February 2, 2011 - Liverpool 2 : Stoke City 0 - Who needs Torres? 101% team commitment is back as Suarez made delightful bow!

LFC Player of the Game:

Everyone deserved for their hard work (it has been a long time since witnessing LFC players so commited and diligent!!! may be they all want to prove a point to the selfish Torres) but King Kenny deserved 10/10 for his genuis change of tactics to 3-4-2-1 to lessen the effectiveness of Stoke's long-ball tactics.

Summary:

Suarez took 20 minutes to become new Kops' favorite for his delightful touch (including quick backheal-pass and one-two), hard-work, unselfish play, confidence and most importantly, big smile on his face. What's more impressive than a quick debut goal infront of the Anfield faithful even without any practise with the team? Now, we can see BIG SMILE back in every LFC players' and Kops' face. The King has made the weakening defence solid again. Agger is playing like a confident sweeper. Kelly has made the once-troubled right back spot his own as he established himself as a tough defensive stopper. Glen Johnson had no complaints playing on the left, but even focused so much more on defensive duties. Meireles scored none in first 16 games under Hodgson but has now scored 3 goals in 5 games under the King as he was given more advanced scoring midfield role. Gerrard may now settle, even after the departure of Torres, as his childhood idol King Kenny is now fighting with him for LFC revival together. Gone is the genuis but self-minded striker-Torres, who may be one of the very best strikers in the world when in form. However, as evidenced from today's game, everyone seems to have much more freedom and less restriction as they are now working so hard for each other rather than having to restrict their games by the obvious pattern- passing the ball to Torres every time and watching him to perform human highlight show that has become less and less effective as he lost his speed and ability to get past defenders. Now, when Carroll is back from injury, LFC will have a tower presence not only to add great heading ability to the frontline but also to assist all the great scoring midfielders/supporting strikers in Suarez/Gerrard/Meireles. Next come Chelsea on Sunday, time to BREAK TORRES' LEGS!

Starting line-up: (3-4-2-1)

Goals: Meireles '47 & Suarez '79