Stoke 0-3 Liverpool: 3 things we learned
Liverpool beat Stoke 3-0 at the Bet365 on Wednesday, Nov. 29. Here are three takeaways from the Premier League match.
Liverpool beat Stoke 3-0 at the Bet365 Stadium on Wednesday thanks to two goals from substitute Mohamed Salah. The Reds went ahead early through Sadio Mane, but looked like they might give up their lead until Salah’s introduction off the bench changed the game. Here are three takeaways from the match.
Klopp flashes squad depth
That Jurgen Klopp could make six changes to the side that drew against Chelsea on the weekend and still call upon Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino, Georginio Wijnaldum and Emre Can is testament to the depth of this squad, at least in midfield and attack. This is the first time all season Klopp has all his major players fit, and it comes at the perfect time, with the Reds in the middle of a run of 10 matches in little over a month.
As well as those more senior players, Klopp also brought in Dominic Solanke. The 20-year-old, making his first league start, provided a lovely assist for Mane’s opener, and showed some nice touches, despite missing his only good chance of the match, hitting his shot straight at Lee Grant after a nice one-two with Firmino. Still, his work off the ball should endear him to Klopp, and he’ll be useful over the holiday period.
Of course, the other consequence of the Reds’ depth is that they now have legitimate game-winners to come off the bench. Mohamed Salah, who has been their best player so far this season, put the result to bed with an emphatic volley shortly after coming on. Last year, Klopp was turning to the likes of Divock Origi and Ben Woodburn when his starters had to come off. Salah, who leads the Premier League with 12 goals, is quite the upgrade.
Stoke improve after formation change
Stoke looked well on their way to a thrashing after the first half hour. Lining up with the back three/five Mark Hughes has favored all season, the Potters barely managed to get out of their half during the opening exchanges. Peter Crouch held the ball up well enough, but was too isolated to do any real damage. The same went for Xherdan Shaqiri, who was overrun every time he got on the ball.
Hughes switched to a back four midway through the half, and his side immediately forced Liverpool onto the back foot. Mame Biram Diouf went up front with Crouch in a 4-4-2, with the excellent Kurt Zouma sliding to right-back, and Stoke had their best spell of the match. They should have been rewarded with a red card to Simon Mignolet when the Liverpool keeper brought down Diouf at the top of the box, but he escaped with a yellow.
Liverpool may be shakier at the back, especially when it comes to defending long balls, than many teams in the league, but putting Diouf next to Crouch allowed Stoke a reliable route up the pitch. It wasn’t always pretty, but neither was their first 30 minutes, and at least they posed an actual attacking threat playing four at the back.
The result got away from them in the final 15 minutes, but Hughes would do well to consider using a back four more often. When things are going well, Stoke can be a really dangerous team on the break, but too often they’re forced back so deep as to nullify any threat their attackers might otherwise possess. They have the talent to take the game to opponents. Now they need the courage.
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Liverpool need to learn to keep the ball
There are many explanations for Liverpool’s problems in defense, but one of the most striking is their inability to change their approach after taking the lead. Not for the first time this season, the Reds went ahead, dropped off and suddenly lost their ability to string together more than three passes in a row.
Liverpool’s counter-attack is excellent, but there’s a time and a place to push the pace in attack. Shortly after taking the lead isn’t always it. For all their midfield options, the Reds lack a player capable of keeping possession, setting the tempo and allowing them to take the sting out of a tight game. They’re too easily rattled when teams run at them.
This has something to do with the quality of their defenders, but they could mitigate that problem if they showed a greater game intelligence. Jordan Henderson has become a divisive figure on Anfield for his lack of poise on the ball, but Emre Can, who seems most at home charging forward with the ball at his feet, wasn’t much of an improvement.
Wijnaldum is the Liverpool player most adept at getting his foot on the ball and slowing the play, but he can’t keep possession by himself. Increasingly, the concern isn’t that Liverpool don’t know when they should slow down the tempo, but that they couldn’t slow down the tempo even if they wanted to.