God. If you think Mo should have walked, heck knows what you made of Stoke's overly aggressive assaults? (AGAIN!) They could and should have been down to 8/9 men. Salah was completely out of the game for a 20-minute spell trying to run off injury form one of them. But thankfully, for them, they had the absolute, incompetent ******* that is A. Mariner Esq.reffing the game. Aside from letting Stoke's continued assaults go all game, two of the most blatant penalty's you'll ever see not only turned down. But he was laughing at them as he did. Mo getting wrestled the ground was bad enough. But the handball ..... Man alive, Maradona would have been proud of that. Mariner and the main stand lino were an absolute joke. I hate VAR with a passion. But the amount of times we've been done by officials this year is no longer funny. And blatantly done at that. Just reading Tottenham have more Anfield penalty's this year than L'pool. That's mad by itself. And neither of those should have stood! Something SERIOUSLY needs doing with the standard of officiating. It's getting SO costly for clubs in today's mega millions game it's untrue.
As for the actual game, not too much to say on that. Preverbal European hangover and the Reds just never got going. Dogs dinner of a match. And when they did create, Mo had a complete off day along with a good few other big chances wasted. Trent one of the most glaring.
Don't think the switch in formation to what looked a midfield diamond helped. Certainly down the right which was non-existent. Trent didn't seem to know where he was playing. Gomez had an absolute shocker. Although learning after he turned his ankle early goes some way to explaining that. Bobby worked his behind off in behind Mo and the continued, abject Ings. But he looked uncomfortably out of place as a 10. It just unsettled our whole rhythm. Lot of work to do there Klopp mate the training ground of yers gonna' try that switch again.
Thought Klaven was MOTM. He was composed and in control all through. Closely followed by Gini and Milner. But it's REAL slim pickings. Gomez was woeful as noted. Put that in part down to the ankle as it's the few exceptions to the norm from him this season. Moreno's Moreno. No question he'd improved massively early season. Which was a credit to him. Equally no question he's still a brain-dead idiot who never learns and needs to go. Along with Ings who yet again was an absolute non-entity for the majority of his time on the pitch. Played up-front in a partnership with Mo. Bar an excellent strike for the disallowed goal, you wouldn't have known he was on the pitch if you didn't know. Great guy. Boss attitude. No harder worker at the club. But just nowhere near good enough for this side and where we're headed. A real glaring example of players being good enough to get you to one level. But when you improve as a team and club to take that next step up the next, VERY top level to be consistently challenging on all fronts late in seasons, player's like that just can't cut it and need to be replaced by better quality. As has shown the last two weekends in squad depth with the injuries. Yeah, we've lost three key midfielders at a key time which is rotten luck. Along with obviously losing a £140 plus million one January. But it just attests to there needing to be 5/6 top quality additions to the squad in the summer, aside from Keita, to cover that and not have a drop off like there have been the last two woeful League outings against West Brom and Stoke. But on the flip side of that is the absolutely ridiculous European campaign rolling to what would be an absolutely magnificent 6th European Cup which will cement those next, top bracket of players to take what we're building here to the next level.
Save for it being a handy away, I won't be sorry to see the back of Stoke City and the continued thuggery from their collection of yard dogs in any way, shape or form from this league.
As for the Reds, ironically, as poor as they were, that was a great, vital point in putting CL football for next season completely in our own hands. Something we've not had for nigh on a decade. Successive seasons of CL football. That's another massive step forward and another massive season of improvement for Kloppo's continually developing Reds. We've three options now. Get something from Chelsea next week. Or if we lose that, go beat a safe Brighton side at home the last game. Or just go do what everything has building to all season long. Bring home arl' 'Big Ears' for a 6th time in Kiev the end of the month!
Up the 'F Stoke. Rome and our destiny is what it's ALL about' Reds!
