Liverpool vs. West Ham United

Liverpool hosts WHU in a six-pointer. The visitors are currently one place, one point and six goal better than us. The Hammers absolutely hammered us earlier in the season, a result that saw the beginning of an amazing run which took them to the dizzy heights of top-four in league table. That was also our third loss in five league games, a sorry state that would continue till late in December. Since then, the performances of both the teams have been pretty much even. WHU has taken eight points in their last six league games while Liverpool has taken 14 points from same number of games.

WHU comes to Anfield having qualified for the fifth-round of FA Cup while Liverpool got knocked-out in Capital One Cup semi-finals, in a match that saw two players stamped-on and another limped-out. In all likelihood, this match will see the long awaited return of Sturridge. However, will he start or come off the bench is yet to be seen. There might be even questions about Sakho and Gerrard as well. As far as popular notion goes, the starting XI should be

-------------Mignolet-------------
--------Emre-Skrtel-Sakho--------
Markovic-Henderson-Lucas-Moreno
--------Coutinho-Raheem---------
-------------Sturridge------------

Oh, nice timing with us two x)

Maybe a mod will wander about and merge these two West Ham threads.

Edit. Nevermind I just copied my post and deleted the thread

Right, so, the League Cup semi-final ended in a disappointment, but the battle for the 4th place trophy is just hitting crunch time.

West Ham are one place and one point above us. We are five points off fourth. It's not quite do-or-die game yet, but it's close.

West Ham are having a fine season... with Stewart Downing on course to have his best ever season. Why oh why he couldn't be in this sort of form when at Liverpool?

Andy Carroll has more goals (5) in 11 games this season than our makeshift striker Sterling in 21 games (4). Carroll also has more goals than our actual strikers (Dan, Mario, Fabio, Rickie) combined (4). West Ham also sneakily kept Sakho from going to the AFCON, he's their top scorer with 7.


It could be a tough game, but we've been playing pretty well at Anfield lately, so I'm pretty confident that we will look the better team. Just need to start putting away those chances! Hopefully Nolan starts for them, he's even a worse passenger than Gerrard when playing CAM from the start.

Talking about Gerrard, will be interesting to see our XI. Also, is Daniel going to be on the bench? I'd imagine at least Lallana will start since he didn't play against Chelsea. I have no idea is Sakho injured or not. I thought Coutinho started to look a little tired yesterday against Chelsea and I keep worrying for Henderson, too. We simply have to rotate at some stage of this busy schedule of ours.

Anyway, a hugely important game, but one that we should win!

Oh, nice timing with us two x)

I will leave the next few league games for you.

Edit. Nevermind I just copied my post and deleted the thread Cool

You can do that!?

I thought Coutinho started to look a little tired yesterday against Chelsea and I keep worrying for Henderson, too.

My thoughts exactly. May be they will be rested against Bolton. Frankly, I would like to see how this pans out:

----------Mignolet----------
-----Emre-Skrtel-Sakho-----
Markovic-Allen-Lucas-Moreno
------Lallana-Raheem-------
----------Sturridge---------

Or may be keep Henderson and rest Emre and play Emre in Henderson's place against Bolton.

I would rest Henderson and Coutinho for Bolton game !!
We need to win this one, before Spurs come to us, if we go above West Ham, it will be nice confidence boost for us to play even better against Spurs. If we dont win this, I will be really worried about our top 4 spot because after this game, Spurs and Arsenal go head to head and in the same week we play at Goodison. So we need to make sure that we win this. ALL IN ALL:

A MUST WIN GAME

I would rest Henderson and Coutinho for Bolton game !!

or

I would rest Henderson and Coutinho in Bolton game !!

If you are in Germany, you often start messing up with prepositions

Edit: sorry, but I think i was right. Marty can correct that

Get Deadly Dan playing. enough is enough.

Our miraculous run of form will start this saturday.

Just as I predicted the exact same thing last February, almost 365 days ago before Arsenal game when all of you were in doom and gloom and worried about tOP 4 FOLLOWING DAT KOLO pass to Anichibe and underwhelming 1-1 draw at the Hawthornes.

Natalie Portman wrote:Get Deadly Dan playing. enough is enough.

Our miraculous run of form will start this saturday.

Just as I predicted the exact same thing last February, almost 365 days ago before Arsenal game when all of you were in doom and gloom and worried about tOP 4 FOLLOWING DAT KOLO pass to Anichibe and underwhelming 1-1 draw at the Hawthornes.

Then start doing your match threads...

The only thing that can separate us from the top 4 and deep runs in our cup competitions at this point is a lack of finish. We've outplaying every team we've come up against lately and I don't see that changing...the most important thing is to find an end product by any means that we can. Getting Sturridge back would be ideal, but even without him some of these guys have got to start finishing.

Looking forward to another strong performance, and hopefully a result.

I don't think Sturridge would be starting. What if we start like this:

-----Lallana-----
Raheem-Coutinho

In my view, Lallana is more down to earth/level-headed when in the box. While Raheem tries a bit too much and often losses the opportunity.

I hope our top 4 dreams won't fade and die in the hands of the mighty Diafra

STURRIDGE IS BACK FFS the most anticipated game of the season.

Hope this lad doesn't buckle under the huge expectation bestowed on him. Boy, don't I miss those clinical finishes at the end those sizzling Coutinho passes.

Carroll/Downing vs Lovren.

Must win, Sturridge off the bench please.

I keep thinking the game is tonight

Natalie Portman wrote:Get Deadly Dan playing. enough is enough.

Our miraculous run of form will start this saturday.

Just as I predicted the exact same thing last February, almost 365 days ago before Arsenal game when all of you were in doom and gloom and worried about tOP 4 FOLLOWING DAT KOLO pass to Anichibe and underwhelming 1-1 draw at the Hawthornes.

If we win against West Ham convincingly, I dont mean goals wise but performance wise, I will join your bandwagon mate

Sakho is apparently fit for Saturday

Anything to avoid that cancer Lovren.

It seems Johnson is anyway ahead of Lovren when we're playing three at the back.

Art Morte wrote:It seems Johnson is anyway ahead of Lovren when we're playing three at the back.

how Johnson gets a game baffles the brain. he is so bad im happy when he gets a knock.

I think you guys need to cool it with the Lovren hate. Weren't you just calling Rodgers a fraud not even a month ago? Give it a rest. He's barely featured for us. If we were going to go with knee-jerk reactions we'd have gotten rid of guys like Coutinho, Henderson, Lucas, Sakho and Moreno all of whom have been fantastic for us. Defenders, especially with the philosophy that Rodgers likes to follow, probably will have the hardest time adjusting here.

Anyway, need the 3 points.

El Cujo wrote:I think you guys need to cool it with the Lovren hate. Weren't you just calling Rodgers a fraud not even a month ago? Give it a rest. He's barely featured for us. If we were going to go with knee-jerk reactions we'd have gotten rid of guys like Coutinho, Henderson, Lucas, Sakho and Moreno all of whom have been fantastic for us. Defenders, especially with the philosophy that Rodgers likes to follow, probably will have the hardest time adjusting here.

Anyway, need the 3 points.

I agree on lovren. if lovren played for rafa in the Liverpool team he would be top class imo.

MR BOND wrote:if lovren played for rafa in the Liverpool team he would be top class imo.

I respectfully disagree there. He would have had to bench Hyypia, Carra, Agger, or even Skrtel. He's inferior to all 4 as a footballer and as a defender.