KENNY'S NOT MUCH OF A TACTICIAN...:

Change of tack from Liverpool and Stoke leads to disjointed stalemate: Liverpool adapted to Stoke by changing their shape, then Stoke counter-adapted. The result was they both looked out of sorts ()

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 on 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 formation – 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.

...but even for him, not playing your best header of the ball against Stoke is idiotic. And Kuyt's problem was the one Carroll faces every game, which is why the criticism is unfair. He needs support in the box so he has guys to head it to.