Liverpool beats Stoke 1-0 in League Cup semifinal first leg

Later on in the game, still searching for a telling goal, they also introduced Peter Crouch but failed to put the patchwork defence under enough pressure to make them uncomfortable for prolonged periods.

Liverpool host Stoke City at Anfield for the return leg on January 26 January 2016.

Jurgen Klopp’s bid to revive Liverpool’s season has been with hit with a blow after premier playmaker Philippe Coutinho suffered a hamstring injury against Stoke City on Tuesday. The latter’s departure left Liverpool fielding a highly unfamiliar centre-back partnership of Kolo Toure and Lucas Leiva.

Assigning causes to such blights is never easy, but it’s hard not at least to speculate whether Klopp arriving and demanding greater work-rate has overburdened players who haven’t had the benefit of a preseason with him.

But injuries to three separate players on the night represented a negative point for Klopp.

Klopp said: “A big shadow for us were the injuries which don’t look too good”. Toure only half clears a set piece from the left.

Walters’ addition worked far better than the not-so-fab four had, with Stoke at last gaining territory, though it was Walters who missed a late chance to level matters.

“First half sometimes you have to give credit to the opposition”, he said.

“We dominated the second half but we didn’t get that break”.

Stoke replaced defender Geoff Cameron with striker Jonathan Walters at halftime, looking to exploit Liverpool’s backline.

Before tonight however the likeness has merely been an aesthetic one, with the Welshman’s Liverpool career on the pitch blighted by injury and a lack of first team opportunities under Brendan Rodgers. Even then, however, there was the sight of Krkic aiming a simple pass out of play.

“We had to improve second half”, he continued. The message seemed to have been fully received as the visitors produced a vibrant, hungry attacking display reminiscent of the away days that saw them destroy Manchester City, Chelsea and Southampton.