The way the team responded after the second goal was excellent until Gerrard had to be subbed off, which slowed things down. But during that time West Ham had no hope of getting the ball out of their half. I think Allen proved he can bring something unique to the side. His pressing was better than anything seen from Gerrard and Lucas. Then when Gerrard had to go off, Allen became more of a playmaker and picked some great passes as the second of the three midfielders. It looked like when Allen was moved into Gerrard's position and Lucas was moved back we lost some pace in the pressing. Lucas isn't too fast is he?
Nice to see the performances by Sakho, Allen, Sterling, Kelly today. We're going to need solid contributions from all of them over the course of the season methinks.
2 man midfield gets overrun quit easily especially if Gerrard shirks the tracking of runners duty. What we need are three men who pass and move into space, and a defence that compresses play as the midfield moves forward. We did that during that wonderful spell.
I think part of the problem is with the roles the players are asked to play: look at how well Allen played once Gerrard had to be subbed off: when the role was one his skills were more suited for, he played even better. Lucas is still an oaf. I understood taking his time to come back from his injury, but he's actually played worse than when he did when he first came back. He gives the ball away way too often and too cheaply. I hope Gerrard is ok, but still: my kingdom for a midfield destroyer: hey Barca can we have Masch back please? Thank you. All in all the team played well: I am just so happy with how well Allen played today. After he was slagged for missing that sitter against the Bitters I was hoping he would turn it around. And someday I want to see Skrtel as a forward: the man has a nose for goal.
God bless Luis Suarez. Best player in the league by far. Hope the team can keep this form into the new year
Scary thing was he had a "bad" game in the sense that he had 2-3 opportunities that he usually buries and didn't today.
Ooooooooh, so THAT's this Joe Allen I keep hearing about. Good match by Sterling, too. I hope he keeps it up. Sakho is a beast.
I thought both had a great game but all through the 90 minutes I was especially pleased for how proud someone would be after that stellar performance...
If he can string together a few more games like that then i think it's safe to say Allen's back. What was most pleasing though is he was actually passing the damn ball forwards.
He always did, anyone who plays that deep(including Gerrard who I think has perfected the Allen Swansea position) will do, as most of their team mates are ahead of them. I like Allen, really do, but I have always preferred Gerrard and Lucas in CM as although they might be slightly inferior in possession and recycling of the ball one is better at tackling and inceptions while the other is better at creating goal scoring chances while maintaining a high pass and move play. If Gerrard is injured or Lucas(or out of form in the case of our Brasillian) then I would have no qualms about Allen stepping up to the plate and providing he has a decent run them I would be fully behind him being first choice.
I'll agree with all of that except maybe the interceptions part, for me allen edges lucas in that department. If stevie is fresh for tottenham, it will be interesting to see who brendan decides to play in the holding role though.
Not much to add... I only managed to catch the match from 30mins in (visiting family in Cornwall and it took longer to get back to the cottage from Tintagel than was planned...), so it sounds like I missed the tedious part. I was really pleased with the attacking play we showed. I'm not sure we'll be that dominant in other games, but we completely dominated for most of the game. As others have noted, we did drop some in the possession when we subbed in Lucas, Moses, and Kelly, but I thought we regained our composure after a couple of minutes. I thought Sterling was better on the night, but giving Moses a runout gives Rodgers a good opportunity to see the two of them side-by-side. I also thought bringing in Kelly for Flanagan was for the same reason. I thought Flanagan did better on the night, but at least Kelly gets into a game and gets some match fitness in case we need to put him in for Johnson at some point.
Visiting family in Tintagel. You never mentioned that the Pendragon's (Uther and Arthur) were kin. Be fun in Cornwall right now, unless you want to sit on a beach! Fairly empty roads and no tourists.
Missed the game as was busy this weekend, just caught up with the highlights. Glad to see us keep banging those goals in. We have been prolific all year, ever since Sturridge arrived in Jan. I reckon we have the most Prem goals in 2013. While we keep scoring so many, we can still win if we make an error and concede a goal, as happened in this game and a few other times this season. Suarez with a great header today keeps his scoring going and his willingness to shoot gave us a further 2 goals via the Lampard specials. The weekend results were kind to us. We gained ground on all the other big teams except Spurs who were really lucky with their winner against the bottom side, Sunderland. Let's just keep winning our games, and the table will take care of itself as we can see big teams are dropping pts every week.
LOL! Yes had a great time. Unfortunately flying back home and back to work tonight... Sigh. Did enjoy the winding roads and long walks along the shorelines. Weather was typical, mizzle and windy, but it was good to see family again and have a chance to enjoy a short break from the grind.
I missed the last two games and couldn't tape them because the were on Extra. I feel like that guy in the beer comercial..Maybe I should stay in the basement the next game
Stats from 365 At some point Coutinho is going to go on a goalscoring rampage. He actually averages more shots a game than Sturridge, he just needs to pick better opportunities. His time will come.
If you join the club website, all the games are available in full a day or so after they are played. Used to be the e-season ticket, not sure what they are calling it now. Well worth the few bucks a month.
Cool. I have mentioned before our scoring rate being notable. The stats show that the most goals LFC have scored in a Premier League season is 77, when they finished 2nd in 08/09. LFC have scored 86 in their last 38 matches. In other words the last 38 Prem games have seen LFC being their prolific in the Prem era. The last 12 months has seen us score more Prem goals than ever before by some distance. If we keep scoring so highly until the end of this season, it will be a good season for us. Rodgers has successfully transformed the team into a very attacking side. The goals don't lie.
Saw on Reddit, someone made a crazily stupid bet that Suarez wouldn't bag 20 in the league this year, of course he was a United fan.