, only to have Mignolet charge him down. Not long after, the Spaniard crashed a shot against the post after leaving Lucas, making his second start on the hop for the hosts, for dead.
If it was nothing but luck saving Liverpool from going behind, the cosmos evened evened things up in a big way with Raheem Sterling shooting agonizingly wide when presented with a golden opportunity, Lucas shooting straight at Stoke ‘keeper Asmir Begovic after the youngster found him in space and Joe Allen somehow hooking a shot over the crossbar from inside the area.
It’s Liverpool. It’s Stoke. And nothing is ever easy.
Gerrard, on the 16th anniversary of his first team début for the Reds, made his way onto the pitch for Lucas with 15-minutes left to play, but he looked to be just in time to see his side go behind when Diouf found space for a shot following a scrambling corner kick only to have Sterling, an unlikely presence on one of the posts, clear it away.
Surprising or not, it proved to be all important when, with less than five minutes left on the clock, Brendan Rodgers side found the go-ahead through another unlikely source. Liverpool’s vice-captain had looked dangerous all day and his cross for Rickie Lambert found the former Southampton man and his header, it has to be said, was unlucky to have hit the crossbar. A massive way of disappointment abated in the blink of an eye though with a sumptuous rebound finding its way onto the head of a diving Glen Johnson, in among the boots, to beat Begovic and put the hosts ahead.
Queue pandemonium on the Kop. Queue wild celebrations from the boys in red. Queue a ton of staples into the fullbacks crown. Queue seven minutes of stoppage time, the introduction of Dejan Lovren and enough chances for the visitors before the final whistle, including a finger-tip save from Mignolet to deny Bojans dipping volley, to make sure Stoke boss Mark Hughes left Merseyside a frustrated figure.
After weeks of frustration, Rodgers is making changes just like he said he would — Philippe Coutinho for Steven Gerrard, Kolo Toure for Dejan Lovren and Lucas adding some solidarity to the back-line. Still, it’s not a corner turned, a page flipped or a wrong righted, but at this point in time, that’s more than fine by me. Winning is winning is winning and we’re going to have to do a lot of that to get the story of this season back on track — and that’s a tale I’d love to hear.
–Steven