Liverpool suffered their fifth Barclays Premier League defeat of the season as they went down 2-0 at Stoke City on Saturday evening.The Reds struggled to cope with the physical approach of the home side throughout and were undone by second-half goals from Ricardo Fuller and Kenwyne Jones.
With the points lost, Roy Hodgson's side's night was compounded when Lucas Leiva was sent-off for a second bookable offence deep into injury-time.
It means the Reds drop to 11th in the table, six points adrift of Manchester City who occupy the fourth and final Champions League place.
Significantly, the pre-match talking points had centred upon how Liverpool would combat the threat posed by the set piece delivery of Delap et al. Few sides in the Barclays Premier League can boast an aerial presence as dangerous as Stoke and it was no surprise to see Hodgson respond by bringing in Standard Chartered LFC Player of the Month for October, Sotirios Kyrgiakos in place of Martin Kelly.
The big Greek has been in imperious form so far this season and he was forced into action within 60 seconds, blocking Ryan Shawcross's well-struck shot from the edge of the Reds' penalty area. [Read more…]
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