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On the first really spring like day of the season Stokes still not a very nice place to go especially when it looks like half the teams on sick parade.  After a few defeats old ‘Useless’ is starting to walk a thin line so I think we knew what to expect from a team that can still call on a bit of brute force if the case needs it.  The likes of Shawcross and Walters must have been whetting their lips when they saw our starting eleven with Ben Woodburn and TAA in the line up.  However, neither Woodburn nor TAA did too much wrong in the first half it was just the rest of team which looked out of sorts and out of shape and we didn’t muster what you’d call a serious threat to the Stoke goal.  Stoke were no great shakes either but if anyone was going to score it was them and that happened five minutes before halftime when the Bitter fan Walters scored another goal against us.  We might have had a penalty just before the goal came but that couldn’t be any excuse for such a woeful 45-minutes.

Then The Kaiser acted and brought on the Boys from Brazil in exchange for the two teenagers, reverted back to type, round pegs in round holes etc; and we took it from there.  Although, as ever these days, our defending was still questionable we did carry some threat going forward.  Firmino, Coutinho and Lovren all went close – shots saved and hitting the bar – before Little Phil who by all accounts had spent most of the week in the loo banged one in.  The away end erupted as our players raced back to the centre circle wanting to get back at the Pottery men.  Two minutes later Firmino lashed in a wonder goal and we could all sing in the sunshine.  However, as Jürgen said, Mignolet rescued us a couple of times when Stoke fought back.  Only we got there in the end but it didn’t look like that at halftime.

The final issue of the season will hopefully be out v Crystal Palace.

This draw against Bournemouth might have surprised neutral observers who think football follows some kind of logic but in Liverpool’s case we defy logic. I doubt any genuine regular in the crowd would have been in least surprised, after all this is what happens, this is Liverpool and logic long since left the building.  Right from the kick off you could sense it was going to be one of those nights, one of those games; one that is an accompanist to the games v Burnley [away], Bournemouth [away], Swansea [Home], Hull [away] Leicester [away] – the only slight difference being we came out of this debacle with a point.  We witnessed defending that would have shamed playground football, we witnessed a midfield that looked like it had never met let alone played alongside each other.  Logic was also blown out the window when Jürgen decided to replace the apparently ailing Coutinho with Joel Matip thus sending out the message to those watching we were shutting up shop even though there was still almost half an hour [with stoppage time] to go.  More logic that had been defied was the fact that Matip didn’t start.  When Bournemouth were gifted their equaliser there was still seven minutes left in total and you’d have maybe thought we should have sent on Sturridge – but no.  Logic, there was none. After the game The Kaiser said we have to learn from games like this – don’t bother shutting the stable door the horse hasn’t just bolted it’s over the hills and far away. We needed to learn when Brendan was here, we needed to learn last season when Jürgen took charge, we didn’t and we still haven’t.  There’s no logic in that either.

The day didn’t start as I’d hoped, bloody raining again but by the end of it the sun was shining and the birds were singing and Koeman was moaning like a real live Bitter Blue.  Our goals were brilliant, there’s was typical Liverpool defending but at the end of ‘derby day’ it’s only the result that matters.  It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t ugly, somewhere in between and I can take that any ‘derby day’.  Coutinho was brilliant, so was Lucas and in fairness most of our players stood up to be counted.  Those that didn’t had probably been savaged by Barclay.  Anthony Taylor’s a poor referee and that’s been shown in most of the games he had involving us this season.  Still, let’s leave him be and just wallow in Everton’s misery.

We’d have probably been happy to have taken a point when this game started because despite all their ills going to The Etihad and getting a point these days can’t be viewed in a negative fashion.  The only negative really is we could have won, but so could they and in what some critics are saying was one of the best games in the Premier Division this season a draw probably seemed the fairest of results.  Their supporters having a go at James Milner was childish at best but so was the jeers aimed in Sterling’s direction from our supporters.  It’s nothing new, it’s been like that for years but it’s still stupid and doesn’t exactly do anything for our own players.