Text here to move the logos across. please log in to view this image please log in to view this image Hello and welcome to the official match thread for Saturday’s Barclays Premier League encounter between West Bromwich Albion & Liverpool. The game is scheduled to take place at the Hawthorns on Saturday the 18th of August 2012 at 3PM. Because of the date & time of this game, English TV is unable to show the match. However, streams showing the game are posted before & during the match itself. BBC Radio Five Live has the radio rights to the game. Preview. The new Premier League season starts on Saturday with 6 games kicking off at 3PM on Saturday, 1 at 5.30PM on the Saturday, 2 on the Sunday & 1 more on the Monday. However, it’s one of the 6 games kicking off at 3PM which we will be concentrating on. It’s West Bromwich Albion vs Liverpool which we will be looking at today. It’s the battle of two managers who haven’t managed their current clubs in the Premier League so far and will be looking to get their seasons off to the best possible start. I’ll start by taking an in-depth look at the home side. West Bromwich Albion have endured a busy summer with one manager leaving, a new one being appointed and an influx of new signings. Last season, West Brom enjoyed an excellent season. Under the stewardship of ex-Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson, they never looked like joining the battle at the wrong end of the table and finished in the top half of the table. (10th position) Highlights of the season just gone for West Brom would have included wins over Chelsea at the Hawthorns, beating Liverpool at Anfield & their demolition job on Black Country derby rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers. However, it was all change at the end of the season with Roy Hodgson taking up the post as England manager after Fabio Capello’s departure and that left the West Brom chairman Jeremy Peace looking for a new manager. Many names were linked with the job including the current Norwich City manager Chris Hughton, Claudio Ranieri & Ralf Rangnick but Jeremy Peace decided to give Steve Clarke his first ever managerial position. Clarke has vast coaching experience having served under Rudd Gullit at Newcastle, Jose Mourinho at Chelsea & Kenny Dalglish at Liverpool. He has already been busy in the transfer market having brought in five players including the permanent transfer of Ben Foster after the goalkeeper completed a successful loan spell at the Baggies last season. He has also brought in Romelu Lukaku on loan from Chelsea after the Belgium international found himself down the pecking order at Stamford Bridge. With the continental structure currently in place at West Brom, Clarke may have found himself at a club ideally suited to him. Having Dan Ashworth working on transfer dealings and contract negotiations will allow Clarke to do what he does best... Coaching the players. Looking at the squad, I would anticipate a relatively attacking team & formation. Last season’s top scorer, Peter Odemwingie, will be expected to play up-front and he could be joined in the attacking positions by Shane Long, who performed well for West Brom last season with 8 goals. There is also Romelu Lukaku, who has already been mentioned in this article and Marc-Antoine Fortune. One of Steve Clarke's summer signings, striker Markus Rosenberg is still building up match fitness and is expected to miss the visit of Liverpool. In midfield, it is slightly trickier to predict. Youssouf Mulumbu seems likely to start in the middle of the park but on the wings, things get even more difficult for Steve Clarke. James Morrison, Chris Brunt & Yassine El Ghanassy can all play on the wings and will be looking to get the nod. Morrison & Brunt are the proven players in midfield for West Brom so Clarke may go with that proven quality but El Ghanassy has been excellent for West Brom in pre-season and many have forced his way into the starting 11. Moving onto the away side, Liverpool have also had a turbulent close season. After Kenny Dalglish was sacked by Liverpool’s American owners, they decided to bring in the Swansea manager Brendan Rodgers. He joined Liverpool on the 1st of June 2012 and has been in the post for around 2 & a half months. This has given Rodgers time to assess the squad he inherited from Kenny Dalglish and start to make changes to the squad. Many of the older & more experienced players have departed the club including Maxi Rodriguez, Craig Bellamy & Dirk Kuyt and younger players, in the shape of Fabio Borini & Joe Allen, have been brought in. Brendan Rodgers has already confirmed that Allen is in contention to face West Brom but i’ve a feeling that it will be off the bench. There will be many selection dilemmas for Rodgers to face going into his first league game in charge of Liverpool. Looking at the back five, that seems settled with Reina, Johnson, Skrtel, Agger & Enrique. Barring any injuries, that should be the back five that faces West Brom. The midfield and forward positions are more difficult to predict. Rodgers’ preferred formation is 4-3-3 and this could see Gerrard-Lucas-Shelvey making up the three in midfield. Lucas would be expected to do his defensive job in the middle and Gerrard would also be expected to start. The last position in that three is more difficult to predict with one of Charlie Adam, Jonjo Shelvey & Joe Allen expected to fill that position. As I have already mentioned, I would expect Allen to start from the bench and join the action in the second half. Jonjo Shelvey has impressed in Liverpool’s pre-season games and would be in a good position to start the first game. Charlie Adam is another option available to Rodgers. In the forward positions, you can expect the combination Downing-Suarez-Borini to be the three to start the game. However, there will probably be many options available to Rodgers including Andy Carroll, who scored in the final pre-season game against Bayer Leverkusen and Raheem Sterling, who also scored against Bayer Leverkusen in pre-season. All in all, we can look forward to a good game! Two sides & managers who will be looking to get off to the best possible start and set their team up for a successful season. Looking forward to it! Injury News. West Bromwich Albion. Jonas Olsson: Knock.* James Morrison: Ankle/Foot Injury.* Jerome Thomas: Knock. Liam Ridgewell: Hip/Thigh Injury. *These players will have a late fitness test to determine their availability for tommorow's game. Liverpool. No injuries currently recorded so Liverpool have a fully fit squad to choose from. West Bromwich Albion 3 - 0 Liverpool Goalscorers: West Bromwich Albion... Zoltan Gera: 43rd minute. West Bromwich Albion... Peter Odemwingie: 64th minute. West Bromwich Albion... Romelu Lukaku: 77th minute. West Bromwich Albion: Foster - Reid McAuley Olsson Ridgewell - Brunt Yacob Mulumbu - Odemwingie Lukaku Fortune SUBS: Myhill Jara Dawson El Ghanassy Morrison Gera Long - West Bromwich Albion Substitution: Shane Long comes off to be replaced by Romelu Lukaku: 68th minute. West Bromwich Albion Substitution: Zoltan Gera comes off to be replaced by Marc-Antoine Fortune: 68th minute. West Bromwich Albion Substitution: James Morrison comes off to be replaced by Chris Brunt: 82nd minute. - Liverpool: Reina - Kelly Carragher Skrtel Johnson - Borini Allen Gerrard Suarez - Carroll SUBS: Jones Lucas Henderson Adam Shelvey Downing Cole - Sent off: Daniel Agger (58th minute) - Liverpool Substitution: Stewart Downing comes off to be replaced by Jamie Carragher: 60th minute. Liverpool Substitution: Lucas Leiva comes off to be replaced by Joe Cole: 69th minute. Liverpool Substitution: Joe Cole comes off to be replaced by Andy Carroll: 79th minute. - YNWA.
Will thank you in advance for all the work you will put into these through the season Chris. Thank you
This is going to be a very poor thread, I feel. There are no Baggies fans on the Internet, so zero banter, no jive talkin' nothing.... Just been over to their forum.... [video=youtube;1WhhSBgd3KI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WhhSBgd3KI[/video]
Good pre season that finished with 3 wins, including 2 competitive matches. I can only see a win, start quick, strong and get the early goals and should be fine.... 3-1 to us. Would like to see an unchanged side, with Shelvey playing, but Allen may start or at least feature later and dont see new guy featuring at all. Gotta play strongest 11: ------------------Reina Johnson----Skrtel-----Agger----Enrique ------------------Lucas ---------Gerrard---------Shelvey Downing----------Suarez---------Borini Subs: Jones, Carra, Kelly, Allen, Henderson, Sterling, Carroll
Wonder if we could use that there not606 twitter to drum up some Baggie interest... And Nice to see Chris back in 5th gear!
Head: I wanted to say win but we rarely start the league campaign with three points, especially away from home against a lower ranked side so I took the draw. Heart: We'll win 3-0 Edit: we need to hit the ground running and we have already played two competitive games, that is two very good reasons for the heart prediction
Clean sheet would be nice for starters,a solid 0-2 win and three points. You never know with these first games of a new season,there can be some unexpected scorelines. I reckon we'll hit the ground running and take the points.
Best match thread yet, fair play to Chris top job. May not be a good thread for banter but the usual suspects from our board will be on here and enjoying it so it will be good.
reckon we all know the team which is an interesting thing. one in and one to happen today? maybe that will mix it up too. need to win this but can't discount the baggies. it will be a FIRST test of where we are at in terms of preparation. gomel are rubbish but we got good benefit from it but will we find we are flying or not at the races, you never know which makes day one all the better i guess.
They have the option Of Lukaku and Rosenberg up front, both big fellas and are a threat not to be scoffed at.
Here we go! Nice one Chris. As someone has pointed out, doubt there'll be too much two-way traffic on this thread, but who gives one? It's great to be back. I sniff a win Keep 'em coming Chris lad.
Is it wrong that I appreciate these threads but rarely actually read them? I usually just skip to the injury news and, eventually, the line-ups if I'm watching online.
