Live Thoughts: Stoke vs Liverpool (Carling Cup)

I wrote this live. Here are my unedited thoughts when Liverpool played Stoke in the Carling Cup.

Hey everyone, welcome to another one of my Live Thoughts feeds. I'm sorry I missed this weekend's action, I had family over and was occupied all day. I'm not going to be covering the weekend's action that's to come either, I'm away from Saturday to Thursday with an important trip. Where am I going? You'll find out in a few months.

Onto the football now. We were disappointing against Norwich on the weekend, and that combined with the fact that we only lost to Stoke a few weeks ago in this stadium suggests there's doubts about the outcome today. All I say is, we were on decent form not too long ago, and I personally think we're a better team than Stoke, no disrespect to them. Yes they are a very tough nut to crack, especially at home, but we can do it. Keep the faith!

Here are today's lineups: 

Stoke: Sorensen, Huth, Shawcross, Woodgate, Wilson, Shotton, Delap, Whelan, Etherington, Jones, Walters. Subs: Nash, Diao, Pennant, Upson, Crouch, Jerome, Palacios.

It's a strong lineup, especially in defence. It's not going to be easy and Jon Walters is turning into a decent player recently. Crouch, Pennant and Palacios on the bench also shows some strength in depth for Stoke. It's still a team we can beat though, if we play our game right. 

Liverpool: Reina, Kelly, Carragher, Coates, Agger, Henderson, Lucas, Spearing, Maxi, Suarez, Carroll. Subs: Doni, Aurelio, Kuyt, Adam, Skrtel, Flanagan, Bellamy.

Who's playing at left back? Carragher? Agger? Kelly? If Kelly is playing left does that mean Carra is playing right? We'll find out soon. I think it's Kelly on the left and Agger on the right. That confusion aside, having Suarez and Carroll up front from the start is great. As much as Carroll is getting a lot of stick recently, I still want and hope that Suarez and Carroll can be a perfect match up front for Liverpool. There's no reason why they shouldn't. Let's give them our support today and hope they both have a great game!

2' - Agger is playing at left back. It's the best option I think, I still don't understand why we don't play Flanagan or Aurelio instead though.

3' - We're playing the better football at the moment. Some early pressure without any threat at the moment. 

5' - The commentator comments on us taking the Carling Cup seriously this season. We have and it's really refreshing. 

6' - Walters! That was close. He drives the ball form the corner of the left side of the penalty box and it dips just over the right side of the bar. 

8' - Suarez! Should have done better. Carroll takes a shot from distance and Thomas Sorensen  palms it low and it comes to Suarez but he shoots wide. He had more time than he thought.

9' - Walters again! Wide. There's a bit of frenzy in the Liverpool box and it ends with Walters on the left side of the penalty box and he shoots it wide. Very lively opening this match on both sides!

12' - Some good passing from Liverpool in the centre of the pitch. We're playing the better football now but it can still go either way based on the attempts so far. 

15' - An opening for Liverpool and we counter attack, Stoke only have two players back but Carroll couldn't control the ball in the box and it dissolves. Shame. 

17' - Carroll! A low header bounces of the ground and it goes straight to Sorensen. 

20' - Yellow card for Carragher. He fouls Etherington and walks off in a huff. 

23' - The game has slowed down a little now. We're still playing a little better than Stoke, but you just can't rule them out. Not after last time. 

25' - Carroll! Saved. A neat bit of football ends in Maxi Rodiguez being surrounded by Stoke players and he shoots, it ricochets off one of the players into the path of Carroll who shoots low and it's saved by Sorensen again.

28' - Kenwyne Jones has gone down and it looks like he's going to have to be replaced. 

29' - I tell a lie, I think he's staying on. 

31' - Tensions are rising as both teams claim fowls for separate incidents.

34' - Stoke celebrate as they head the ball into the net but the whistle blew for a foul in our box. Thank god. 

36' - Kelly! Good shot but saved. Some good attacking football all over the pitch, it ends with Kelly who takes his chance from a good 35 yards out, a low drive to the bottom right but Sorensen gets to it. 

39' - Stoke keep giving the ball away in midfield but we're just not capitalising at all. 

41' - Ryan Shawcross gets a yellow card for a tackle on Suarez.

42' - This match is very similar to the previous match at the Britannia. I don't like that feeling.

44' - GOAL! Kenwyne Jones has scored. A sloppy interception, Coates loses possession and Jon Walters storms down the Stoke right wing and cuts it back and Kenwyne Jones heads it into the bottom right corner. Against the run of play arguably. Frustrating. 

45' - Two minutes of added time. 

45+2' - Half time.

It's been a good first half if you're an unbiased fan. As the match went on we made more and more chances and played better football than Stoke. Then we had the sucker punch at the end of the half. It's very similar to the match earlier in the season when we lost here. We played very well that day but couldn't score, they got a goal and we lost. I really hope this isn't going to be the same outcome.

I don't like being negative in general, especially when it comes to the younger players, but I really don't think Coates is ready for the first team yet. He always looks nervous and concedes too easily, it's disappointingly his fault we conceded that goal, he didn't control the ball and Walters intercepted with some ease. It wasn't good. I'm not going to say "sell Coates" or anything stupid, but I do think he should go to the reserves, build his confidence from the ground, get him used to how football is played in England and then give him some game time towards the end of the season. He's not ready for the first team at all unfortunately.

45' - Liverpool Sub: Martin Skrtel is coming on for Jamie Carragher. It must be because Carra is on a yellow card. I'd rather Coates go off but hey ho. 

48' - Am I being too harsh on Coates? Comment if I am. I try to give the younger players a chance and long term I reckon he'll be a great asset. It's just too soon I think. 

51' - Free kick in a dangerous area for Stoke. Around 25 yards out, central. Spearing is the culprit. 

53' - GOAL! Suarez! Belter! The free kick is dealt with and we slowly counter attack, it ends with Spearing crossing the ball to Suarez who is on the left wing, he goes to the corner of the penalty area and bends it round the defence and into the bottom right corner! Excellent! 

54' - Well we equalised. A quality goal too. We've done more than we did last time we were at the Britannia. That's good. Let's see if we can now get a second! 

55' - Glenn Whelan has been booked for Stoke. 

57' - I forgot to mention, the Stoke fans were starting to boo Suarez in the second half, his response is his fantastic curler. Great stuff. 

58' - Jermaine Pennant is coming on for Stoke. Glad to see he's finally got a club that he seems happy with, and them in return like him.

59' - Stoke Sub: Pennant comes on for Ryan Shotton. Like for like swap. 

62' - Pennant's best moment in a Liverpool shirt? This. 

63' - Stoke Sub: Another quick sub, Cameron Jerome comes on for Matthew Etherington. 

66' - Cameron Jerome will offer more presence up front for Stoke, and with no Carra and a Sebastian Coates who's very green, that could be dangerous for us. 

69' - We could have had a free kick but the ref played on and Carroll was on his own up front, he got pushed to the right wing and we didn't really take advantage of the situation. 

72' - I'd like to hope we can score a second, I'd rather us not go to extra time if we can avoid it. 

75' - Glenn Whelan knocks Spearing over and you can argue he could have been given a second yellow. He's still on the pitch for now. 

76' - Kuyt and Bellamy are warming up. A good move if you ask me. 

77' - Shawcross and Suarez have a few words and one of the other Stoke players moves Shawcross away. That's two games now where Suarez has a sparring partner. He likes to annoy the opposition doesn't he! Just for the record I doubt Suarez said anything racist last week. 

79' - Stoke are starting to pile some pressure. There's been a lot of Rory Delap throw ins the past five minutes. 

81' - Liverpool Sub: Craig Bellamy is coming on for Maxi Rodriguez. A very good move I say. Let's hope his pace and recent goal scoring touch can continue. 

83' - BELLAMY! Hit the post and out! So close! He sets up a layoff with Carroll and shoots low and it was so close! Sorensen was beat! 

84' - GOAL! Suarez! A brace! The ball is headed back to Henderson who whips in a lovely sharp cross from the right and it's a perfect header for Suarez from the left, straight into the net! Great stuff and it looks like we're in the quarter finals!

87' - Peter Crouch is about to come on. His best Liverpool moment? This.

87' - Stoke Sub: Kenwyne Jones is off and Crouch is on. All Stoke's subs are used.

87' - Liverpool Sub: Dirk Kuyt is coming on for the man of the match, Luis Suarez. Of course, he's taking his time to come off. Good times!

89' - There's a huge scramble in the Liverpool box and Crouch scores but he was offside. Very confusing then, so many bodies. 

90' - Four minutes of added time. Yellow card for Robert Huth. 

90+2' - Despite Stoke's dominance since the second goal, we have a moment of attacking football and both Agger and Kelly were high up the pitch. It was good but concerning due to the fact that we need to be careful for the next two mintes. 

90+3' - Nice to see Suarez having a laugh and joke on the subs bench. He usually sulks when he's taken off. I love that guy. 

90+4' - One last Rory Delap throw goes for a goal kick and it's full time!

We're in the quarter finals! All thanks to a certain Uruguayan menace! This is a great result, to go to Stoke, where we earlier lost a few weeks ago, and come back from behind. It's a fantastic result. Stoke played very well today for most of the match and gave us a game. We were definitely the better side though, and if it wasn't for that man, we wouldn't have won. Seven goals to his name now. Luis Suarez is turning into a new Kop hero and I'm so happy he's playing for us rather than against us. That's all from me, as I said, I won't be covering this weekend's game as I'm away, but I should be back the week after. Have a good night.

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Live Thoughts: Stoke vs Liverpool (Premier League)

After two weeks of internationals we're back with Liverpool on this site. I've done a lot of live thoughts recently, for both Liverpool and England. It's a lot of fun actually, I enjoy doing it. And it gives me more to talk about football wise on this site, because the other three topics I also talk about (music, games and wrestling) have far more content on here. So we all win (I hope!)

So yeah, we'll be hoping for three more points against Stoke today, to keep the pressure on both the Manchester clubs for as long as possible. Let's hope we can match our previous performances before the international break, as there's always the risk we won't.

So will the two new boys start today, Craig Bellamy and Sebastian Coates? We'll have to see. Gerrard won't be involved unfortunately, but next weeks looks optimistic.

Here are the teams:

Stoke: Begovic, Huth, Shawcross, Upson, Wilson, Pennant, Whitehead, Delap, Etherington, Walters, Crouch. Subs: Sorensen, Wilkinson, Shotton, Whelan, Palacios, Jones, Jerome.


Stoke are stronger now than they ever been in their latest run in the Premier League, and at home they'll be difficult. But if we continue our form from two weeks ago we should be able to get three points.


Liverpool: Reina, Skrtel, Agger, Carragher, Enrique, Henderson, Downing, Lucas, Adam, Suarez, Kuyt. Subs: Doni, Johnson, Coates, Maxi, Spearing, Carroll, Bellamy.

Hmm... interesting line up in the back with Enrique rumoured to be on the right and Skrtel on the left. We'll see after kick off what happens. Still Carroll is on the bench, but our attacking force was great in our last match with Kuyt, Suarez and Downing so long may it continue.

3' - Suarez with a decent effort with a header from a Charlie Adam cross.

6' - We're causing some problems early on which is great, it's what we want to do away from home more often.

8' - Foul on Peter Crouch by Martin Skrtel, who is playing at right back from what I can tell.

9' - Carragher is bleeding. He's taken off but comes back on shortly. 

12' - The game has slowed down slightly due to the injury on Carra.

13' - Etherington takes a shot that Reina comfortably saves.

16' - Liverpool corner. It's our second so far. We cause a bit of menace in the box that ends with Kuyt taking a shot that goes for a throw in. Good play. 

19' - Penalty! Stoke have a penalty! It was Jamie Carragher. He tugs 
Jon Walters down in the penalty box. He does it all the time frustratingly. Right decision.

20' - GOAL! Jon Walters takes the penalty comfortably down the middle of the box. We're one behind.

22' - They're showing the replay over and over again and
there's a possible claim that Walters put pressure on Carragher first, but the fact that Carra tugged him down is unjustified. I'm an unbiased Liverpool fan and I'm not going to say Stoke didn't deserve the penalty. They did. It was against the run of play though.

24' - Suarez! Lovely block by Ryan Shawcross. That was a real chance. Made from Henderson on the right flank and crosses it to Suarez on the left of the penalty box.

25' - Possession is 50%/50% at the moment. It feels it too, both sides have made decent chances.

26' - Yeah it's Enrique on the left and Skrtel on the right. I'm still not sure about Skrtel being on the side of the defence, I'd rather Carra persevere and just do it for a few games.

29' - Stoke starting to take control now. There was some lovely movement outside our box by Walters, Pennant and Crouch. They didn't break through however. 

32' - Nothing really to report at the moment. Things have calmed down again.

33' - The crowd are preparing for a Rory Delap throw in a dangerous area. Nothing comes of it. 

34' - Skrtel! Over the bar. Lovely movement from Kuyt and Suarez who have combined nicely a few times today, but Skrtel hits it over the bar and falls over. He looks okay though.

36' - Matthew Ethertington is down. It was the Skrtel shot. He tackled Skrtel while he was shooting and they must have clipped somehow. He's been arguably their best player today so far. 

38' - Charlie Adam whips a lovely cross to Jose Enrique who apparently hand balls for a foul. He protests and gets a talking to. The Stoke fans boo as he doesn't get yellow carded. 

40' - We're trying to score before half time now and Suarez is trying really hard to break the defence.

43' - Shawcross! Just over. Walters earns a corner for Stoke and Shawcross almost scores.

45' - Two minutes of added time.

45+2' - Full time. We're still in this game but Stoke have held their own quite well today and are 1-0 up. They're not going to make it easy for us to equalise, never mind win. We need to be more inventive in the second half, not that we haven't looked good, but their strength have matched our ability that's all. Fingers crossed for a better performance second half.

46' - Difficult start to the second half so far. We have the ball but we can barely get into their half of the pitch. Not good. 

49' - Same as above really at the moment, apart from we're slowly getting more in their half. There's a lot of throw ins at the moment. No progress.

50' - Corner for Stoke. We finally started to break through their defence then they get the ball and storm through for a counter attack. 

51' - Nothing comes of it and we attempt a counter attack but the ball from Adam to Suarez was just too long and it goes for a throw in.

52' - A bit better by Liverpool now. We're moving the ball a lot better. 

55' - The possession is still predominantly in our favour but we're just finding it difficult to penetrate past Stoke. Very little has happened. 

57' - That was good then. Adam cuts the ball to the left wing where Enrique storms down. He whips in a cross to Suarez but he can't control it and it's a goal kick. 

59' - Foul by Henderson. That was a little nasty, although it didn't look intentional. Free kick to Stoke from around 45 yards, slightly to the left. 

61' - HENDERSON AND ADAM! FIVE shots between them! Henderson counter attacked the free kick and was free to storm down the pitch, he tries to score past Begovic, and again, and again. It goes to Adam who tries twice himself. Absolutely incredible defending by Begovic, by the third or fourth shots the defenders block the shots. Amazing.

62' - The game has just been ripped open now, we're not letting those misses phase us, we're bombing forward with purpose now.

63' - Henderson in space... he skies it. Literally. The Stoke defender started to close him down and it put him off.

64' - Stoke Sub: Robert Huth is off for Wilkinson.

65' - Adam from long range... not sure if that was a cross or a shot as Suarez was there. Begovic saves comfortably anyway. 

67' - Double Liverpool Sub: Andy Carroll and Craig Bellamy come on for Dirk Kuyt and Jordan Henderson. Bellamy on his second debut for the club. 

68' - Stoke Sub: Kenwyne Jones comes on for Matthew Etherington.

68' - Crouch! Blocked by Carragher and Reina saves. I don't think he's scored against us since he left, which is good obviously. 

69' - Downing! Saved by Begovic. A cross from the left and Downing from the right with a clean header. 

70' - Stoke Sub: Rory Delap for Wilson Palacios. That's all three Stoke subs used now. 

71' - Bellamy seems to be playing on the left wing and Downing has gone to the right. 

74' - Downing and Suarez combine in the middle of the pitch into the box but there's just too many bodies for Suarez to get a shot.

75' - We're definitely on top at the moment, but with no goal to show for it. 

75' - Corner. We're dancing around the Stoke players but we just can't score! Kudos to Stoke though, they have defended for 75 minutes perfectly so far.

76' - The corner has been delayed as Jon Walters has gone down with cramp. 

77' - Now the corner needs be retaken due to interference in the box. The second corner leads to nothing. 

78' - Suarez looking slightly tired now but he runs on and takes a relatively wild shot that goes only just wide. It was a decent effort in the end. 

80' - The match has stopped again as Wilkinson has a bleeding nose.

80' - Liverpool Sub: Martin Skrtel comes off and Glen Johnson comes on. It's nice to see Johnson come back from injury. 

83' - Corner. Downing whips a cross from the right for Suarez but Shawcross heads it for a corner.

83' - Downing! Over the bar. His shot was from the corner of the right hand side of the box.

86' - So much pressure on Stoke's defence, they keep kicking it for a throw in. Not long left. 

87' - Bellamy! Side netting. Downing crosses deep again and Bellamy heads it cleanly into the side netting. 

88' - The match got a bit hot for a moment with a few players from both sides arguing. 

90' - Corner. Suarez and Downing combine very well again and earn us a corner. Adam's corner misses everyone. 

90+1' - There was an appeal for handball by Suarez. When he hit the shot in the box before the corner it appears to hit Matthew Upson's hand. I think deflection more than anything though. FIVE minutes of stoppage time.

90+2' - The ball goes to Begovic and Lucas runs into him with minimum contact as he's trying to slow down. Begovic goes down like a sack of spuds. Pathetic. 

90+3' - Suarez! What a miss. Begovic clears the ball badly with his fist and Suarez hits the ball wide of the post. 

90+5' - Full time.

My thoughts? For ninety five minutes Stoke defended world class today. They were absolutely solid in the back throughout the match. We did everything we could to score today. Could we have done better? Well not scoring suggests so. But Liverpool played with some swagger today, not as much as a couple of weeks ago, but it was still a decent attacking performance, particularly the second half. But it was Stoke today. They were excellent. That five shots at goal in 15 seconds was the story of the game for me. They just were absolutely boss. They will be hard to beat this season, especially at home. Unfortunately we have lost our first match of the season now. And it's a reality check for those Liverpool fans who think we can go all the way to win the league. I don't think we're good enough. But let's try to concentrate on making sure we can pick ourselves up from this defeat, we did play quite well. Fingers crossed it can be a small blip and we can continue to play well, and get some results. That's all from me. Take care.