It’s not ideal when you’re playing catch up and everyone else plays before you do. There’s enough pressure being six points behind Chelsea, but when it keeps going to nine points because they’re playing before we do, it gives you no margin for error. So when we started this game a bit ropey and fell behind early, it would have been easy to panic.
That never happened and the maturity of the performance is further evidence of the progression the team has made this season. There’s still plenty of room for improvement but it wasn’t that long ago that we couldn’t seem to win at Anfield, let alone win 4-1 without even coming close to hitting top gear.
We hammered Stoke and yet from looking on the forum and on twitter, there seemed to be more comments about what we did wrong than did right. The standards have been so high at times this season that when the players don’t reach them it feels like they haven’t played well, but take a step back for a second here. We won 4-1 and it probably should have been even more. If we can pick up results like this when the general consensus is that we weren’t great, then we must be on the right track.
And maybe it’s just me, but I feel like the bad start to the game has been a little overstated too. We weren’t playing well, but it’s not as though Stoke were all over us. They had two chances, one of which they took and the other that brought a great save from Mignolet. That was it though. Two chances. In 90 minutes. Maybe because both of those chances came early on some people *points at Mark Hughes* got a bit carried away about how well Stoke played.
We contributed to our own problems but once the players got used to what Stoke were doing (which was basically twat it up to Crouchy and then hope Joe Allen creates something) they took control and we had no further issues for the rest of the game.
Hughes is a case though isn’t he? “I don’t think many teams come here and play two up top. I don’t think they dealt with it well, in my view”. Hahahaha you lost 4-1 you deluded fuckwit! That’s Hodgson-esque that is.
There’s a lot to like about how Stoke play and Hughes has completely transformed their playing style. Except when he plays us that is. He’s scared stiff to try and play football against us because of what happened in the first leg of the league cup semi last year when our high pressing game gave them nightmares.
He changed his tactics at half time in that game and went full on alehouse, and then did the same thing in the second leg at Anfield (which they won 1-0, the last home defeat we suffered). No doubt he thought he could come here and do the same thing this time. Poor old Crouchy doesn’t get a look in most weeks, but when Hughes faces Klopp and decides to channel his inner Pulis, the big fella gets the nod.
He was quality too. I love Peter Crouch me. Always have, always will. Seeing him on the field just gives me a little warm glow inside, he’s fucking boss and one of the most likeable players we’ve ever had. He gave Lovren and Klavan a fair few problems in the first half, but it’s difficult to criticise them too much for not being able to deal with a 6ft 7 fella in the air.
You’re not going to stop Crouch winning headers and holding the ball up, because he’s great at it. You have to deal with the knock downs and make sure you don’t allow people to run off him. That was where we came up a little short, as we looked a bit ragged and Wee Joe was completely running things in the opening 20 minutes.
No surprise there, he’s a quality player and he had a point to prove. He was always going to play well on his return, but he was never going to be able to maintain the pace he started the game at. He was like Everton in a derby, all fire and brimstone and running around like his pants were on fire, except he can actually play too.
Unlike most of his team-mates he didn’t give up even at 4-1, but his influence on the game waned considerably once we’d drawn level. Things might have been different if he’d taken the chance that he must have been dreaming would come his way ever since he was offloaded last summer. He did well to create the space for himself and it wasn’t the worst finish in the world, but it was a little too close to Mignolet who stuck out a right boot to make a great stop. A crucial stop too, given we trailed 1-0 at that point.
I’m not sure whether Mignolet should have done better with the goal, but he more than made up for it with the save from Allen. Others were more culpable for the goal than he was anyway. After we cleared the initial attack Mané needlessly lost possession to Eric Pieters and then compounded the error with a half arsed attempt to stop the cross.
Lovren also needs to do better, as he allowed Walters to get in front of him and send a powerful header towards the near post where Mignolet got a hand to it but couldn’t keep it out. The ball came at him so fast that it would have been a miraculous stop if he’d kept it out, but I don’t know if his positioning was the best as he seemed to be stood a little too central when the cross came in, but I dunno, I’m no goalkeeper coach so I might be talking bollocks there.
Letting that blueshite Tory twat Walters score against us is the cardinal sin and predictably he was giving it the big ‘un to the Main Stand. Can’t stand that bastard.
It was a rocky spell for us and if we’d gone 2-0 down then we might have been in big trouble, but a one goal deficit is nothing when you score as many goals as we do. There were elements of fortune about all four goals but we made our own luck through sheer force of will.
Lallana’s equaliser is a case in point. Look at the sprint he made to get into the box to give Mané an option. He was doing that all day. Hell, he’s been doing it all season. They keep stats on everything these days, and I’d bet that the amount of sprints he makes ahead of his strikers has probably already broken all records as he seems to do it with every attack we make, he’s relentless.
His initial attempt to flick the ball to Firmino hit a defender, but he reacted quickest and drilled the ball in from a tight angle. Seven goals now, he should end up with double that by the end of the season if he stays clear of injury. Not only is he our player of the season so far, if he keeps this up then he’ll be a strong contender for the PFA and Writers awards too.
We had the lead soon after when Firmino’s shot struck both posts before finally rolling over the line. It came after a nice move involving Lallana and Milner, who along with Henderson were the three best players on the pitch. With Sturridge coming off the bench to score and Clyne being Clyne, Gareth Southgate must have been creaming himself in the VIP seats. Let’s just hope he looks after our lads better than Hodgson did.
Going into the break at 2-1 up, I felt like it was panic over. I’m not gonna lie, I was worried at 1-0 down. We just have no margin for error at the moment because of this mad run Chelsea have been on. In a normal season we’d be top now with this points total, but it’s just our luck that any time we’re contending, we come up against a fucking juggernaut. Hopefully Chelsea come back down to earth soon, because I don’t actually think they’re as great as people are suggesting, but we can’t let them get any further ahead or even when they do wobble we might be too far back to take advantage.
The second half performance was very good as Stoke just weren’t in the game. Everyone in the ground thought Mané had scored the third but unfortunately for him he was beaten to it by Imbula. It was a nice build up, Hendo showed good composure to pick out Origi who delivered the perfect cross. He played well did Big Div. I don’t remember him having a sniff of a chance but his build up play was ace, especially those clever first time passes into space for Mané.
He was brought off with 20 minutes left as Klopp gave him and Lallana a rest ahead of the upcoming games. Having not had a single chance in the 70 minutes he was on the field, Origi must have been cursing his luck that within seconds Sturridge was being presented with a one v one with the keeper after a shocker of a backpass by Shawcross. Sturridge latched onto it, did a little stopover and shimmied his way past the keeper to claim his first league goal of the season.
He’s back at just the right time with these games we’ve got coming up. He’ll have to be used a bit sparingly, but having him coming off the bench is a great weapon for us to have.
Firmino also got himself a rest as Klopp gave Hughes the ultimate fuck you by sticking Moreno on up front. Personally I’d have put Karius up there but this was almost as good. Moreno is like a big kid, he’s just so enthusiastic isn’t he? He was so excited to get on that his first pass was a rocket that flew past Milner into touch. He settled down after that and did pretty well, almost getting himself a goal too.
A good day all in all. An easy enough win and Klopp was able to give three of his key players a bit of a rest in the closing stages. Those who played the full game didn’t have to over exert themselves too much in the last 20 minutes so you can’t ask for much more than this.
The atmosphere was subdued early on but the fans got into it in the second half, and the “Merry Christmas Everton song was boss”. The one glorifying Firmino’s drink driving wasn’t boss though, it was cringe worthy. Multi millionaire puts his own and other people’s lives at risk while driving when over the limit even though he’s got enough money to buy himself a whole fucking taxi firm. Yeah, dead funny that. “He drives when he wants”….. Jesus, when did we turn into fucking Hull?
But anyway, it’s City next and if we can win that one we’ll be in great shape going into the New Year. The main thing for me going into this festive period was that the six point gap didn’t get any bigger. Given the fixtures ourselves and Chelsea have, plus the extra rest days for them while our lads are slogging their guts out, if the gap stays at six once we get into the new year that’s a good result for us. If we somehow close that gap than all the better, especially as we play them at Anfield soon.
For months I’ve been looking forward to this City game because I feel as though they’re tailor made for us and we could tear them to pieces. Now that we’re just a few days from the actual game though I’m not feeling quite so cocky. They should be more worried about it than us though, so bring it on.
Team: Mignolet; Clyne, Lovren, Klavan, Milner; Henderson, Lallana (Can), Wijnaldum; Mané, Origi (Sturridge), Firmino (Moreno):
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