West Ham vs Liverpool (Sunday 6th of April 2014)

[setreal]

Hopefully Carroll will assume he is still allowed to leapfrog Skrtel

[TheHowieLama]

Must win game.

 

Our cup final.

[Nelly-Szoboszlai]

The elephant in the room. Steven Gerrard. Booking in this and he misses City.

 

Start him or bench him?

[Harry Squatter]

Hopefully Andy Carroll is still shite

[Jose Jones]

The elephant in the room. Steven Gerrard. Booking in this and he misses City.

 

Start him or bench him?

 

Same as today, stroll to a 4-0 lead then put Lucas on.

[Nelly-Szoboszlai]

Personally, I'd bench him and bring him on if needed.

[Jose Jones]

Personally, I'd bench him and bring him on if needed.

 

Except we just won 4-0 with my tactics.

Otherwise, not a bad idea.

[Nelly-Szoboszlai]

Except, if he picks up a booking we miss him against Silva and Toure?

[Saintslfc13]

Downing and Carroll. You know what's coming.

 

Think Downing will shit himself as is his usual big game form. Carroll on the other hand does worry me, seemed to get up for the big sides when he was here and may believe he has a point to prove to Rodgers.

 

If we didn't seem so solid defensively today I'd be tempted to start Sakho over Agger for this due to Carroll but that'd be harsh now and most likely the less changes the better.

 

Also on the fence about Gerrard. I feel like we need him more versus City than Chelsea but it'd be a hard call to bench your captain in a tricky away fixture when you're six games from the achievement he wants most.

[mouse1989]

No way will Gerrard be bench

 

Drop points against West Ham, and its out of our hands again.

[Nelly-Szoboszlai]

As it is if we drop points against City. Who do we stand a better chance of beating without Gerrard?

[Joso]

Just worry about winning the next match. Its worked for the players this far...

[Jose Jones]

Except, if he picks up a booking we miss him against Silva and Toure?

 

But my plan is to get 4-0 up then take him off, so he won't pick up a booking.  See Liverpool v Tottenham for an example.

[spider-neil]

One game at a time. Gerrard starts. If he gets booked we'll deal with it.

[stringvest]

Very tough to get past the omens of Carroll and Downing. They play a game we find very difficult. Can't see anything other than a hone win I'm afraid. Say what you want about Allerdyce's teams but his teams are full of spirit.

 

from the night before

[Guest LFD]

I think 4-3-3 is the way to go again.

 

West Ham will want to be narrow and compact.  Let's have Sterling wide and really drag their defenders around into uncomfortable positions and creating more space which we can exploit.

 

Same team, although I'd play Sakho over Agger to deal with Carroll.  Agger did very well yesterday, but he was against a perfect type of player for him to deal with as Soldado has no physical threat.  I know some will say we shouldn't change a winning team, but we did by not picking Allen yesterday or Sterling vs Southampton or Coutinho vs Man U.  We should pick our best XI to win that individual game and for me that means 4-3-3 with extra width that the diamond provides and Sakho instead of Agger.

[paddy]

Looking for a couple of spares for this one chaps - If anyone knows someone can you keep me in mind, cheers

[The Acolyte]

Would like to see Fat Sam give starts to Cole, Carroll and Downing and for them to prove why we got rid of them. He then has to waste valuable subs pulling them off as they are stinking out the gaff!

[JermainePennant]

This will be a very tough game, they have a very strong defence and we should remember they troubled us at anfield up until we got a deflected goal.

 

Their defender Collins has also handled Suarez as good as Ive seen anybody do, full focus is needed from the players for this game.

[The Acolyte]

Lets hope they go for the attack option as we'll tear them apart. If they, however, opt for the damage limitation choice it could be a hard 90 minutes.

Just give us a win, we don't have to maul them, just win.

We've got these guys, Norwich and I think Palace. Teams fighting for their PL lives, more desperate and focused than any other team bar those going for the title. Perhaps even more so. Potential banana skin.

Stay frosty boys!

[Ne Moe Imya]

Every game is a cup final now.  And since I don't think we can realistically win 14 in a row, we'll probably drop points somewhere along the way.  The lads will have to be extremely careful not to be caught looking forward to next week against City.

[old skool tom]

long as we play high line and dont let them pump balls in box and pick up 2nd balls we should scrape through this by a goal or hopefully 2

 

think Sterling will play ahead of the little Brazilian

 

come on redmen!

[JermainePennant]

Every game is a cup final now.  And since I don't think we can realistically win 14 in a row, we'll probably drop points somewhere along the way.  The lads will have to be extremely careful not to be caught looking forward to next week against City.

I know what your saying about the 14 games but Im beginning to believe its possible to win all of them.

 

We have a week between every game so there's time to prepare and if the players keep their attitude and focus only on the next game we are good enough to win them all.

 

Very unlikely but not impossible, forget about how many games we have won and just look at the next, no doubt we are gonna have some close tense games though but hopefully they go our way.

[TheHowieLama]

If we win out we will be on a 14 game win streak and will have finished the second half of the season on 50 points  -  16W 2D 1L 

[DaveT]

This will be a very tough game, they have a very strong defence and we should remember they troubled us at anfield up until we got a deflected goal.

 

Their defender Collins has also handled Suarez as good as Ive seen anybody do, full focus is needed from the players for this game.

You're right about Collins, but Sturridge was out at the time, that will make a big difference at the weekend.. Just had a quick look, and the only time we've drawn a blank in the league when both S & S have been playing was the Arsenal game.