I know it is the best of 8 days away, but the match away against Stoke next Saturday will no doubt be a difficult affair as it always is. The last time the teams met at Anfield, Kenny Dalglish decided to go three at the back to counteract Stoke’s direct style of play. If he his considering such a tactic again, will he be tempted to give a certain Uruguayan his league debut?
It would be a tough ask for Sebastian Coates to come in to English football and play his first match against Stoke, a team set up in a manner he probably hasn’t ever seen before. Reds’ First Team Coach Steve Clarke however thinks he is ready to be called upon right away:
“He’s a talented youngster and gives us different options at the back. We look to sign young players that can improve and we looked at his performances throughout the Copa America when he was named Young Player of the Tournament. It’s certainly exciting. It’ll be a different challenge for him because the English Premier League is a league that takes a little bit of getting used to, so hopefully we can nurse him along, get him ready and he’ll be a valuable addition to the squad. He’s ready to play. He’s a full international and Uruguay are amongst the top five in the world, so they’re a strong international team.”
The obvious reason to start Coates against Stoke would of course be his height. Former Reds defender Sotirios Kyrgiakos was generally picked against the Potters purely because of this attribute, and with Stoke now signing Peter Crouch and Cameron Jerome to play alongside Kenwyne Jones, it can almost be guaranteed that the Potters will be more direct than ever.
In my opinion, I think it would be too much to ask of the 20 year old Uruguayan to step up to the mark straight away. Despite his height and experience at international level, he is still young and learning the game, and making a high profile mistake in his first match against a difficult opponent, may set back his development.
Is this a serious question ?
Yes – definately start him – he won’t know what’s hit him when he comes to the Bearpit.
Your defenders cannot defend against us – the only one was Kyr…………. the Greek – who is no longer with you.
Deluded Scousers Ha Ha
Your deluded Peter,… if you think you will know you will need to spend 93 minutes trying to defend against a variety of movement you can’t cope with … Liverpool will terrorise your defence, so forget your strikeforce …..
If I was you Pete I’d be more worried about how your own defence is going to deal with being tore a new one by Luis & Stewie
I’m a Stoke fan and can see where your comming from ,but as South Americans go the Uraguayans aren’t known for being faint hearted.He’ll have to play physical teams,like ourselves,Blackburn and the ski at sometime,and as a poster said earlier without (scuse my spelling here) Kyriakos you don’t really have anyone to combat our ariel threat.
I expect Walters and Jones to start for us with Crouchie to come on in the second half(Jerome won’t be Stoke fit in time).
I knew Mireles wasn’t happy at Liverpool but I was still shocked to see him go….what went on there? Surely you could have done with him at some point this season.Anyway good luck for the rest of the season….after our game that is 😉