Diame was the difference for first 70 minutes!!! His energetic performance was problematic for us, for me Sterling won the match with a small but unintentional bash up with Diame
Our midefield certainly need to do better than that, I hope BR will take care of this, Allen has to quickly get settled in this position. He is not doing good enough.It is a good sign of progress that we won when we did not have so much luck!!!

All three of our scorers were former West Ham players. That probably rubbed some salt on their wound.

omg!! i couldnt have asked for more......so entertaining....but what happened to our midfield? cos i thought with our supposed style of play west ham are not supposed to play this good....another entertaining match at the other end of merseyside,everton gave tottenham a total shocker!!!!!!

glad we came out with the three points. i stand by my earlier rant... one class finish (although i'm very happy it provided us with the win) does not justify an all around crap performance, nor does it erase the series of crap performances he's had before. hopefully this raises his price a little in january and we can see the back of joe cole. not good enough for this team, would've rather seen hendo or suso subbed in.

Everton winning actually helps. We're only 4 points off 4th spot.

Next match is Aston Villa at Anfield. Very winnable match. We must not let this opportunity through our grasp.

stevieg8 wrote:glad we came out with the three points. i stand by my earlier rant... one class finish (although i'm very happy it provided us with the win) does not justify an all around crap performance, nor does it erase the series of crap performances he's had before. hopefully this raises his price a little in january and we can see the back of joe cole. not good enough for this team, would've rather seen hendo or suso subbed in.

Same with Clowning. they can both migrate away from Anfield as far as possible.

Can't wait to have Suarez back for Aston Villa game. And of course can't wait till Jan so we can get some useful players through the market and Borini/Kelly back.

Here's my two cents.

Do you think any of our players could have finished that Cole's chance?
I personally don't think so. Maybe Suarez but no one else and finishing those chances is what is gonna win us matches.

Nishank wrote:Here's my two cents.

Do you think any of our players could have finished that Cole's chance?
I personally don't think so. Maybe Suarez but no one else and finishing those chances is what is gonna win us matches.

It was a good finish, yeah. I dunno, I'm kinda all right with both Downing and Cole being in the team as of now. They haven't set the stage on fire, but in my opinion they haven't dragged us down, either.

Nishank wrote:Here's my two cents.

Do you think any of our players could have finished that Cole's chance?
I personally don't think so. Maybe Suarez but no one else and finishing those chances is what is gonna win us matches.

i acknowledged that the finish was nice. it was definitely a good shot from him, with a good run for the pass beforehand. i just also feel that his disruption in our attacking play and consistent losses of the ball directly led to conceding twice. there weren't events in either play that he was involved in, but the fact that we went from absolutely dominating them both offensively and defensively (they were hoofing the ball up to consistently get cleared by skragger) to a 10-15 minute spell of no possession immediately after he came on is clear enough for me. i don't think the tradeoff - 1 goal late in the game in exchange for a much more contentious 40 minutes preceding that - was worth it. i would've rather seen cole on the bench, or not on the teamsheet at all.

How we won that i don't know lol, but who cares 3 points is all that matters. Some really piss poor performances by a lot of the guys, any news on jose?

Nishank wrote:Here's my two cents.

Do you think any of our players could have finished that Cole's chance?
I personally don't think so. Maybe Suarez but no one else and finishing those chances is what is gonna win us matches.

On any other day I don't think Cole would have finished it either, so that seems a bit of a moot point. We finally got a bit of good luck with Cole and Shelvey/Collins(?) at the end there. Let's just enjoy the feeling of actually having good fortune again for once.

RO is right, 3-2 away win, 4 points off the fourth spot.. I am already dreaming !!!
but I am in support of Cole here, he has (in EL too) finished that chance which others do rarely, considering he doesn't play regularly.

Gotta say despite the win this was easily one of the worst performances of the season footballing wise. It was expected not just because our talisman Suarez was out but because we usually fail in Upton Park and that we were destined to perform poorly vs a physical and uncompromising Allardyce team. Nonetheless our 4-3-3 was decimated after our first good 20 minutes of football. Midfield was bypassed far too easily as Lucas didn't anchor the midfield to expectation. Allen had a poor game today I admit as he lost the physical battle and didn't combine with Gerrard who was more influential but wasteful. Shelvey as I predicted lacks any of the necessary movement, influence and intelligence needed to be a CF, as he was very poor today. Sterling is turning into a one-trick pony as I don't know whether people have figured his game out or that he is playing too many games. Probably both. He may be 17 buts he needs to add more dimension to his game and run into spaces rather than into a defender. In time he hopefully will improve his timing of passes and aimless runs. Cole I predicted would have a solid performance but was largely peripheral goal aside. He was just too narrow inside the 4-3-3 and had trouble influencing the game. I love his off the ball movement as it showed he knows where and when to move. Downing was an absolute clown again and looked out of his depth. Playing with him on is literally akin to playing with 10 men. Our backline was solid as Johnson needs to improve his positioning to cover the right flanks on Counters, he is just often exposed yet I commend a superb attacking performance from him. His shot placed in the net I hereby name the "Johnson Zone". Enrique I hope is alright as he is our most important fullback and adds much to our play (someone confirm?)

How Assaidi doesn't even make the bench is beyond me. Rodgers

Overall it was quite a predictable set of play involving the same rinse and repeat tactics of attempting to hold possession deep yet scrapping that and just running aimlessly and crossing into the box full of midgets. If Rodgers wants to install a possession philosophy I see very little signs of it judging by the wayward play and positioning. We are a team in transition yet need to find an identity in our play as its severely lacking that. Nonetheless its great to acquire a win without Suarez (who we are unbelievably reliant on) along against a strong West Ham vs Allardyce.

I agree with much that Arquitecto said.

What comes to possession philosophy and finding our identity, that was always going to be difficult against West Ham at their ground and without Suarez. Nolan, Noble, Diame etc., they just had too much steel in midfield for us to walk all over them.

But we should have another option (*couch* Carroll *cough*) in these games where we can't properly impose our preferred game-plan on the opposition. That, or become insanely good at that tiki-taka style, but it's more difficult to achieve.

But hey, three points and a home game coming up, Christmas could still be quite all right, let's concentrate on that.