West Ham report

[TLW]

http://www.liverpoolway.co.uk/forum/news/71355-liverpool-0-west-ham-0-match-report.html

[Nick Leeson]

Thought that was a reasonably balanced article maybe slightly on the diplomatic side. A little bit.

[Neil G]

Good stuff as always Dave.

 

This bit really brought our predicament home to me:

 

I’m happy we’re top of the league, but it seems I’m coming out of virtually every game at Anfield thinking ‘fuck me, that was a bit shit like’. Boro, Liege, Stoke, Crewe, Wigan, Portsmouth, Marseille, Atletico, Fulham, and now West Ham. None of those performances were good enough.

 

 

I was trying to think yesterday how many good performances we'd actually put in this season, and it was a worryingly small number. I hadn't thought to look just at the home games, but they make even worse reading. The only good displays were against the Mancs, PSV and West Brom. One good performance in every four games is fucking shocking and needs sorting out urgently.

[Nick Leeson]

We have been ace at times this season it's just so frustrating that it's been at times when we'd normally not be execpected to win such as being 2 down at man city and away to Chelsea.

[Owen]

The only contention I'd have with that is where you say Fulham and West Ham aren't teams that put ten men behind the ball. Fulham have just decided to defend away from home as they had such a poor away record, and have, what, three or four 0-0s on the bounce now. West ham didn't move out of their own box last night and just booted it towards either Bellamy or Cole.

 

For me it's the same old problem of not being able to break these teams down, but at least we're trying to do it the right way by keeping patient and keeping the game as wide as possible.

[Nick Leeson]

I agree Owen. I think we're poor in posession when we're allowed to build an attack. We're often pretty good on the break and we can be excellent at playing without the ball and not allowing teams past us we just don't have the creativity within the squad.

 

The creativity needs to come from more than one channel; it doesn't mater how good, clever or accurate Alonso's and Gerrard's passing is if no one is making clever enough runs. How about 2 players making runs so the defenders have to make a quick decision as to which one they follow? It just doesn't happen and when we're in posession our players who are waiting for a pass are so fucking static. Pisses me right off.

[Stefan]

I didn't see the game yesterday but were we really that bad? Watched extended highlights of the game today and we seemed to create a number of chances.

[Maldini]

I thought we actually played pretty well, we just didn't finish any of our chances. The only disappointing thing was we didn't get enough bodies into the box for crosses.

[aws]

West Ham defended really well too - hardly any errors at all - except for the left back with the invisible (to the ref) arms.

[stringvest]

Good stuff Dave. We don't have the tools to open up a determined defence. We need a good version of a Benayoun type player.

[dave u]

Fulham had two up front, and a central midfield pair of Murphy and Bullard. They also had an attack minded player on one of the flanks in Dempsey. Just because they defended well doesn't make them defensive. West Ham were a bit more defensive, but they were hardly Stoke or Portsmouth.

 

We didn't play badly last night, we just didn't play well enough and most of the chances we had were corners that Sami got on the end of.

[dave u]

We have been ace at times this season it's just so frustrating that it's been at times when we'd normally not be execpected to win such as being 2 down at man city and away to Chelsea.

 

We've also had little spells in games where we've looked really good, but we never seem to sustain it for a full game.

 

Even the West Brom game, one of the few home games that didn't depress the shit out of me, we stopped playing at half time. It's frustrating, as there's a good team in there waiting to be let out.

[Newport]

It's official. Dave is Sylar and has eaten my brain. Great report.

[Red '84]

spot on report, i cant bring myself to spend too much time on the ff at the moment as it wont do my health any good.

 

and to think were top of the league.

i saw on ss that rafa's ready to give hammill a chance in the new year.

i think we need to freshen things up front, give nemeth or pacheco a run in one of these games.

[Red '84]

think this is the most depressed ive felt about our home form since the houllier era.

[ratcatcher]

Good report Dave.

 

Chin up boys, do you really think the filth walked away with that first title in 26 years? How many shit results or flukes did they get?

 

We all know we need to improve, not least the players but let's keep behind them.

[Paul]

Bang on the money about Keane, Dave.

[dalglish2rush]

good stuff as always dave,always a good read.