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Liverpool adapted to Stoke by changing their shape, then Stoke counter-adapted. The result was they both looked out of sorts

Stoke City present a unique challenge within the Premier League. They have the lowest average possession, attempt the fewest shots per game and have scored the fewest goals in open play, but win more aerial duels than any other side. Even if you have not seen them play, you would be able to deduce their style merely from assessing the numbers.

Since Tony Pulis’s side were promoted in 2008, Liverpool have struggled against them, winning just two of the eight league matches between the sides. In 2008-09 under Rafael Benítez, for example, Liverpool recorded two 0-0 draws. Arsenal were the only other side in the league not to be defeated by Benítez’s side that season – and, although it is a simplistic point, had Liverpool won those two games against Stoke 1-0 rather than drawn 0-0, they would have won the league on goal difference from Manchester United.

Shortly after taking over a year ago, Kenny Dalglish decided to play a 3-4-2-1 at home against Stoke. The main reason was to get more height in the side – it worked well, as Liverpool won the majority of aerial battles, 57%. They also managed to dominate possession to such an extent that Stoke did not force a single corner, and with Rory Delap on the bench they had less threat from throw-ins too. Stoke offered little in open play, and Liverpool won 2-0.

Inspired by that victory, Dalglish did the same this weekend. Although in his post-match interview he said the shape was partly due to the personnel available, it was clearly an attempt to replicate the success of last year – it is the first time this season Liverpool have played a back three, and they did have the options to go 4-3-3 or 4-4-2, the two regular systems.

Upon seeing Liverpool’s team sheet, Pulis changed his own formation. “When we got the Liverpool team, it seemed as though they were going to play with three centre-halves and push the wing-backs on,” he said. “So we made a couple of adjustments to what we wanted to do.

“We had thought they would play either 4-3-3 or 4-4-2, so when they came with three centre-halves, it was important that we changed it. We had certain areas of the pitch we wanted to make sure we were strong in.” Liverpool had adapted to Stoke by changing their shape, then Stoke had counter-adapted. The result was that neither side were playing their first-choice system, and both looked disjointed throughout the match.

With their 3-4-2-1, Liverpool again dominated possession, and restricted Stoke to one corner. Again, Delap was on the bench, so throw-ins were not a problem until his late substitute appearance, and height in defensive situations was not a huge issue. Unlike last year, though, Liverpool did not dominate in the air – they won only 36% of aerial challenges.

Dalglish clearly did not want to play into Stoke’s hands by playing Andy Carroll, a centre-forward dependent upon his aerial threat. Carroll has not started home or away in the league against Stoke this season (although he did start in the Carling Cup) and Dirk Kuyt was instead chosen as the lone forward, as in the 2-0 win a year ago.

Kuyt has rarely been prolific in a Liverpool shirt, but his current goalscoring form is particularly bad – he has not scored all season, a fact that seems to have slipped under the radar because of the focus on Carroll. Regardless, Kuyt is capable of doing a good job upfront by holding the ball up, dropping deep and moving to the flanks, but he needs midfield runners to make this a worthwhile approach. Last year he had Steven Gerrard and Raul Meireles behind him in the 3-4-2-1 – the latter opened the scoring with a rebound from the former’s shot. Both were powerful, energetic figures who enjoyed playing in the centre of the pitch and driving at the opposition defence.

With Meireles no longer at the club and Gerrard playing deeper, Liverpool had Stewart Downing and Jordan Henderson behind Kuyt on Saturday. They offered little support, with a situation after 11 minutes summing up their plight – Kuyt found himself on the ball near the byline, twice looked up for assistance, only to find that there was no one else inside the box.

Downing and Henderson moved wider and played sideways balls rather than trying the killer pass themselves. Stoke defended very narrow, and Liverpool were too keen to take the invitation to cross. They attempted 42 crosses, a staggering number, but only five found a team-mate in the box. Stoke, of course, were more than happy for Liverpool to attempt balls from the flanks, and Liverpool putting such effort into this form of attack rather negated the point of leaving out Carroll.

Despite 69% possession, 205 passes in the attacking third, 42 crosses and 15 attempts, Liverpool only had one shot on target, the fewest they have managed since Benítez’s final home game in charge of Liverpool, a 2-0 defeat to Chelsea in May 2010. Liverpool had plenty of set pieces, but the deliveries were poor – and besides, Stoke would have been delighted with the game becoming a succession of dead-ball situations.

Dalglish’s “trick” of a back three only worked once, and Pulis was wise to the situation this time around. The main effect of the tactical switch was that Liverpool simply fielded one fewer attacking player than usual, which did not prove helpful considering their struggle for goals this season.

Miquel left high and dry

In two consecutive games, Arsenal’s lack of a fit, established full-back has been a key reason for them turning a 1-0 lead into a defeat away from home. Against Fulham, Arsène Wenger complained that after Kerim Frei was brought on down the left, the game became “all look for the second yellow card for Johan Djourou”, who was playing at right-back. Frei eventually got his fellow Swiss player sent off with Arsenal 1-0 up, and Fulham ended up winning 2-1.

On Sunday, young Spaniard Ignasi Miquel – a centre-back rather than a left-back – was constantly caught too high up the pitch when asked to deputise on the flank. Swansea’s second and third goals, from Nathan Dyer and Danny Graham, both came from space in that zone. Wenger is reluctant to bring in another full-back with Bacary Sagna, Carl Jenkinson, André Santos and Kieran Gibbs due back soon – but at the moment the weakness in that zone is seriously affecting Arsenal, and Manchester United will surely concentrate on that area of the pitch at the weekend.

Ba’s absence could be Ben Arfa’s gain

In Demba Ba’s absence, Leon Best scored a fine goal for Newcastle in the 1-0 win over Queens Park Rangers, but it was the only attempt on target Newcastle managed in the match – before Sunday, they averaged 4.1 shots on target per game.

Alan Pardew will be thinking about the style of goal Best scored, and the type of chance he likes. Whereas many of Ba’s goals came from crosses or long balls and were one-touch finishes, Best is a trickier player that likes balls played into feet inside the penalty box. Ba’s style meant Newcastle played a more basic, direct system in recent weeks, with Hatem Ben Arfa omitted at the expense of more focus on attacking down the flanks – but Best starting means the Frenchman might deserve another chance in the starting XI to slide passes into the Irish international.

Michael Cox is the editor of tactics website zonalmarking.net. Read his new weekly column at guardian.co.uk

Football tacticsLiverpoolStoke CityPremier League 2011-12Premier LeagueMichael Cox
guardian.co.uk

Dirk Kuyt’s on the wane while Danny Guthrie’s star is rising. Old habits die hard for Spurs, and for James McClean…

Every dog has his day – and Kuyt may have had his

Liverpool fans had to put up with another poor performance from a one-paced forward bereft of confidence and heavy of touch at Anfield on Saturday. But this was before Andy Carroll had even stumbled on to the pitch in the 0-0 draw with Stoke. Dirk Kuyt’s display as a lone striker was not pretty. Throughout his six years at Liverpool there has always been a nagging acceptance of his limitations. But his lack of pace, awkward movement and tendency to scuff shots were often obliterated by his lung-busting desire to chase down every lost cause, allied with a big-match mentality.

He was the player who popped up time after time to score important goals in huge games. Porto, Marseille, Inter, Chelsea, Arsenal in the Champions League – and Everton in the league. He headed Liverpool back into contention against Milan in the 2007 Champions League final, too. His hat-trick against Manchester United only last March kept fans onside when his ageing legs were showing signs of creaking. He is 32 this summer and he has hardly had a break in 14 years. He joined Liverpool on the back of playing 179 consecutive matches in Holland. In the past six seasons at Liverpool he has been involved in a similarly vast amount of games. He has got more miles on the clock than Charlie Boorman’s motorbike.

He is the club’s hard-working sheepdog; loyal, obedient and always willing to listen. But every dog has his day. And Kuyt looks as if he has had his. It was sad to watch the tired old thing making a mess in his Anfield home on Saturday – such as the header he missed from six yards – when the younger Kuyt was at least lethal from that range, if not further away. He was not helped by a confusing formation and a disjointed midfield but, with no league goals to his name this season in a team crying out for them, it may be time to find this faithful old dog a new home in May. GR

Guthrie growing in stature

With Cheik Tioté away at the Africa Cup of Nations, Newcastle United fans were right to be concerned that January and February could be bleak months for the club. The Ivory Coast international has been an irrepressible force – every bit as important as Demba Ba. His phenomenal work-rate and ability to keep possession in tight spaces have been key to Newcastle maintaining their position in the upper reaches of the Premier League. His domination of Manchester United’s midfield in the recent 3-0 win was as strong a central midfield performance as by any player this season.

So it was a tough ask for Danny Guthrie to replace him. Injury and inconsistency have curtailed Guthrie’s progress at Newcastle after he was sold by Liverpool for a bargain £1.5m in 2008 but, with Tioté’s absence, Guthrie again has the chance to shine in midfield. He was the outstanding performer in the 1-0 win over QPR. He kept possession, was physical when he had to be and created the scoring chance for Leon Best by not giving up on Shola Ameobi’s loose knockdown and stretching every sinew to play the final pass.

He was assured even after Yohan Cabaye was taken off injured and he had to hold the fort while Hatem Ben Arfa and Jonás Gutiérrez went walkabout. At 24 he perhaps expected to have made a bigger impact in the game than he has to date. Scott Parker probably thought something similar after he left Charlton and got lost in the wilderness of Chelsea’s expensively assembled substitutes’ bench. Guthrie is reminiscent of Parker at times – and while he may never reach those heights, the Spurs midfielder is not a bad player to try to emulate. GR

Bolton cashed in on Cahill but may pay a bigger price

In a season of flux it is good that some things never change: Sir Alex Ferguson moaning about referees; Phil Dowd getting important decisions wrong; and Zat Knight being culpable. At 6ft 6in and with more than 250 games of Premier League experience Knight should be an imposing, commanding defender but, as his performance against Manchester United testified, he tends to be the opposite.

He was lucky to stay on the pitch for the full 90 minutes – he should have been sent off after giving away a penalty for a challenge on Danny Welbeck, who was through on goal – and even though he did stay on, he attempted only two tackles, both of which failed. His partner in the heart of the Bolton defence, David Wheater, made eight and failed with only two. Bolton have conceded more goals than any team this season and continuing to play Knight, in this form, is not going to solve that problem.

With these problems in mind, why have Bolton agreed to sell their best defender to Chelsea? Even though Gary Cahill is not at his peak this season, he is clearly better than Knight and perhaps could have formed a decent partnership with Wheater, who has been on a winning side in the league more times than Knight this season despite playing only half as many games. The club would argue that selling Cahill now means they get a transfer fee that would not be available in the summer but surely retaining Cahill would have given Bolton a better chance of avoiding relegation and the financial loss that would entail, which would amount to a lot more than £7m. Cahill was under contract at Bolton and they did not have to let him go. Come May they may pay for their short-termism. IMC

A reality check for Spurs but the Cockerel can still crow

After all the talk this week about Tottenham Hotspur’s chances of winning the Premier League for the first time – “If we keep playing like this we will be one of the favourites,” said Rafael van der Vaart; “Spurs are genuine title contenders,” said the Manchester City assistant manager, David Platt – Harry Redknapp’s side were expected to dispose of a struggling Wolves with ease and aplomb. Thanks to some hard work and good organisation on Wolves’ part – as well as an awful decision by an assistant referee to rule an Emmanuel Adebayor goal offside – they failed to do so.

Afterwards headline writers were not able to keep their jerking knees under control and Spurs were ruled out of the title race. But with the London club only two points behind Manchester United and City that is not the case and a hard-fought draw may have been just what Spurs needed. First of all, it will calm some of that title talk around White Hart Lane, relieving the players of some pressure. It also means any complacency or conceit that might have crept into the squad after the win over Everton, which drew them temporarily level with Manchester United, has been dissipated. Clearly Spurs can still do it and this cooling of expectations will only help. IMC

James McClean – he’d Die Hard to hear his name said properly

Be. Me. See. Flee. Sheep. What do all these words have in common? Go on, you have 10 seconds to figure it out. Start the clock, now. Tick-tock; tick-tock; tick-tock; tick-tock; tick-tock. Brrrrrr. There goes the buzzer, time’s up. Well, did you get the answer? Yes, that’s right, they all have a long e sound in them (also known as /i:/ in the phonetic alphabet). That same sound is one of the most common vowel sounds in the English language and it appears in thousands of words, not least the adjective clean. Now words such as be, me, clean and see are used by commentators all the time and are always pronounced correctly. So why then are the BBC this weekend and ITV last weekend insisting on pronouncing James McClean’s surname as if he is the hero of a Die Hard movie? It is C-l-e-a-n, not C-l-a-n-e. Thank you for taking the time to read this and we hope you will have rectified the situation by next week. Yours sincerely. IMC

Premier League 2011-12LiverpoolNewcastle UnitedBolton WanderersTottenham HotspurPremier LeagueGregg RoughleyIan McCourt
guardian.co.uk

• Tony Pulis reshuffle frustrates Liverpool forwards
• ‘We need to start winning at Anfield,’ says Carragher

Kenny Dalglish bemoaned Liverpool’s inability to part a resolute Stoke City defence and then scurried for the exit only to find himself unable to open the door of the press room. Blocked on all fronts, there was also no escaping the unpalatable truth that Liverpool’s latest frustration on the home front was entirely self-inflicted.

Stoke City became the seventh visiting team to leave Anfield with a point this season and no inspired goalkeeping or catalogue of missed chances excused Liverpool on this occasion. For the first time since his well-documented suspension began Luis Suárez was sorely missed, and his absence was savoured by a rival