West Ham dispatched Arsenal 2-0 at the Emirates. Don't get ahead of yourselves chaps.
Liverpool vs. West Ham Pre-Match Discussion
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West Ham dispatched Arsenal 2-0 at the Emirates. Don't get ahead of yourselves chaps.
Yes, good call forgot about that. Too bad because he was awful.
True but at least 4 of their starters from that game (Adrian, Oxford, Zarate, Sakho) are unlikely to feature vs. LFC due to red card/injury.
Cresswell was getting some rave reviews last season but, despite the fact he is very good with free kicks/corners etc, he has always been dodgy defensively. He is the new Ian Harte.
Just doing my part to de-jinx this place.
All these injuries and suspensions could hurt us more than help us. It's possible they could just come with a 5-4-1 and stay compact, hope for a point and try to nick on one on a counter when we commit guys forward to chase all 3 points.
Don't mind if they do (wouldn't have said that last season). With our aerial threat and the delightful creativity of Coutinho & Firmino we'll find a way through 2 or 3 times.
All the pessimism and cautiousness is doing my head in.
We will beat the Hammers and the Mancs too, and go top of the table.
We will beat the Hammers and the Mancs too, and go top of the table.
We've had one decent performance, vs a weakened top 4 team. It was a 0-0 that we easily could have lost, with a wrongly disallowed goal.
I was really happy about it, but that's because I'm realistic and I'm hopefully looking for signs that our quite new personnel can gel and have some balance. The evidence we've seen so far just as easily supports the idea that we're shit and vulnerable as much as it does that we're improving. Being very confident either way isn't that supportable, but if you want to go on faith, at least you are going in the right direction.
Nah. Not having that. That is a glass ¼ full attitude.
Whenever any team plays well and gets a result the nay-sayers often cry 'they were weakened' or 'the opposition played shite' without giving due credit to the team that maybe they actually did something to prevent the opposition playing well, or scoring.
Arsenal could have had a goal, sure, but we could have had a lot more, Arsenal were simply not getting into our box (I think they had only 4 shots from inside our box, we had 11 from inside theirs) and that is due to how well our defence played, as a team.
Likewise in attack, we tired in the 2nd half but in the first our pressing destroyed them and gave us some great chances, that on another day, or with another keeper, we would have led comfortable at HT and probably ran out easy winners.
What evidence is there that we're shit and vulnerable ? Would that be the far improved defence that has a PL leading least shots on goal after 3 matches ? Or that, although we've had some luck so far, we've also been unlucky, and in all 3 games we have had more shots on goal and more shots on target than the opposition, and in the end those are the stats that will win you matches, not who had the most possession or played easy-on-the-eye tippy tappy football.
You could easily argue that the same three performances last season would have ended in defeat. It's fine saying that we haven't got our shit together, we clearly haven't, but when Suarez was out suspended two seasons ago at this point and we were pulling out the same performances and tight scorelines, everyone hailed it as a sign of progress that we were grinding out wins while far from at our best. We have players to come back, players to get upto full match fitness and some very promising additions to the side who have been great at the minute while still acclimatizing to the team. It's difficult to not be impressed. And for all the points about disallowed goals, if you want to split hairs over what were already fine scorelines, we hit the post against Bournemouth and Arsenal and had a couple of gilt edged opportunities that in another performance would have gone in.
I *get* that we've had three tight results, but tight results were something that was beyond us last season for the majority of the campaign. People aren't impressed so much with the performances, as the resilience and work ethic we've shown, which lets face it, was the biggest negative talking point last season.
I don't completely buy the argument that "winning ugly" or "grinding out wins" is evidence of progress. It can be, but with only three points of data and three games, its hardly compelling when there are so many ways that the results could have gone differently. People have spent a decent amount of time on here qualifying Man U's position with the fact that they barely deserved their victories, and haven't performed well. I agree with that. So which is it?
I tend to look at the results in context with the performances, and you can't possibly say that on the whole they are impressive. That's not being a glass 1/4 full guy, as it was described, that's just saying how it is. I don't find that remotely controversial, but then again I'm not trying to prove why Rodgers is the antichrist, or why we're going to win the league. I'm also not so much of an idiot that I don't get excited about iffy victories, we need those as well, and I thought Arsenal was a good result, even if we could be greedy and expect a win.
There's plenty of positives to pick from if that's what you are looking for, and that's what I tend to do, despite this boring post. There are also some negatives, especially in the first two games.
I didn't find resilience and work ethic to be our biggest problems last season, although they tended to go away when there was almost nothing to play for and we were discouraged, which isn't likely to happen with new players early on, or when you are getting the rub of the green a bit.
I don't mind saving us trouncing someone until Old Trafford. I'd take another 1-0.
I think this is the point at which we need to start seeing something resembling a coherent performance. We have ridden our luck in the first 3 games and played well only really in patches with some players looking way off the pace. At home against a depleted West Ham side we need to impose ourselves and build some confidence. I think we will play well and get a 2-0 win. Benteke and Firmino on the scoresheet
Arsenal was a coherent performance imo.
We offered them a little too much respect & as a result didn't push for the goal (using numbers) as much as I thought we should, but nevertheless it was still a relatively balanced & positive performance.
We offered them a little too much respect & as a result didn't push for the goal (using numbers) as much as I thought we should, but nevertheless it was still a relatively balanced & positive performance.
Left by mutual consent. Wonder what that's about?
Maybe Bilic shows up with a black eye or broken nose in the pre-game pressie to clarify that. 😀
He still has a Friday night out to get through.
Apparently we had more chances in the first half at Arsenal than any team has had in the past 3 seasons. That suggests something better than what Man Utd have been serving up surely?
That is such a boring post. Sorry mate.
Sometimes you just gotta live a little and learn to smell the roses, and I intend to do that. 🙂
I would say winning and drawing fixtures which Liverpool lost 6-1 and 4-1 last year point a lot more towards improvement than "we're shit."
I hope Benteke destroys Carroll for no reason.
After rewatching the first half of the last game, I've to say that some of the play we had in Arsenal's half for about two separate 10-minute blocks was pretty sexy. I'm hoping we can build on that - step up or at least maintain the level of intensity shown in those periods, and hopefully keep playing at that level a lot longer this time.
If Henderson is fit, he should come in and take Can's position, who doesn't have the sustained energy that Henderson has right now. The quartet of Coutinho - Can (Henderson) - Milner and Firmino behind/beside Benteke showed that it can (or already does) have plenty of things going for it - creativity, passing ability, tenacity, pace, strength and game intelligence. The glimpses in the first half has actually got me pretty excited about its potential.
Can and Lucas will probably be interchangeable against West Ham at the anchor if Henderson plays, as we'll be more comfortable in managing their midfield. If Lucas doesn't start, he probably will in the next few tough away games, given how he performed against Arsenal. I think that might be the pattern for the rest of the season - i.e. Can and Lucas rotating, with Allen/Rossiter rotating in for Henderson/Milner.
Well, that's at least until Sturridge returns. If he's back firing on all cylinders, then it's a happy problem we have. If he isn't, then we can just stick to this setup until he finds his form coming on as a sub for Firmino or Benteke.
If Henderson is fit, he should come in and take Can's position, who doesn't have the sustained energy that Henderson has right now. The quartet of Coutinho - Can (Henderson) - Milner and Firmino behind/beside Benteke showed that it can (or already does) have plenty of things going for it - creativity, passing ability, tenacity, pace, strength and game intelligence. The glimpses in the first half has actually got me pretty excited about its potential.
Can and Lucas will probably be interchangeable against West Ham at the anchor if Henderson plays, as we'll be more comfortable in managing their midfield. If Lucas doesn't start, he probably will in the next few tough away games, given how he performed against Arsenal. I think that might be the pattern for the rest of the season - i.e. Can and Lucas rotating, with Allen/Rossiter rotating in for Henderson/Milner.
Well, that's at least until Sturridge returns. If he's back firing on all cylinders, then it's a happy problem we have. If he isn't, then we can just stick to this setup until he finds his form coming on as a sub for Firmino or Benteke.
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