Since everyone seems a little reluctant to start the match thread, I’ll do the honours again.
It’s West Ham at Anfield. The hammers have improved defensively since Nuno Espirito Santo took over, so this has the potential to be another tight match. They are currently 3rd from bottom and two points adrift of Nottingham Forest.
The teams immediately above us don’t play until later, so a win could temporarily move us into 5th place and a rout could even see us up to 4th.
Match Officials: Referee: Tim Robinson. Assistants: Richard West, Marc Perry. Fourth official: Chris Kavanagh. VAR: Michael Salisbury. Assistant VAR: Adrian Holmes.
I think this is the first time that Tim Robinson has refereed us from the start, although he was the substitute referee for the second half of the Brentford match.
As it is a good old-fashioned Saturday 3pm kick-off it won’t be available (legally) live on TV in the UK.
No word yet on the pre-match press conference, so I would expect a usual Friday morning slot for that.
The most important match of the season.
I hope Anfield doesn’t fall asleep. I probably sleep during the match and catch up on the replay. Sleeping will increase the chances that I won’t know the score before watching the replay.
The two following this match are Tuesday in the PL against Wolves (away) and then Friday in the FA Cup Wolves away again. Then we get a 9 day break.
Given the team just had a break (last week), I expect them to be good to go for three games in a week, but we will prob see some rotation along the way.
Suspect Ali starts all three, given Mamardashvili didn’t get the FA cup game the other week. Virgil, Ibou, Dom, Gravenberch will also probably start all three.
Hopefully positive news on Frimpong from Slot, he said he hoped he would be back in training this week, if everything goes well. We’ll see if he can be at least on the bench here or not yet.
Honestly, I’d be tempted to stop the “bullshit” for a bit, start Gomez at RB (he started there in the reverse fixture/win) and definitely push Szobo back higher between the lines.
Drop one of Gakpo/Salah to the bench. Could make a case for both, but that would possibly be too defensive from the start.
The teams above us are playing each other in the next few game weeks so plenty of opportunity to get on to CL places if we can go on a good run. Wirtz and Frimpong will be in contention. I’d like to see us go back to the 4-2-2-2, I think that’s when we have been at our best this season.
Fitness permitting I’d also start Gomez over Frimpong. I feel Gomez would handle our boring uncoached 1st half football better. Also more likely to be able to do 60-70 minutes than a just back Frimpong then again who knows at RB this season and conditional on my first point.
Wirtz and Frimpong will be in contention. I’d like to see us go back to the 4-2-2-2, I think that’s when we have been at our best this season.
and I lost my “always seen us win live at Anfield” streak