Steven Gerrard celebrated his 100th Liverpool goal in the second minute of the match, but the ref had other ideas, disallowing the goal on a day of frustration at Anfield.
Stoke City fans grabbed their 4th point of the season, against all the odds, as the reds squandered another 2 points at home.
Too often in recent years the reds have been guilty of dropping points at home and here we are again, new season, same problem.
Benitez selected a strong eleven for the game, bringing back Alonso and Riera who were rested in mid-week. And within 2 minutes Liverpool had put the ball in the net. Direct from the free kick Stevie G fired home, but the referee adjudged Dirk Kuyt to be offside.
Robbie Keane then had a fantastic chance to score but fired straight at the keeper from 10 yards out.
Gerrard had shots, Alonso had shots, Keane had chances as did Torres but out of the 30 opportunities crafted by the reds they failed to make that net ripple.
Liverpool played some decent football in both halves but there was no cutting edge, the reds lacked that clinical precision that at times last year helped Torres to over 30 goals in all competitons.
The reds tide washed over Stoke for 93 minutes, but at the end they were still there to celebrate their rear-guard action.
A look at the bench didn’t bring much hope – only two out of the seven were attacking players and no real striker at all. N’Gog and El Zhar both would have been useful additions, but today was an example where the lack of a third striker at Anfield (now that Kuyt has become a right winger) was apparent.
Let’s hope that next time we play Average FC at Anfield, the reds learn how to unlock the safe, or Benitez gives himself some attacking options on the bench.
A day of frustration at Anfield. Crewe up next. Surely……
Match Stats
Liverpool had 76% possession.
Liverpool had 30 shots (6 on target) – Stoke had 2 shots (0 on target).
Liverpool had 19 corners to Stoke’s 3.
Teams
Liverpool: Reina, Arbeloa, Carragher, Skrtel, Dossena, Kuyt, Gerrard, Alonso, Riera (Babel 64), Keane (Benayoun 71), Torres. Subs: Cavalieri, Agger, Mascherano, Leiva Lucas, Degen.
Stoke: Sorensen, Griffin, Abdoulaye Faye, Sonko, Higginbotham, Lawrence, Olofinjana, Diao, Delap, Kitson, Sidibe. Subs: Simonsen, Cort, Whelan, Cresswell, Fuller, Tonge, Wilkinson.
Referee: Andre Marriner (W Midlands)
Updated Player Stats
http://www.anfield-online.co.uk/stats/2009/lfc-stats.html
I watched in dismay how awfull Liverpool can be, even though we had a goal disallowed and with all the shots we had it should not have made a difference and we cannot look back and say had the goal been allowed we would have won, No it was disgusting to watch, we had all the ball but could not do anything with it. Weel done to Stoke! Wake up Liverpool. If we want to be in contention for the league we will have to take our chances.
As a Stokie, tell you what I think happened, the ref obviously thought it was offside, but as Benitez said he wasn’t best placed to judge. Where his “Massive mistake” was he thought you would get a net full anyway so didn’t give you the benefit, had it been in the second half after everyone saw how resilient we were, I’m sure it would have been different.
You are right about some of our fans, some of us like yourselves have moved on and we hope that the rest of our fans will catch up someday, but we all love our team and we get behind them as you heard (where were you) and we would love to be where you are. So best of luck with your championship’s and look forward to seeing you at the Brit bring your voices cos it rock’s if you think we were bad with just 3000 wait till you hear us at full strength. We will try to help you sort Chelsea next week and escape from the drop zone too. All the best really enjoyed being in Liverpool, oh yes got to come to see your neighbours yet.
I too was at the game yesterday and was lucky enough to be seated right behind Stevie when he took the free kick. By no stretch of the imagination could that have been offside; how the ref/linesman saw otherwise is beyond belief. Kyut arrived after the ball went into the net and didn’t get a touch. We were robbed of a clear goal and Stevie’s 100th for the club. Stoke were diabolical, “the worst team to visit us in the league for 15 years” yelled one supporter. They refused to play football, fouled Jamie Caragher and their fans’ abuse was unnecessary and most repugnant. Frustration would be putting it lightly.
the ref dropped a bollock but we had 88mins to put it right Robbie will come good I was disappointed with alonso some of his shots were wild to say the least Torres isnt back to form he should be right for the derby I am going to have an e/w bet on robbie first goal scorer have faith it will come
Went to the game and was jumping around after Stevie scored only to spend the next 10 minutes scratching my head with the other few thousand in the Kop. I haven’t watched MOTD so I haven’t seen the replays. Was it really an offside decision or has the ref dropped a clanger?
Very disapointed at the result but we can script what happens year after year. We have an excellent result against a top side and the next week when we can gain an advantage over other teams we fail to do so. Such frustration!!
It was like a defeat for me.! with Stoke packed in their own penalty box for the whole game .
I have vowed to crack open a bottle of bubbly when they go down, but wouldnt waste my cash on anything decent for them.
Robbie £20 million.? Robbery more like!