Simon Lowe column: City certainly deserved their point at Anfield
IT'S rarely dull at Stoke, but this week was exceptionally entertaining.
A first win of the season against Swansea was followed by the now traditional point at Anfield yesterday.
Two clean sheets in a row – then there was a call-up to the England squad to celebrate and Stoke City in the news for all the right reasons once again.
But most important arguably, was the manner of Sunday's performance. Stoke had 52 per cent of the possession at Anfield. Now there's a statistic you never thought you'd see.
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But as we know, possession is not nine-tenths of the law in football. More important is what you do with it.
Stoke played well, although seemed to disbelieve quite how average Liverpool were.
City had two great chances both brought about by Liverpool mistakes caused by pressure that City placed on the home side. Begovic may have made a couple of good stops, but I never felt he wouldn't make them.
This was far from the backs-to-the-wall performance which won points in goalless draws at Liverpool in two earlier Premier League campaigns.
If anything it's a slight disappointment that Stoke didn't manage to take advantage of the home side's continuing dismal form.
I nearly missed the announcement of the England squad this week because I'd given up on the hope of either Peter Crouch or Ryan Shawcross being included by Roy Hodgson.
But even this England manager has had to admit that with countless England centre-halves injured, John Terry 'retired' and Michael Carrick as the only serious option if anything else goes wrong, our man Ryan was worth a call up.
Forgive my cynicism. I've now come to the conclusion that the last place I want any of my Stoke City players is near the kind of so-called men who populate the England team.
I'd far rather they stick around at Stoke, get some more training and 'shape' practice in and be looked after by the kind of club that was rightly lauded this week for being foresighted enough to help Vincent Pericard through his depression.
It's great to hear about the support our club gave to Pericard, although we couldn't cure him and bring him back to the kind of player that appeared for Juventus as a teenager.
But it's yet another example of how Stoke began to look after their own back in the early days of manager Tony Pulis's reign.
Comments
by MrDAP
Thursday, October 11 2012, 1:22PM
“Potterforlife: I wonder if he knows who John Barnes is?”
by potterforlife
Thursday, October 11 2012, 9:54AM
“What is the competition at hlaf time at the Brit called Mr Potter?
Found out yet?”
by PeterPotter
Tuesday, October 09 2012, 11:20PM
“I have to admit, that when we got into the Prem and 2 seasons into I thought Tony Pulis could do no wrong. But here we are, 7 games into our 5th season and bloody hell, he just cannot change. After spending millions upon millions and according to SKY Sports, millions more than any other team around us on our level, bringing in a plethora of different players, and he still can't beat a pathetic Reading team on the road and one of the worst Liverpool teams anybody has seen in many a year. We didn't even score against them. So, yes I am now coming out to say that it's Tony Pulis fault we are not getting better as he seems to take decent players and just brings out the mediocrity in them because not being able to score against a poor Liverpool side (or many other teams for that matter) even with 2 free shots given to us by Reina, is really hard to accept, especially after West bloody Brom put 3 past them !!”
by potterforlife
Tuesday, October 09 2012, 2:43PM
“Another attempt at justyfying yourself soccerfoot?
You are getting close to boiling point I see! Same bad language, same insults to those who object to your insults, same insults getting stronger, same tactics of pretending other posts support your view
How long before the explosion, how long before a third ban?
Why do you lie to everybody on this site soccerfoot?”
by PeterPotter
Tuesday, October 09 2012, 2:07PM
“PS
Stars Stripes, you are exactly right, it is our best squad in 35 years and best squad by far since entering the Prem. Just the same old results due to a totally unimaginative manager who can't seem to get the best out of the good squad he has !!”
by PeterPotter
Tuesday, October 09 2012, 2:05PM
“So Mr Lowe, are you saying we did not deserve our point we got in the first game we played against them in the Prem that was ALSO 0 - 0, I think we had just as many attempts on goal as Sunday as we did when we parked the bus.”
by PeterPotter
Monday, October 08 2012, 10:26PM
“bexhillpotter, finally some sense from someone other than me on here. You are exactly right. We have the best squad by far that we have had since getting promoted. Probably one of the best overall bar Everton and maybe Newcastle. We have spent more money than all the other teams on our level yet we can't seem to get the results and draw again 0-0 with what is a poor and in total disarray team like Liverpool. Pulis is too scared to lose to attack and while we have improved in midfield defending wise, he is using Charlie Adam up front (totally out of position) with Crouch instead of using his talent in midfield to get him the ball to score. Anybody ever wonder how Crouch would play as a midfielder, well we found out yesterday!”
by Stars-stripes
Monday, October 08 2012, 9:02PM
“Best stoke side for 35 years thank you Peter Coates thank you Tony Pulis”
by potterforlife
Monday, October 08 2012, 5:06PM
“If you cannot bring a bit of reality in too comments and stop ignoring who we have been playing and where we have played them your complaints will hold no water.
Everybody with a modicum of common sense reading this will have that thought 'who and where' and realise that actually we have made a pretty good start!
Arsenal, Man City, Chelsea, Liverpool and we have only lost once, having taken 5 points from the other three games when only one was at home. This with a team who on their current showing, once we get to the games against the other 13 teams in the Prem (we have only played one with the new squad, which we won easily) look as though we can get that top half finish we all want to see.
I am looking forward to M Utd away and hoping we get a point there and I will take a 0-0 now thanks and will still by ho**** by the end of the day! and if we lose, well no disgrace their either!
Bring on the rest of the season, lets see how well we are doing after we have played an equal number of games against the rest of the Prem as well as the top six AND as many games at home as well as away, then we can judge!
Seems some, who were saying we would have no points at this stage, are disapointed they really have nothing to complain about! but will still find something if they try hard enough to criticise the club and TP.
Latthink, just have to say nice one!”
by bexhillpotter
Monday, October 08 2012, 4:27PM
“The team we now have does not seem to know how good they could be, and should have taken the 'pool game by the scruff of the neck and got stuck into them in their own penalty area. We could and should have won this game, but seem to lack confidence to attack in force! Time for a trick cyclist I think!”