Steven Gerrard has revealed how he felt a sense of deflation spread through the Stoke City side when the fourth officials board flashed No.15 on Sunday afternoon. For 66 minutes the Potters defence had been tormented; pulled one way, then another, back and forth by the effervescent Luis Suarez. His sheer persistence had earlier prompted three of their back-line to abandon all composure as the Uruguayan rushed in to poach Liverpools second goal of the game. And with the Reds leading 3-2, Brendan Rodgers chose to introduce Daniel Sturridge and reunite a strike force which, up until that point, had accounted for 30 of his sides goals throughout 2013-14. After six weeks apart it took the SAS five minutes to spark a riot, both supplying each other with an assist to seal a remarkable 5-3 win at the Britannia Stadium. Daniel looked sharp when he came on, Gerrard told the Liverpool Echo. Hes worked really hard since hes been out injured. Hopefully he can stay fit until the end of the season because with Suarez and Sturridge, we are going to score plenty of goals. Youve got to think about the Stoke defenders. Theyre worried about Suarez for 66 minutes and then they see Sturridge getting changed. They must have been thinking: Oh my God, here we go. Sturridges impact was instant. With the home side threatening at one end, the 24-year-old seized the opportunity to break in the 71st minute and galloped down the field towards Jack Butlands goal. By shifting inside onto his right foot, the England international fooled Stokes defence into thinking a shot was imminent, allowing him to create an angle and surreptitiously slip the ball to Suarez, who curled home. Afterwards, Gerrard marvelled at the manner in which his teammate returned from a tough spell on the sidelines. Everyone questioned our strength away from home but we have proved to everyone that we are right up for this fight to get into the top four. I do think theres a difference. A few years back, if we had let Stoke back into it like that, we may have lost the game 3-2. The manager asked us at half-time whether we had the character and the bottle to go out and win the game. It was there for us. We went and proved we had that character. It was a tough game. They are a team of big units, they put you under pressure from start to finish. We were brilliant for 40 minutes and then we let them back in with a couple of mistakes. I wondered whether our character was going to come through and if we could get back in front, but we turned it around and won the game emphatically. We have improved, we have got more steel in the team. Kolo Toure came into the side and hes a fantastic leader. Martin Skrtel was awesome. We feel as if away from home we can click and get that consistency. If we can add that to the home form then Im very confident we can get what we want which is top four.
Posted on: Tue, 14 Jan 2014 16:52:33 +0000
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