Liverpool v West Ham

And it's another cup game on Saturday. The worrying stat here's the fact that West Ham did the double over us in the league this season with a 5-0 goal-difference. Need to bring them back to Earth with a win here.

we have more chance of beating city in the final than beating west ham on Saturday.

A weird thing to say.
Have someone man-mark Payet for 90 minutes and don't concede a single corner or a free-kick in our own half and score a lucky goal and we'll be golden.

Stylistically West Ham are a worse match up for us than City, definitely.

I feel like we can win this. I'm sure Klopp has learned from the first two meetings so now it's just going to be about getting our players to put the ball in the net. Hopefully Smith and Allen will get a shot since Moreno and Can have been pretty poor of late and Henderson is still hurting, but I'm hopeful either way.

There's still a chance at a treble this season.

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/liverpool-fc-v-west-ham-10805286

FOr my money, I'd probably go with something like this.

I'd like to see more of Ilori and Ojo against better competition. However, I also think they're the most unlike to make it into the starting lineup against West Ham. Klopp may got with more experience (relatively), especially if Clyne really is fit enough for the full 90.

donttreadonred wrote:FOr my money, I'd probably go with something like this.

Betenke
Teixeira
Ibe---------------Ojo
--------Allen---Stewart/Brannagan
Smith--------------------Ilori
Lovren---Caulker
Mignolet

I'd like to see more of Ilori and Ojo against better competition. However, I also think they're the most unlike to make it into the starting lineup against West Ham. Klopp may got with more experience (relatively), especially if Clyne really is fit enough for the full 90.

I think we will see another youthful squad today. Klopp has hinted that he has to 'rest' senior players considering the packed schedule.

Mignolet, Clyne, Lovren, Caulker, Smith, Brannagan, Stewart, Ibe, Allen, Teixeira, Benteke

I'm afraid that midfield will be eaten alive by West Ham.

Still can't score, but at least it was a fairly entertaining game for a 0 - 0. The youngsters played better than I had expected.

Caulker is the best defender at the club

His passing was so bad it was funny. Looks like the nerves on his first Liverpool start got to him there. Defended well, though.

Art Morte wrote:His passing was so bad it was funny. Looks like the nerves on his first Liverpool start got to him there. Defended well, though.

kept it simple and looked far better in the air than we have seen from the rest of our cb.

I'll just leave this here...
Mamadou Sakho (last 4 PL games)
Headed Clearances:
6/6 Nor,4/4 Utd, 1/1 Ars, 3/4 WHU
Defensive Aerial Duels:
9/13 Nor, 1/2 Utd, 2/4 Ars, 5/8 WHU

That said, I actually did think Caulker looked solid defensively. I wouldn't mind seeing him paired with Sakho in the league. His aerial ability paired with his recovery pace and generally solid positioning could make for a decent partnership. The only problem there is that it leaves Lovren and Toure as the other pairing, which has not worked terribly well in the past. With the current fixture congestion, I could see Klopp keeping the Sakho/Toure and Lovren/CAulker pairings until at least the end of February and the end of the League Cup run, and the FA Cup 4th rnd replay.

I'd rather play Caulker than Toure, not only because I think Caulker is good, but Toure will surely be let go of in the summer and it would be nice to see how Caulker does, should we sign him permanently in Toure's place or not.

Caulker hopefully isn't staying any longer than his loan.

Don't call me James wrote:Caulker hopefully isn't staying any longer than his loan.

Think this may be a bit premature. You have to remember that Caulker really isn't that old, despite several years in the Premier League. To put it in perspective, he's 14 months older than Ilori, and he's already played 3 seasons in the PL as a first-choice CB (Swans, Cardiff, and QPR). He played well at both Swans and Cardiff, and it's hard to blame him for the dumpster-fire that was QPR's last season in the PL. If he's available for a relatively small fee in the summer, I would consider it (dependent, of course, on performances between now and the end of the season).

Um...Lovren will be back in the starting XI as soon as he's healthy. Not sure why it would be Caulker or Toure. He's been our best CB and probably will continue to be.

donttreadonred wrote:

Don't call me James wrote:Caulker hopefully isn't staying any longer than his loan.

Think this may be a bit premature. You have to remember that Caulker really isn't that old, despite several years in the Premier League. To put it in perspective, he's 14 months older than Ilori, and he's already played 3 seasons in the PL as a first-choice CB (Swans, Cardiff, and QPR). He played well at both Swans and Cardiff, and it's hard to blame him for the dumpster-fire that was QPR's last season in the PL. If he's available for a relatively small fee in the summer, I would consider it (dependent, of course, on performances between now and the end of the season).

This sort of thinking by our management for the past decade is exactly why we are midtable currently.