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 West Ham United & Liverpool. The game is scheduled to be played on Sunday 9th December 2012 at Upton Park with a kick-off time of 4PM. Sky Sports One will be showing the game & BBC Radio Five Live Sports Extra will have the radio rights to the game. Preview. The second Premier League game on Sunday sees high-flying West Ham take on Liverpool at Upton Park. Both sides will be looking to secure back-to-back Premier League victories and push up the table. The home side, West Ham United, came back from 1-0 down to beat Chelsea at Upton Park. Juan Mata had given Chelsea a 13th minute lead but 3 second-half goals from Carlton Cole, Mohamed Diame & Modibo Maiga gave West Ham the three points. Liverpool also collected the three points last Saturday as they beat Southampton 1-0 at Anfield. Liverpool created many chances in the game but it was an unlikely source that took one of those chances and gave Liverpool the three points. Liverpool’s Danish centre-back, Daniel Agger, rose highest to connect with a cross and powered the ball into the Southampton net. Both sides therefore go into the game on the back of Premier League victories. Liverpool have played once more since their Premier League game last Saturday as they travelled to Italy to face Udinese in the Europa League. Thursday’s game was important for Liverpool as they needed the victory to secure qualification from their group and into the last 32. Liverpool secured a 1-0 victory through a 23rd minute goal from midfielder Jordan Henderson. This result meant that Liverpool qualified and because BSC Young Boys beat Anzhi Makhachkala 3-1 in the other game, Liverpool finished in top spot. Let’s take a closer look at both sides and the players that could have a big effect on Sunday’s game. The home side, West Ham, have had an excellent start to the season. After Sam Allardyce secured promotion from the Championship last season, his side has kicked on and started the season very well. We are now over a third of the way into the season and West Ham sit in 10th position with 22 points from 15 games. Allardyce, the board & the fans will be very happy with that start to the season and will be looking to continue it going into the Christmas period and beyond. Some astute signings from Allardyce have contributed to this good period of form for West Ham. Players such as Jussi Jaaskelainen, Mohamed Diame & Matt Jarvis are all good, reliable players and this has helped West Ham start the season in a solid fashion. Jaaskelainen proved during his 15 years at Bolton Wanderers that he was a good ‘keeper and this reliability and experience is crucial for a side who have just been promoted. Add into this the likes of Mohamed Diame and Matt Jarvis who have performed in the Premier League and you have some good players who know what the Premier League is all about. Diame seems likely to be an important player for West Ham in tomorrow’s game. The midfield enforcer changed the Chelsea game in West Ham’s favour last weekend. He was brought on as a half-time substitute after West Ham were completely outplayed in the first half and were 1-0 down. His introduction allowed West Ham to gain a foothold in the midfield and close down the acres of space that Chelsea were exploiting in the first half. This therefore gave West Ham a better platform in an attacking sense and three second-half goals showed this. Good management from Sam Allardyce and his excellent performance seems likely to be rewarded with a start in tomorrow’s game. Certainly a player Liverpool will have to watch if they are to get anything out of tomorrow’s game. Another key area for West Ham will be the strikers. West Ham had gone with the Liverpool loanee Andy Carroll for a large part of the season but the striker injured his knee in a 1-0 defeat at Manchester United and was ruled out for eight weeks. This left West Ham with a decision to make in the attacking sector. Ricardo Vaz Te is also injured so that left them with Carlton Cole & Modibo Maiga as their two senior strikers. West Ham went with Cole from the start last week and Maiga from the bench. Both scored goals so Allardyce has a difficult decision to make! I believe that they will go with Carlton Cole from the start and Modibo Maiga from the bench if needed. Cole has that aerial presence that will be of great use for the likes of Kevin Nolan who can work with Cole to collect any balls Cole wins in the air. If West Ham are to secure a good result, they will need Carlton Cole to put in another good performance and hassle the Liverpool defence which should give the likes of Kevin Nolan a loose ball to pounce upon. The away side, Liverpool, have had a mixed season so far under Brendan Rodgers. The start of the season wasn’t what anyone at Liverpool would have hoped for as it took six games to register a Premier League victory. Since that victory (5-2 away at Norwich on the 29th September) Liverpool have lost just once and have started to pick up more positive results. One issue you would look at is the number of draws in that time. 5 draws in their last 10 games has meant that Liverpool haven’t been able to start a run of results and points. They will be hoping to so that tomorrow and collect their first back-to-back Premier League wins this season. If they are to do that, they will have to do it without the services of Luis Suarez. Liverpool's only fit and available striker is to serve a one-match ban after picking up his fifth yellow card of the season against Southampton last weekend. The most likely option seems to be to use attacking midfielder Jonjo Shelvey in the central attacking position. The midfielder, who spend three years at West Ham during his youth career, has already played in that position this season. He was deployed as a striker in Liverpool’s 2-2 draw with Young Boys in the Europa League and responded well to this position by opening the scoring with a header. At the other end of the pitch, Liverpool are looking good. 4 clean sheets in Liverpool’s last 6 games in all competitions will breed confidence throughout the team. The return of Lucas Leiva will also be a massive boost to Liverpool in a defensive and an attacking sense! The midfielder completed 88 minutes in Liverpool’s 1-0 win over Southampton last weekend and produced a good performance considering he has been out for the best part of a year with two seperate injuries. If Lucas does play tomorrow, he will be a crucial player for Liverpool. Another good performance from the Brazilian international could help Liverpool control the midfield and dictate the game from the middle of the park. A battle between him and Diame should be interesting and could be pivotal to the outcome of the game. So, a good game to look forward to! Can West Ham extend their excellent start to the season with a victory over Liverpool? Or can Liverpool & Brendan Rodgers secure back-to-back Premier League victories without their main striker? You’ll find the answers to those questions and many more on the official match thread on the Not606 Liverpool board. Injury News. West Ham United. Alou Diarra: Thigh Muscle Strain. Jack Collison: Knee Injury. Yossi Benayoun: Knee Injury. Ricardo Vaz Te: Dislocated Shoulder. Andy Carroll: Knee Injury. Liverpool. Martin Kelly: ACL Knee Injury. Nuri Sahin: Broken Nose. Fabio Borini: Foot Injury. Suspension News. West Ham United. No suspensions currently recorded. Liverpool. Luis Suarez will serve a one-match suspension after picking up his fifth yellow card of the season. West Ham United 2 - 3 Liverpool Goalscorers: Liverpool... Glen Johnson: 11th minute. West Ham United... Mark Noble: 36th minute. (Penalty) West Ham United... Steven Gerrard: 43rd minute. (Own Goal) Liverpool... Joe Cole: 76th minute. Liverpool... Jonjo Shelvey: 79th minute. West Ham United: Jaaskelainen - O'Brien Reid Tomkins Collins McCartney - Noble Nolan Jarvis - Maiga Cole SUBS: Spiegel Spence Demel Moncur Diame O'Neil Taylor - West Ham United Substitution: Guy Demel comes off to be replaced by George McCartney. (45th minute) West Ham United Substitution: Mohamed Diame comes off to be replaced by James Tomkins. (73rd minute) West Ham United Substitution: Matthew Taylor comes off to be replaced by Modibo Maiga. (86th minute) - Liverpool: Reina - Johnson Skrtel Coates Agger - Downing Henderson Gerrard - Sterling Shelvey Cole SUBS: Jones Carragher Enrique Lucas Allen Suso Morgan - Liverpool Substitution: Jose Enrique comes off to be replaced by Joe Cole. (27th minute) Liverpool Substitution: Lucas Leiva comes off to be replaced by Jordan Henderson. (71st minute) Liverpool Substitution: Joe Allen comes off to be replaced by Sebastian Coates. (86th minute) - YNWA.
Shelvey will lead the line tomorrow. Big responsibility. But I believe he can do a good job. I only expect one change from last weekend. Joe Cole in for the suspended Luis Suarez. Shelvey playing F9, Cole RF.
I think that if Shelvey is up front then it's important to have two speed merchants out wide. West Ham might feel that they can afford to play a high line with Shelvey up front, so if players can run beyond him and Shelvey's hold up play is good enough then we could trouble West Ham on the counter
Great thread as usual Chris. I may not respond in them all but they are all read! I think it will be a frustrating game and think it will be a scorr draw. I believe our best chance of a win will be if we score first and continue keeping as much of the ball as we have all season.
Adam Morgan IS IN the squad 2moro, suspect the best he may get is the bench, but hes defo in the squad This 11/12 wont be far away from the team Reina Jonno Skrts Agger Jose Lucas Suso/Hendo Gerrard Allen Sterling Shelvey
Don't know if it quite matches up to my match day thread for the Southampton game Chris Should be an interesting game and a good indication of if we really are THAT dependant on Suarez when he plays. Hopefully his absense means someone else will step up to the mark
The way I see it, we are dependant on his finishing, but not so much his creativity. Hopefully someone will step up tomorrow though Also good to see that Morgan is in the squad. I think it's important to have at least one recognised striker as an option, despite his inexperience.
I'd settle for a draw, our games against you guys generally end in a loss, that said your team doesn't inspire the fear it once did and West Ham winning wouldn't be the shock it once was. COYI
Think the lack of Suarez wil put pressure on EVERY body else to be more effective infront of goal tomorrow. I think we will win and win well. Wont be our best performance of the season, but is going to be our best ecoreline. 3-0 (Shelvey, Suso and Johnson.) Hers hoping
Reasons we will lose: 1.) I am watching 2.) RHC gay ****ing beams 3.) Zingy and IBWT are watching Reasons we will win: 1.) Because we are Liverpool ****ing FC!!! please log in to view this image
Morning Kopites, Should be a good game this one, shame I'll miss it due to our fixture with Spuds. Interesting clash of styles, tippy tappy meets brute force Big Sam style. I hope someone crocks that big **** house Nolan. Not going to make a prediction, as it could go either way.
Should be a cracking game with Tottenham. We will struggle without a striker today and West Ham, well they are a less aggressive, but more effective Stoke.
Good luck against Spurs by the way, would much rather you guys finish above them. I'm probably one of the few that want to see you do well... just so long as you let us catch up and finish above you of course.
agree with organic red, i don't mind Everton doing well, as long as its not as good as us, never hear the ruddy end of it not sure about the game to be honest. dreading it if i am honest, without Luis not sure where the spark or moment of brilliance is going to come from, but like others have said lets hope it makes the rest have to step up to the plate and chip in with goals. has draw written all over it, but be nice to get 3pts some how.
