KopTalk.com Forums Football Liverpool FC Forum CONFIRMED TEAM V WEST HAM & MATCH THREAD

LIVERPOOL: Reina, Johnson, Kelly, Carragher, Skrtel, Wilson, Lucas, Gerrard, Meireles, Kuyt, Suarez.

SUBS: Gulacsi, Kyrgiakos, Cole, Poulsen, Spearing, Maxi, Ngog.

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GO YOU REDS! Great to see the injured lads back Come on Lads, give us something to smile about please.

Glad to see Wilson and Kelly (doubtful after Sparta) in the starting line-up. Would be fantastic if Wilson can get a regular berth in the side; two youngsters breaking into the team is good news all round. Obviously loving that Gerrard is back, with an eye to him being match sharp against Man U and ready to atone for his sending off in the FA Cup. The scum could easily lose 4-6 points in the title race this week (4 consecutive away games starting with their draw in Marseilles), even though I've already said that I'm not unhappy seeing Chelsea take a beating so that we can stride into 4th.

Back to the Hammers game though; we just need to keep our heads down, put in the performance, and ensure the 3 points. Another clean sheet will go down well too; conceding only 1 goal in 8 straight games might make Reina reassess LFC's ability.

terrible first half. We look slow and the back 3 look confused. Sucks that Kelly did his hammy in the last few mins because that will be at least 4 weeks! Come on KD get em firing in the second half

reina can fck off to united. his head is not at liverpool anymore.

I see you're feeling the same as me.

what a terrible performance.i have never seen us give the ball away so much.and did anyone tell them that west ham would be fighting like mad so they wont have much time on the ball?Gerrard only started playing after 65 mins.we were 2nd to everything.
non liverpool fans keep telling me how awful liverpool are to watch and that they are a poor team,i try like hell to defend our team but its bloody hard going when we play crap football like we have for the past few weeks.
we have 39 points and are 21 points behind the scum.i just want this season to end.to think we had hopes of finishing in the top 4 a few weeks ago,well that hope is dead in the water.personaly i think it would be better for next season if we dont even get into the europa cup so we can just concentrate on the domestic games.

What is the point of playing 5-a-side if you can't pass? Watching that game reminded me of the worst of Benitez and Hodgson. Pass it among the back 4, get it to halfway, pass it back, hoof it up, lose possession. Twice Skrtel hoofed it up and they scored. Reina was sh*t - terrible positioning to get beaten at the near post twice. And I'm sorry, but if Carragher and Skrtel are our best CB pair and continue to play like that then honestly we should start Soto and Wilson, even though Wilson looked a bit lost with 3 at the back.

Negatives (long list). Injuries to Raul and Kelly. Reina just wasn't in the game - worst performance from him bar none. Gerrard not sharp enough but looked better in the second half. Lucas never seemed anywhere defensively, stupid free-kicks as well; when will he put it all together? Carra and Skrtel were godawful all game. Why is it so hard for us to get into the opponent's half playing 3-5-2? Passing was shocking (Gerrard in particular), pathetic general awareness of where the opposition players were, lost every 50-50 ball due to being terrible in the air in every part of the pitch, forwards tended to get in one another's way when we did finally get the ball into shooting range (must be from lack of practice at having a chance to score).

Positives (surprisingly many given that we were utterly outplayed by the bottom club - how is it that for each of the last 3 seasons we've lost to the bottom club, though this season we've done it twice?). Wilson looked good on the ball and was definitely better at LB than as the 3rd CB. Suarez was outstanding again; I hope Kenny is working on giving him better service than he's had. Cole actually had some good touches, I thought. And I will say it: N'Gog actually played damn well for once.

I can only assume that "damm well" is relative to other poor performances cause you are way off the mark in my opinion. He did ok but i have seen ngog play better than that thundyr. Joe cole might have had some good touches but he offered very very little and had as many bad touches as he did good.

As positives I'd take when Gerrard finally got into the game he looked decent and tried to make things happen, if he can play a whole game like that we will create lots of chances. And Suarez, well, didn't do much over the whole game, but some of his turns and runs, touches, he looks fantastic. If we can actually get some service to him to his feet, or some wingers that will pull defenders out of position, then he is going to punish them. Wouuld have had a great goal if it wasnt for a top save.

I did say "for once" because N'Gog's been rubbish of late. He had a bit more hustle about him, didn't give it away as cheaply as I've seen, actually earned a corner when 1-on-4 when I expected him to just fall over for no reason, etc. He could have done better, but he could have (and has) done much worse. I kinda hung my head went he was subbed on, but he was one of the better players out there.

Cole looked decent - which is to say he did stuff. For me Meireles and Gerrard were nowhere prior to Meireles going off, and Cole did more when he was on the pitch than both of them in the first half.

Suarez looks very dangerous, even getting the ball under as much pressure as he is he still forced a top save and created the goal. Carroll will be a much more effective partner than Kuyt.

But I'm really worried about our midfield - there was no communication out there for an hour, and that isn't good enough. Were we overconfident, I wonder? Bet the boys aren't feeling too cocky now. Regardless, the passing game that Kenny started to institute has vanished altogether over the last few games, and that bothers me much more than losing this game (and I'm extremely upset about losing a game to a side managed by Avram Grant).