Liverpool-Stoke City Verdict: Philippe Coutinho, Reds Accomplish Revenge Mission

The first day of the Premier League season is a good time to remember not all points are created, and won, equally.

Liverpool ended the 2014-15 season with an emphatic loss to Stoke City on May 24 at Britannia Stadium. Liverpool started the 2015-16 campaign Sunday with a narrow win over Stoke City at the same venue.

The Liverpool-Stoke City rematch never was going to be a run-of-the-mill Premier League opener in which teams only look boldly into the future. The Reds had 77-day-old demons to exorcise before they could embark on the new season with true peace of mind.

Revenge and restoration were at stake in addition to three points, but the game proceeded in a mundane and pedestrian manner which bordered on unbearable. Philippe Coutinho’s magic bullet of a strike in the 86th minute provided the difference in the scoreline.

Coutinho’s moment of brilliance was the sole highlight in an otherwise forgettable contest. The seven remaining Reds who were in gameday squads for both May’s and Sunday’s contests atoned for the defeat by playing with requisite commitment and focus required for any competitive game. None of Liverpool’s six debutantes let down their new team either. The Reds played just well enough to compete, and Coutinho won the contest with a game-winning moment.

Liverpool might not have played well enough to warrant a victory, but it demonstrated a trait all good teams possess: the willingness and ability to make something out of nothing. Stoke City disappointed fans with its uninspired performance, but it still played well enough to deserve a draw. That Coutinho punished the Potters’ rare instance of defensive laziness should ruin Stoke City’s week and elate Liverpool for the next few days.

Individual and collective performances matter in this Premier League business. Results matter more. Good teams find ways to win on those rare off days. Great teams have very few off days and earn results every time they do. Liverpool is one for one in this regard.

Not only did Coutinho spare us from the worst kind of goal-less draw (one in which both teams play poorly) he also saved manager Brendan Rodgers and his teammates from a barrage of criticisms old and new. He was Liverpool’s player of the year in 2014-15 and remains so at the dawn of the new campaign. Coutinho provided Liverpool a springboard from which it can jump into the future and away from the total failure that was the their worst loss in 52 years.

Liverpool hosts Bournemouth next Monday in its second game of the season. An Anfield opener against a newly promoted team gives Liverpool a golden chance to start the season perfectly by claiming six out of six available points. Doing so would give the Reds a psychological boost ahead of a season-defining, three-month period that will shape the long-term futures of Liverpool’s coaches and players and set the stage on behalf of fans for either a winter wonderland or winter of discontent.