Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
The fixture list always manages to throw up some quirks and it comes with some coincidence that Stoke play host to Liverpool this afternoon. It’s fair to say these two sides are not on the best of terms as of late after Liverpool were fined £100k and banned from signing academy players after being found guilty of approaching a 12 year old from Stoke’s academy.
Stoke owner Peter Coates has added fuel to the fire as he is now planning to demand compensation from the Merseyside club in relation to the above and that should certainly make for an interesting sub plot when the two sides go head to head in a few hours.
That relates to matter off the pitch but for Stoke boss Mark Hughes he will now begin to worry about matters on it. It’s now 3 straight defeats and their season is in danger of fizzling out into a midtable malaise between now and the final few games of the campaign.
With the last two seasons ending in 9th place finishes for the club, the realistic expectation would be that they would at least match that this time around. Failure to not achieve may well put pressure on Mark Hughes with some quarters feeling that he has taken the club as far as he can.
After a late home defeat to Chelsea three weeks ago it has been back to back defeats and without a goal to show for their efforts. They were outclassed by champions Leicester last Saturday they were then the next in an ever growing list of clubs that have beaten by Burnley at Turf Moor.
The aim today will be to once again turn The Bet365 Stadium into a fortress and make life difficult for Liverpool who themselves will be looking to bounce back from midweek disappointment when they dropped two very important points at home to Bournemouth.
It was a sloppy performance from Jurgen Klopp’s men as defensive lapses let Bournemouth in not once but twice to give them a share of the points and also continue their impressive unbeaten run which now stands at five league matches.
For Liverpool though it was an opportunity missed to leave Champions League qualification in their own hands, they may well be third but they have played more matches then the trio of clubs below them. Had they won though on Wednesday they would have opened up an 8 point gap over both Arsenal and Manchester United even though they had played two matches more.
That said they still find themselves 6 points in the same situation but you do have to wonder just how costly that late Josh King equaliser will be come the end of the season. After the magic of the Merseyside derby win last Saturday they were bought back down to earth on Wednesday night.
Undoubtedly disappointing for Jurgen Klopp but it’s not a result they can dwell on for too long as a trip to Stoke is never an easy one and it will be a task made more difficult by the fact that they are once again without Adam Lallana and Sadio Mane.
Although Lallana will be back in a few weeks the news regarding Mane is not so good, with the Senegalese international set to be absent for the rest of the campaign. It’s certainly a hammer blow for Klopp especially when you look back to how they played without Mane at the start of the year.
The may have that 6 point gap but failure to win games like this will see that gap quickly eroded and their hopes of Champions League football for next season diminish. Both Arsenal and Manchester United who play later in the week will be hoping for a slip up today.
And I have a feeling their hopes may well be answered. Stoke will need to turn in a performance today and will look to take advantage of a Liverpool side without two of it’s key players add the Bet365 equation into the mix and I can see this one being a draw.
