Liverpool v West Ham 13:30 12th August 2018 Match Thread

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Comments

  • horshamhammerhorshamhammer
    Sanchez is going to have to be one hell of a player to fix our midfield.
  • adecokeradecoker
    The millions spent by Liverpool certainly seem to have led to an improvement in their defence from last season. They didn't concede a goal at home against West Ham. The attack though needs looking at - still only managed four.
  • OutcastLondonerOutcastLondoner
    Hard to take that much from that game, given the best attacking three have now been improved even more with Keita supplying them.

    But I said before that I'm worried about the slowness of a Noble, Wilshere, Rice midfield and I think we saw they can't really stand up to fast movement.
  • BubblesNeverDiesBubblesNeverDies
    slowness of a Noble ;ok
  • FortuneseekerFortuneseeker
    horshamhammer said:

    Sanchez is going to have to be one hell of a player to fix our midfield.

    The real concern is from what has been said he isn't! ;weep
  • MarkNobleLocalHeroMarkNobleLocalHero
    edited August 2018
    slowness of a Noble
    ;nonono
  • ASLEFshruggedASLEFshrugged
    edited August 2018
    On the plus side we didn't lose at home...unlike Arsenal

    The only player who came out with any credit was Fabianski who was left exposed by the hopeless defending of the players in front of him.
  • IronHerbIronHerb
    I'd add Anderson to Fabianski as players who cane out with credit.
  • McHammerMcHammer
    I thought Yarms looked decent
  • SuzanneClaretSuzanneClaret
    I agree, I thought Anderson impressed.
  • PrestonHammerPrestonHammer
    I've calmed down a bit and will concede that it's going to a little while for the team to play as we all want them to. My one real gripe and a few on here will agree, is our centre midfield is a glaring problem that is going to cost us quite few games unless we can fix it somehow.
  • baracks_a_hammerbaracks_a_hammer
    If noble and rice are our first choice in the centre of the park, I would say that is going to be a problem for us in quite a few games. Our talented forward line could be starved of the ball
  • claretandblueskyclaretandbluesky
    I think that the disappointment is not so much we took nothing from the game but more that we failed to display too many positives.

    Next week will be far more revealing with regard what can be expected going forward,the defence will be under no where near as much pressure as today which will hopefully allow us to attack more ourselves and show what we have going forward rather than just trying to limit the immense power of the opposition as we were today.
  • YeoldhammerYeoldhammer
    Yeoldhammer said:

    I dont think we will keep out Liverpool but i want to see some attacking intent and actually get into the Liverpool half and give it a go.

    If we literally play football camped in our own half i will be disappointed

    ^ disappointed. We didn't do any attacking Allisson probably had the easiest debut for any keeper.

    .
  • EXETERHAMMEREXETERHAMMER
    It is easy to see why Bilic and Moyes went to five at the back. Will Pellegrini go the same way in the end?
  • IronHerbIronHerb
    No, he'll have the courage to drop Nobes.
  • PrestonHammerPrestonHammer
    I wouldn't be so sure Ironherb. If he thought Nobes was the problem he would have dropped him instead of Rice. Imo.
  • ianbishoplegendianbishoplegend
    I thought he would have put Zabaletta in instead of Rice.
  • OldCastleSwiftOldCastleSwift
    It was a strange performance really. Especially when you read Noble's comments in the week. 'We need to take the game to them, otherwise we'll lose'.

    We were very much 4-5-1 and carried very little threat. Antonio looked miles out of his depth and Anderson did more work in his own half than he did in theirs. Midfield looked slow and the whole team looked panicked every time we had the ball. I expected us to lose, but I thought we'd at least cause them some problems.

    That said, my biggest frustration is with whoever did the fixture list. Liverpool away, along with City, was the hardest start we could have got. The defeat immediately puts pressure on our first home game and already we're on the back foot. Bournemouth have been something of a bogey team of late and I'm actually quite nervous about it; it has Newcastle last season written all over it.
  • secrethammersfansecrethammersfan
    My twopence worth (all opinions my own, and probably all wrong, so don't argue):
    Fabiański looked good, and lent a lot of confidence to the defence.
    Ogbonna will be good when he starts playing.
    For me, Noble looked like he didn't belong in that team.
    I like watching Anderson when he has the ball.
    Watching West Ham in September will be a lot more fun than watching them in August!
    Sadio Mane is incomparable, but his hairstyle upsets me.
  • baracks_a_hammerbaracks_a_hammer
    Noble gave an interview for the standard where he was going on about how pre-season was so much better than than previously as we were tested more against top quality opposition. Mainz and Augsburg?? ;hmm

    Also he went on about the little things making a difference like booking hotels with Wi-fi so new foreign players could FaceTime their loved ones - are there seriously still hotels out there that DON’T have Wi-fi? What on Earth is he going about? Even if there isn’t Wi-fi, if you are on £50k a week, just set your phone to use mobile data surely??!!
  • Pearces_Left_FootPearces_Left_Foot
    Not sure a lot of footballers know about data too busy taking selfies and posting on Instagram :smile:
  • LukerzLukerz
    OCS - I thought one of the big positives was our passing. Other than Antonio, I thought everybody passed the ball relatively well when you consider the amount of pressure we were under in that game. We never had much chance to comfortably sit on the ball and knock it about yet a lot of the players pass %’s were in the 90’s.

    The problem is when you are trying to adjust to a new system, tactics, playing style, management, with 5 new players, Anfield is not the place where you are going to be able to do that comfortably. I feel the team Pelle picked was not actually what he wanted to go with. I don’t see 4-5-1 being his usual formation and I don’t see that midfield 3 or Antonio being regular starters under him in this side.

    Hopefully we bounce back next week and we can look back at this one as just too big a test for the first game.
  • YeoldhammerYeoldhammer
    edited August 2018
    Lukerz said:

    OCS - I thought one of the big positives was our passing. Other than Antonio, I thought everybody passed the ball relatively well when you consider the amount of pressure we were under in that game. We never had much chance to comfortably sit on the ball and knock it about yet a lot of the players pass %’s were in the 90’s.

    The problem is when you are trying to adjust to a new system, tactics, playing style, management, with 5 new players, Anfield is not the place where you are going to be able to do that comfortably. I feel the team Pelle picked was not actually what he wanted to go with. I don’t see 4-5-1 being his usual formation and I don’t see that midfield 3 or Antonio being regular starters under him in this side.

    Hopefully we bounce back next week and we can look back at this one as just too big a test for the first game.

    But we hardly had the ball to make a pass with and when we did, the supposed "strengths" of Noble and Wilshire to find a pass and unlock a defence were nowhere to be seen. It was honestly like watching a very budget version of Lampard and Gerrard for England, it was horrible. Like both of them they looked way out of their depth and seemed to have no clue of what to do with the ball at their feet.

    We brought in Pace but hardly ever used it, how do you expect to relieve pressure if your attacking players cant even get on the shoulder or make the runs to put pressure on the opposition defence. I don't think I saw a run off the defenders shoulder all game. The CM / DM positions will cost us again this season.

    The defence looked like pre-season and last seasons. Some major work needed there. I said It before but I still maintain Ogbonna is a bang average defender, only good for an aerial duel. The others you have to give them the benefit of the doubt until we see them more over an extended period of time to assess how good they are or can be.
  • LukerzLukerz
    Also was weird that Pelle coached us to play so high. I mean he obviously has success playing that way or he wouldn’t do it but against the likes of Salah and Mane. But maybe he took getting in a PL game playing a high line and that experience over getting a result yesterday.
  • YeoldhammerYeoldhammer
    Playing a high line is absolutely fine in my book, I have no qualms with Pellegrini doing that against any team as long as your attacking players are pinning their full backs in their own half. This simple wasn't happening, Pelle should have seen this after the first goal went in that it wasn't working and adjusted accordingly.
  • HuttonhammerHuttonhammer
    Noble , Rice and Wilshere in midfield would not work against any team let alone Liverpool. A massive mistake in Pellegrini's first game in charge.
    If he persists with playing Noble we will be over run in midfield in most games. He is not quick enough to play in the premier league any more and I do not understand why manager after manager does not realise this fact.
  • Cuz1Cuz1
    A win next week will put this game behind us as disappointing as the performance was it was Liverpool away who were just to quick for us, in my opinion they will be close to or win the league this season, like I said performance poor but things can only get better
  • EXETERHAMMEREXETERHAMMER
    Whether or not Noble is dropped, I still feel 5 at the back is the way forward 5-2-3 type formation.
  • OutcastLondonerOutcastLondoner
    Is it really so obviously Noble who should be dropped? I don't think Rice is cut out for the DM role unless he has more mobile midfielders around him - which we don't have. Obiang is the closest. Rice is too clunky in his movement to play that role against fast moving attacks.
This discussion has been closed.