Liverpool Player Ratings Against Stoke City – Reds Claim 4th Spot

In one of the most entertaining games of this Premier League campaign, Liverpool edged out Stoke City by a 5-3 margin in an action packed, end to end thriller, smash and grab encounter. Here is Soccersouls’ very own player ratings for Liverpool from the vociferous Britannia Stadium.

Simon Mingolet: The Belgian could have done very little to save both of Stoke’s goals. While Crouch’s header was an impeccable finish, Charlie Adam’s ferocious strike was simply unstoppable. Mingolet’s distribution too looked weary and fumbled quite a few times to collect balls from the flank. However he did save Walters’ goal bound effort late on but was equally to blame for the Irish International’s late goal and Stoke’s third.

Rating: 2/5

Glen Johnson: One of the games which the English international wouldn’t want to look back but it is quite an alarm that he needs to improve. Johnson did barge forward at times but he was nowhere to be seen tracking back and helping his defence. With no competition for places, he has taken his almost taken his place for granted.

Rating: 2.5/5

Martin Skrtel: Unbelievable the way he defends, should the referee had seen, he would have pointed to the penalty spot as the Slovakian International blatantly brought down Ryan Shawcross, pulling his shirt and onto the ground.

Rating: 2/5

Kolo Toure: Didn’t have a great game and as constantly bullied by Peter Crouch’s imposing presence and movement off the ball. The Ivorian was equally caught napping time and again thanks to his slowness and poor reading of the game.

Rating: 2/5

Aly Cissokho: Was very lucky to get Liverpool’s opening goal as his corner bound effort took a huge deflection off Shawcross on its way in. Didn’t do anything worth mentioning in the course of the ninety minutes in a chilly, rain drenched Britannia.

Rating: 2.5/5

Lucas Leiva: Perhaps he had a fair game in some time but misplaced passes and drifting out of positions shows exactly why Liverpool aim to bring a central defensive midfield reinforcement in the January Transfer Window.

Rating: 2.5/5

Jordan Henderson: The England International wasn’t assured in position in the middle of the park, neither he found his passing range.

Rating: 2/5

Steven Gerrard: Back on his return, Gerrard looked way off colour but did score from the spot in the second half after what looked like a blatant Sterling dive following  minimal or rather hardly any contact from Wilson.

Rating: 3/5

Phillipe Coutinho: Not a great game given the Brazilian’s standards, but displayed great feet and vibrant energy whenever required.

Rating: 3/5

Raheem Sterling: Was quite effective and demonstrated great energy and lively bursts. However he did blatantly dive to win Liverpool a penalty from Gerrard scored to restore the Merseysiders’ lead early into the second half.

Rating: 2.5/5

Luis Suarez: Well he simply can’t stop scoring. The Uruguayan took advantage of some school boyish defending from Stoke to double Liverpool’s lead in the first half and then produced an empathic finish rounding past the goalkeeper from Sturridge’s quick reverse layoff.

Rating: 4/5

Subs:

Daniel Sturridge: Back in the side and scored on his return from injury and already his partnership with Suarez looking ominous in the coming weeks.

Rating: 2.5/5