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 Sunday’s Barclays Premier League encounter between Swansea City & Liverpool. The game is scheduled to be played at the Liberty Stadium on Sunday 25th November 2012 with a kick-off time of 1.30PM. Sky Sports One will be showing Sunday’s game (Build-up begins at 1PM) & talkSPORT have the radio rights to the game. Preview. Swansea City welcome Liverpool to the Liberty Stadium on Sunday in what is an important game for both sides. The main focus of the game has been the return of Brendan Rodgers & Joe Allen to the Liberty after they left Swansea City in the summer to join Liverpool. Tomorrow’s game is the second time the two sides have met this season after they were drawn together in the fourth round of the Capital One Cup. The two sides were changed compared to the sides that had played in the Premier League on the weekend before and Swansea City came out on top in this encounter. Michael Laudrup’s side produced an excellent performance and thoroughly deserved the 3-1 victory which put them into the quarter-finals for the first time in their history. Liverpool will be looking to avenge that defeat and collect the three points which would move Brendan Rodgers side above Swansea City in the table and into the top half of the Barclays Premier League table. On the other hand, Swansea City will be looking to beat Liverpool for the second time this season and move towards the upper echelons of the Premier League table. The home side, Swansea City, will want to continue a good run of recent form and pick up those all important three points at the Liberty Stadium. A victory tomorrow would give Swansea their third home victory and could see them move into 7th place in the table. (That will depend on other results going their way) Michael Laudrup has continued the good work that Brendan Rodgers and others before him have done before him and this is once again paying dividends for Swansea. Laudrup has introduced a more counter-attacking play into the side and it is working well. Swansea’s last game was a hard-fought and deserved 2-1 victory over Newcastle United at St. James Park. Swansea were working well on the counter attack in that game and had chances to take the lead in the first-half. It took until the 58th minute for the first goal and it came for Swansea. One of the signings of the season so far and a beast for those who play fantasy football, Michu, got his eight goal of the season with a neatly-placed header. Not too bad for a player who cost £2M for Rayo Vallecano... Jonathan De Guzman then got Swansea’s second and despite Demba Ba pulling one back for Newcastle injury time, it wasn’t enough and Swansea secured an excellent away victory. This puts the Swans in good form going into tomorrow’s game and they have a wide variety of players who can harm many teams including Liverpool in tomorrow’s game. The big threat is one of the players I have already mentioned... Michu. The attacking midfielder/striker has been one of the finds of the season and 8 goals so far this season explains why. Before joining Swansea City, he scored 17 goals, from midfield, in a Rayo Vallecano side that finished 15th in La Liga and were only 2 points above 18th place. Goalscoring prowess like that should have seen a lot more clubs look at Michu but that didn’t seem to be the case and Michu was picked up by Laudrup and Swansea for a bargain fee of £2M. With a high level of technical ability and height to go with it, he will be a constant menace to the Liverpool centre-backs (Expected to be Martin Skrtel & Daniel Agger) and his ability to seek out that space will see him trouble Liverpool and keeping him quiet will be crucial if Liverpool are to get anything out of this game. Stopping the supply to Michu will also be crucial for Liverpool. If Liverpool can press Swansea and stop the likes of Leon Britton getting on the ball and controlling the tempo of the game, they will have a good chance of getting something out of the game but if they don’t, Swansea will control things (As they have done many times at home) and they will start getting the balls into the likes of De Guzman, Dyer & Michu and they will start creating chances. The away side, Liverpool, also come into the game on the back of a victory in their last Premier League game. A 3-0 victory over Wigan Athletic last Saturday extended Liverpool’s unbeaten run to 7 games and moved them up to 11th. (Liverpool are now 12th after Stoke’s victory over Fulham earlier today) Luis Suarez was once again in the thick of things for Liverpool. The striker scored twice to move onto 10 Premier League goals and 13 in all competitions this season. This is a striker in excellent form and Swansea will need to negate his threat as much as possible. One of the players who will be looking to do that is Swansea defender Ashley Williams. The defender has been in the news in the past few days after extracts of his new book ‘My Premier League Diary’ included a strongly worded attack on Suarez. Williams said of Suarez: 'Suarez has that aura about him that says i'm untouchable and his manner and behaviour made me want to knock him out. The manner in which he approached the game, with utter contempt for us all, means that he's streets ahead of any player I've truly disliked since we've been in the Premier League. Strong words indeed and it will be interesting to see the battle between those two tomorrow afternoon... Another Liverpool player who Swansea will focus on is Joe Allen. The ex-Swansea midfielder left Swansea City in the summer in a deal reported to be worth £15M and has performed well in Liverpool’s midfield. The midfielder hasn’t been at his best lately but is still an important player for Liverpool and Swansea will know all about his abilities and they will be looking to contain that. Along with Joe Allen, some of the focus will on the return of Brendan Rodgers to the Liberty Stadium. The Northern Irishmen was highly successful as the manager of Swansea and became the first manager to take a Welsh club into the Premier League after a play-off win over Reading. He then took Swansea to 11th in their debut season in the Premier League before taking the Liverpool job after Kenny Dalglish left after poor results in the Premier League. So, another important game in prospect! Can Swansea secure another win over Liverpool and keep their good run of form going? Or will Brendan Rodgers secure the three points on his return to the Liberty Stadium? You’ll find out the answers to these questions and more on the official match on the Not606 Liverpool board! Do join in. (That includes the guests that read this thread. Sign up and get involved!) Injury/Suspension News. Swansea City. Michel Vorm: Groin Injury. Darnel Situ: Achilles Injury. Neil Taylor: Ankle Injury. Liverpool. Martin Kelly: ACL Knee Injury. Lucas Leiva: Thigh Injury. Fabio Borini: Foot Injury. Swansea City 0 - 0 Liverpool Goalscorers: Swansea City: Tremmel - Rangel Williams Chico Davies - Britton Agustien - Dyer Ki-Sung-Yeung Hernandez - Michu SUBS: Cornell Monk Tiendalli de Guzman Routledge Lita Shechter - Swansea City Substitution: Itay Shechter comes off to be replaced by Ki-Sung-Yeung. (45th minute) Swansea City Substitution: Wayne Routledge comes off to be replaced by Nathan Dyer. (67th minute) Swansea City Substitution: Jonathan de Guzman comes off to be replaced by Kemy Agustien. (84th minute) - Liverpool: Reina - Johnson Skrtel Agger Enrique - Shelvey Allen Gerrard - Sterling Suarez Cole SUBS: Jones Carragher Coates Sahin Henderson Suso Downing - Liverpool Substitution: Jordan Henderson comes off to be replaced by Jonjo Shelvey. (77th minute) Liverpool Substitution: Stewart Downing comes off to be replaced by Joe Cole. (77th minute) - YNWA.
Hard to pick the 11 4 2moro , would say the 11 that started 2nd half last week, but Hendo was dire v Young Boys Im tempted to say the 11 that started v Wigan , really wanna see Suso given a run in the number 10 spot
Is 'ynwa' a welsh word? To say 'all results are possible' would, of course, apply to any game but particularly true for tomorrow's game. I have no idea which way it will go but if you twist my arm I would say 1-1. Hang on: I voted Swansea win on the poll so I'll change to 2-1
Whats the swans 11 gonna be No clue what the LFC 11 will be,which is unusual, usually you can work out who hes gonna play, off the last couple of games
I reckon: --------------Reina Johnson Skrtel Agger Enrique -----------Henderson -----Gerrard ------ Allen Suso ----Suarez -----Sterling. It'll be a close game. I've predicted us to win it 1-2, but I wouldn't be surprised by a narrow Swansea win or a draw, TBH. Here's to a cracker at the Liberty!
Ki is available for us tomorrow but may well start on the bench. My guess is, Tremmel. Rangel, Williams, Chico, Davies De Guzman, Michu, Britton Routledge, Shecter, Hernandez Joe Allen will get a warm welcome home, Brendan Rodgers on the other hand will not. I fully expect this to be a cracker of a game. Most teams visiting us park the bus and kick the living daylights out of our players, at least we're safe in the knowledge this wont happen tomorrow. We're a better team this season an it's caught a few by surprise already the same can be said of Liverpool too. No predictions as I think it's too tight to call except that I don't think it will be a bore draw. BTW, if we win I promise I will not dig "that" Avatar out again
Swansea are too good a side to beat without putting in a top class performance. I think that if our defence and midfield play to their potential and Suarez can do the buisness up front then we can win. Also I have a feeling that Enrique will be one to watch for us. I think CCC's team would be the best choice for this game.
Cheers RED. I picked the midfield for Athletic ability, to chase and harry as that's all you can do against decent passing teams. The front three pretty much pick themselves, although we could probably swap Sterling for Assaidi if we wanted him fresher for Spurs.
As everyone seems to agree any result possible tomorrow so difficult to prdeict. I am going for an exciting 2-2 with the Swans coming back twice from a goal down
Weather could have a big impact, not sure Hernandez will play well in the rain. Swans will not be overawed due to the recent win and they will really need to step up another level tomorrow as Liverpool are looking better. That win may count against us. Not sure whether the Williams crap will fire Suarez up, we shall see.
Six votes for Swansea, all from Swansea fans. Five votes for Liverpool, all from Liverpool fans. Didn't see that one coming The one draw was by a Swansea fan too
I'd like that line-up but I reckon Wisdom will be fit enough to play so with a slight tweak here and there: Reina Wisdom - Skrtel - Agger - Johnson Gerrard - Allen Suso Sterling - Suarez - Enrique
Very good Match day thread Chris, very much appreciated!............ This will be a tough one, Rodgers will have learned from the cup defeat, and he will have noted the strategy that Laudrup played, so it's going to be very tight in my view, the problem I see for Liverpool is, that they will need to up the pace of their game, if they are going to get anything from tomorrow, not easy when your players are on the passing and possession learning curve, it takes time to get up speed, as long as we keep Suarez quiet, we should edge it, and I'm going for a 2-1 win to Swansea, well I would, wouldn't I!..................... Team for tomorrow: ----------Tremmel------------ Rangel--- Williams--- Chico--- Davies De Guzman------Michu------Britton Dyer--------------------- Hernandez ----------------Shecter----------------- Slightly different line up to Dilli, Get in their lads!...................... please log in to view this image
Some additional news that I just heard from a very good source... Only boys allowed will be singing before the game to start the atmosphere going Can't wait for this one, I predicted a Swansea win because we always play better against the footballing sides, especially on our own patch. There's a lot of hype about Suarez, but we've kept better quiet, and even if he scores a hattrick, we'll just score 4
As I have pointed out in the past, I tend to look at our side and think how the opposition would setup against us. Obviously, when the game starts, I do tend to take notice of how that team does actually setup to see if I am close. What I have found this season is we have struggled when teams have put Allen under instant pressure. We look for him to control the flow from the middle, he keeps things ticking over and then start things going, teams are wise to this. Basically, I think this game depends on what both we and Swansea do with Allen. I don't really see Swansea paying special attention to him with the players available but I suspect (as shown above) that we will ask Allen to play deep again rather than introduce Henderson as a DM letting Gerrard and Allen have a bit more freedom further up the pitch. If this happens then it depends on how Suso and Suarez play along with how we handle Michu. Bit concerned with Dyer's pace too, we will have either Johnson or Enrique at LB. If it is Enrique then I suspect it will be Sterling in front so he won't get a great deal of help (he will get some), however Enrique is quick and is our best option for keeping up with Dyer. If it is Johnson then I have no concerns because it will be the Johnson/Enrique partnership down our left Hopefully we get a good game
