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| It feels as though Suarez is left to do everything at times... Image: football365.com |
Liverpool fielded an unchanged side from their last outing and it was Luis Suarez who immediately got things underway. The Uruguayan found an early run into the box and Ryan Shawcross felt he was unable to deal with him deciding instead to tug on his shirt from outside the box and all the way into it. It was a clear penalty.
Steven Gerrard stepped up to take the penalty and there was no doubt where this spot kick was going. His effort was placed perfectly into the bottom left corner of goal.
At this stage I was very pleased, I'd mentioned an early goal would help and after scoring so early surely we could capitalise on this and only improve? Who was I kidding? I should have known not to hold out so much hope with us lot at the moment. 3 minutes later, Stoke found an equaliser.
The goal from Jonathan Walters sent the home fans crazy whilst the Liverpool's fans stood with mouths agape. It was a good goal to be fair to Stoke but they surely shouldn't have been able to find a return so quickly. Once this goal went in I already felt as though the Reds had lost their chance, it seemed like a real task now to try and get all three points.
Things were made even worse when 6 minutes later Kenwyne Jones scored a header for the home side. It was a bit of a mix up in the box for Liverpool and Glen Johnson nearly turned the ball in himself but Stoke didn't care when or how, all they knew was they'd found a lead and they were really pressing the Liverpool side.
Half time was reached with no further damage and Brendan Rodgers decided to bring on Raheem Sterling for the second half replacing Suso.
Barely a chance for the Reds to get back into the swing of things and Stoke scored, again. Jonathan Walters found his second of the night shooting in to the left corner from inside the box. I was pretty dumbstruck by now, I didn't feel as though there was a way back for a win but I was still considering the possibility of a draw, not now though.
Stoke desereved to win, Liverpool had a few good chances but failed to make them count and despite the introduction of Henderson and Joe Cole the Reds just couldn't find a route back. Suarez as always had to put in an enormous effort but sometimes that's detrimental to the side. The amount of times Suarez has to leave the danger area in order to help his side get an attack going means that he's not in the box and neither is anyone else. I don't understand how people feel we're going to pick up a run of form when there is literally never anyone in the box, frustrates the hell out of me.
Next up for Liverpool is QPR with their new manager Harry Redknapp.