Stoke 1-0 Liverpool FC [TACTICAL ANALYSIS]

Liverpool FC missed Steven Gerrard and Martin Kelly, as they went down 1-0 to Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium yesterday. It was a game that proved to be as physical as expected, and Stoke City parking the bus managed to earn them all 3 points in the end.

A Look at the Stats

A look at the stats tells us a few things. First of all, that we kept the ball for a LOT of time. 73% of the possession in ANY game is rather impressive. But as the stats suggest, we were poor when it came to converting chances into goals. We had 16 chances in total to level it, whilst Stoke had only 1 shot on goal: that being the penalty.

A few conclusions coming out of this, that our defending is impressive when it comes to keeping the ball away from our goal, but it seems that once opponents get into that box of us, the Liverpool defenders always seem to be erratic. Carragher has now made two relatively important mistakes in two, both resulting in goals. Last week against Bolton, his weak tackle resulted in the ball falling for Klasnic and him scoring a consolation.

Charlie Adam’s Passing

And this is where we delve deeper into the analysis and the more debatable performances in the game. According to Liverpool FC netizens, Charlie Adam had a relatively poor performance. Perhaps his fluffed attempt at recreating Xabi Alonso’s half way line goal was a little ambitious, but he has come under a bit of fire because of his ‘over-ambitious’ passing throughout the course of this game. So let’s look at the stats, shall we?

Basically, last week against Bolton, he played the full 90 minutes there as well, he made 31 successful passes out of 45 attempts. Basically, he got around 68% of his passes to where he pretty much wanted them to go. This week, he made 53 out of 77, which gives an almost identical percentage of that he had last week.

So now I ask, why are people complaining about his performance? He did pretty well yesterday. His corners seemed to catch Begovic (and the Stoke defence) out constantly, and his distribution of the ball was decent enough.

Bellamy vs Kuyt

Craig Bellamy looked impressive out there following coming off the bench as a substitute, and I simply think that Liverpool would have done better should Bellamy have started the game instead of Dirk Kuyt. Kuyt, although hardworking as ever, struggles to fit into this ‘pass and move’ tactic simply because of his lack of pace.

Realistically, I barely saw Kuyt provide Liverpool with a) any width from the wings or b) creation of chances. Craig Bellamy immediately got into the rhythm of the game and proved himself to be very useful on that left wing that he swapped with Stewart Downing. He even provided a great cross for Downing, only for it to be straight at the keeper.

So here’s another chalkboard, of the passes made by Kuyt and Bellamy in a similar time frame:

Liverpool Had Themselves to Blame

But I guess the simply explanation as to why Liverpool FC lost would be because they simply didn’t take their chances. Jordan Henderson had 2 really good chances following an exquisite Enrique pass and he didn’t tuck that away, along with that Suarez had a glorious oppourtunity in stoppage time to seal the draw for Liverpool and he didn’t slot that one home.