Lallana's Big Debut

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Actually that's a very good point and one I hadn't considered until now, sometimes even if your a top player you need the right player with you helping out ,remember it said that Shilton was worth 10 pts a season at least because of his talking and organising of the defence

Exactly, and now instead of Artur behind him he's got Mrs. Miggins.
 
A good tactic/team set-up makes everyone look good. And a bad set-up makes everyone look bad. Both are at play here. Lovren doesn't have the same help from the midfield at Liverpool. It seems to me like the player/position that Liverpool really needed to replace was Gerrard. But because of his iconic status, they spent on every position EXCEPT that one.. on players they didn't necessarily need or aren't that good.

LFC is completely disorganized at the back as well. Lovren took a huge knock from his own player on a nothing ball; there was no reason for two players to even get bunched up going for that ball, much less fail to communicate so badly they collide.

Their defense was a little shaky last year. But rather than fix the problem via coaching by adjusting tactics or emphasizing defense in practice or something, I think they just decided they'd sign Lovren as a magic fix.

Spot on there but BRenda does not have the bottle (if he has even noticed the problem) to drop/replace Gerrard who is just not good enough anymore.
 
Slobodan will be off at HT, probs.

Can we stop the Slobodan thing please? Firstly it's geographically inaccurate, secondly it's not funny, thirdly it's kinda borderline iffy. Mainly because it's just not funny though.

It's the equivalent to calling German players Adolf.
 
A good tactic/team set-up makes everyone look good. And a bad set-up makes everyone look bad. Both are at play here. Lovren doesn't have the same help from the midfield at Liverpool. It seems to me like the player/position that Liverpool really needed to replace was Gerrard. But because of his iconic status, they spent on every position EXCEPT that one.. on players they didn't necessarily need or aren't that good.

LFC is completely disorganized at the back as well. Lovren took a huge knock from his own player on a nothing ball; there was no reason for two players to even get bunched up going for that ball, much less fail to communicate so badly they collide.

Their defense was a little shaky last year. But rather than fix the problem via coaching by adjusting tactics or emphasizing defense in practice or something, I think they just decided they'd sign Lovren as a magic fix.

Rodgers panicked and went to 3 at the back today which actually made the problem worse, as then they had 3 CB's not communicating. But you're right, Gerrard is key to the whole thing: not content with losing them the title last year, he's trying to get them relegated this season.
 
To be fair the pressure playing for Liverpool is far greater than playing at Saints and lovren looks like a cat caught in the headlights at present , have no sympathy for him , just can understand his performance up till now , long may it continue lol
 
Funny thing about soem Liverpool fans. They seem to think that Lallana's lack of pace is due to him "still returning to full fitness", and the same about him only playing for an hour.

Now, I can barely remember what I had for breakfast, let alone last season or before, but refresh my memory. Wasn't he always like that?
 
From the Telegraph. Love it :)

The replacement of Valencia by centre-half James Collins with 15 minutes left heralded another change of formation - this time West Ham to 5-5-0 - as Allardyce recalibrated his team's phasers to "hoof".

As Liverpool ran themselves into a lather, West Ham applied the finish. Downing, still in superhero mode, broke out of defence and played the ball into the path of substitute Morgan Amalfitano, who placed the ball past Mignolet.

They were dancing in the aisles. A Sam Allardyce team had just given Liverpool a footballing lesson. Work that one out.
 
If there was any player who regretted leaving, who do you reckon would it most likely be ?

Right now, I bet it's Rickie. Someone posted on here about never meting your heroes as it can be a let-down. Well, I reckon Rickie feels a little bit flat about what's happening at Liverpool. The other two probably just knock one out over the extra cash.
 
From the Telegraph. Love it :)

The replacement of Valencia by centre-half James Collins with 15 minutes left heralded another change of formation - this time West Ham to 5-5-0 - as Allardyce recalibrated his team's phasers to "hoof".

As Liverpool ran themselves into a lather, West Ham applied the finish. Downing, still in superhero mode, broke out of defence and played the ball into the path of substitute Morgan Amalfitano, who placed the ball past Mignolet.

They were dancing in the aisles. A Sam Allardyce team had just given Liverpool a footballing lesson. Work that one out.

I almost wanted a Liverpool equaliser when Fat Sam did that. For most the game West ham played some really neat football (I think Noble and Song is a good combo) but then he couldn't resist 15 minutes of hoof at the end.
 
The press and pundits seem to like Big Sam don't they? Seems to me a bit of an anomaly. There will be the odd game like today where they put on a performance. When I say performance, I mean of course that they actually play football. You then proceed to get this palpable sense of relief almost, from the press and pundits. How and why is this. A majority of the time they are truly awful to watch, but they never go to town on him.

Glad they won today though.
 
I would never accuse West Ham of playing attractive football, but I do have a bit of grudging respect for Allardyce.

He actually plays a good brand of hoofball. Yes, they play long passes an awful lot, but it's not ALL long passes. And in general there's a little bit of organization and tactical thought into even their longballs. It's not just kick and pray.

I mean, overall yeah I think West Ham plays rather boring and I'd prefer never to play that way. I just think it's a little unfair that they seem to be the poster club for "hoofball" when there are others who do it more, are even worse to watch, and don't even manage to get results. They are nowhere near as bad as Pulis Stoke or Sunderland.