my kingdom for a 2-0 win.one in each half, thank you very much.
You can't possibly expect Louis to limit his goals to one each half. It's unfair on the lad. As he says himself 'I'm on fire'. I'm afraid he may already have three by 4pm and a shit load at full time.
Who's louis?
Must admint Cesc is a great prospect new him before he went to Arsenal, same with Pique(now at ManU) and Messi also from Barcelona. Watch out for these guys in the future look very good.
Normally a player can look great on tubes, but one of the things that's encouraging for me is just the amount of youtube videos on him
Wigan play 3 in midfield and that helped them dominate the midfield against Spurs. With our midfield struggling a bit, it may be a good tactic.
The chants for Kenny Dalglish that were heard again on Wednesday do not necessarily mean that the fans see him as the saviour. This is not Newcastle, longing for the return of Kevin Keegan. Simply, Dalglish represents everything Hodgson is not and, in fairness, everything Hodgson could or would not hope to be.
It just does not feel like Liverpool any more. I'm fortunate enough to remember most of the 80's and I've suffered the lows of the early 90's too. I know what success feels like and having witnessed a 4-4 draw snatched from the jaws of defeat against Chesterfield, I know how it feels when we were really shite - but it isn't just about that.It is just that football as a whole is now purely too much of a media circus. Sick to death of hearing about racist comments, shite refereeing or some other legal case football has itself in. The media ruling the roost too much and stirring the shite left right and centre.Fine if this stops a few clubs and a few instances but this sort of shite runs through every club and is more than apparent in our club. The club has become a pantomime. The last two years have seen 3 changes in management, 10's of £m's shelled out at will on players not worthy of that valuation, the handling of Kenny's dismissal, umpteen high level sackings, this Jen Chang fiasco, a TV series and the most inept handling of a transfer window that has left me doubting our ability to score more than one at home to Wigan.I look at the posters on here and notice just how much (or how little) some of the more well known posters (for differing reasons maybe) actually post these days. Chopper, Andy@Allerton and Fat Scouser to name but a few. Have they all lost the love for the club as well?I'd love to think we will nick this 1-0 and carry on grinding results out until January comes. Then we'll bring in a few key players and all will be rosy. Just can't see the latter bit happening.I do think we'll win today but I'd be confident is saying that:1) We won't score more than 22) We'll be talking about the referee and a 'key' decision3) The atmosphere will be shite
Reina, Wisdom, Skrtel, Agger, Johnson, Gerrard, Allen, Sterling, Suso, Assiaidi, Suarez
On another note, does anyone else think it would be better if the team stopped getting leaked? Can't help us can it.
HERE LIES JOSE MOURINHOTHE BALL WAS OVER THE LINE R.I.P.
Wisdom again?He really needs a rest and Johnson has apparently played a few games at rightback before.
would like to see assaidi play this running at the wigan full backs, won't happen mind.
maybe it will happen then
I think that is such an exciting looking team.
I really can't see the point starting Wisdom over Enrique. He is both better defensive and offensive and Glen will go back to his preferred side.
Such a huge game for us this.Even a 1.0 win will do me.Anyhting less and our season really will be in the shite as far as top 4 goes.Come on redmen. Do a Norwich
I imagine he's got a knock.
Looks like a 4-2-3-1, or maybe a slight variation of it
Must been last minute thing, he twittered yesterday "At home already after a quiet training today. Cant wait for tomorrow game. We have to get 3 points!!! Have a good day ".
But from that he finished training and was ready ?
It'll be three at the back again I think. Suso will play the advanced midfielder of the three feeding off scraps mostly if the last couple of games have shown us anything. I'm just hoping that Gerrard trusts the lad a bit more not that Gerrard needs to be taught anything. I reckon after a shaky start where he forced the play far too much, Gerrard has easily been one of our better players. But yes, that is an interesting side because it also gives us options in terms of how we can set up. I think we could also go 4-3-3 with Enrique on the left and Sterling on the right with Suso as the advanced midfielder as we saw against Chelsea. Freeing him from the defensive duties seemed to allow him to just bomb up and down the wing as he pleased and he did have quite a good game once he was freed from defensive responsibility. It does offer us a few options but I do think in doing that we seem to lack a bit of conviction in our set up and the famed 'system'. But I think that has more to do with the difference in the quality of distribution between Reina and Jones. I don't know if we'll win or if we'll play well but as always, we have Suarez and thus we have hope. Pleased that both Agger and Skrtel are fit. Its much more reassuring when they are both in the line up. Now, we just need someone to cover them in midfield and Allen for all his talents cannot do that.
Good OP.Wigan have definitely been somewhat of a bogey team for us in recent times. The 2-1 defeat at home last season was particularly horrible.With a lot of teams who are generally confined to the lower half of the table, and especially at Anfield, the longer the game goes on without us scoring the more the opposition believes they can actually get something out of the game. They all expect us to come firing out the blocks, and generally at home we do. But when we fail to score in that opening 20-25 minutes they think 'hang on' we've weathered the storm here, and the longer they hold out the more confidence they get.Against Newcastle we had a very bright first 20 minutes but just couldn't score, and the inevitable happened when they went down the other end and scored on basically their first shot. Even against Chelsea they should have scored on their first shot when Oscar blazed over. We need to cut out these little lapses of concentration that are hurting as at crucial times in the match.We'll see a lot of possession, but I want to see more penetration in the final third. As always we have to make our chances count. Suarez has been scoring regularly, and I can see him scoring again here. If we score early I expect us to go and win, and maybe score another. I want to see Sahin get a grip of the midfield. He can't afford to be a passenger because it puts too much workload on Allen. I expect Allen to be back to his usual self, and he shouldn't be tired as I don't think Wales had a game in mid week.I'd like to see Gerrard play closer to Suarez, but I don't think it's going to happen until Lucas is back in the side. Suso is much better in the position he played against Anzhi or at Chelsea, but if he's going to play on the right, Johnson has to overlap and get beyond him to the byline.If Enrqiue and Johnson both play it will interesting to see he makes the runs and who stays back. I've got a feeling Johnson is going to play a big part in the game.Keys to the game will be to keep it tight at the back, and not give away any silly fouls. Better quality in the final 3rd, score early, and just take our chances. If do that we should win, because we have better players than them and we have to start making that count in matches now.
The problem with playing a 4-3-3 against a 3-4-3 is that while you overload the middle 3v2, you lose the wide mid areas as your FB's can't push up as they'll be tracked by the opposition wingers, and your own wingers can't drop back because they will be tracked by the opposition FB's. So in effect, it comes down to how your midfield 3 can adjust and move to cover the nearest three mids from the other team when the ball is in their area. Press and cover with the correct pace and angles and the 4th player in midfield becomes redundant. Fail to get this right and they will be overloading your back line multiple times, and it might come down to their strikers versus your goalkeeper on the day. The best way to approach this is to go 4-4-2 and match them in midfield, but the problem with this is that it can often dampen your own attack. So BR has some interesting issues to consider before Saturday. What we do know, though, is that Wigan, while ostensibly playing a 3-4-3, actually turn into a 3-4-1-2 team because Maloney has a habit of dropping into the midfield, playing almost as a true number 10. The only problem is that he is almost Robbie Keane-like in that he drops into the same areas all of the time, and it becomes predictable - Wigan are incredibly left-side dominant in their attacks, and in some games have moved the ball almost exclusively in this channel. What BR has to consider is if he should double up on our right side, and play an essentially defensive game on the right channel, and cycle the ball to Wigan's right side/our left on possession, and keep the ball away from their dominant side. This has the added effect of making play predictable for them (and to an extent, us) because when they win it on that side, we'll know they will try to move it over to the left side, and we can close off the passing lanes quite quickly. In terms of their positional aggression, they have a tendency to sit a little deeper into their defensive third and keep the midfield 4 disciplined in their shape. Boyce tends to sit on the right hand side of the midfield block, while Beausejour pushes on, playing in the space that Maloney occupies as well. The two central mids, McCarthy and McArthur, play relatively conservatively, dictating the play from the middle. It would be important to keep these two under pressure for the whole game, and it will be interesting to see if BR goes for a 1-2 rather than a 2-1 in midfield, and who will occupy the two AM positions if he chooses that option. They would need to be positionally disciplined, and I'm not sure who we have that can play that way for the full 90 minutes? Gerrard might, but you worry about the impact of the friendly. Shelvey could, but he tends to rush around sometimes. Sahin, perhaps. Henderson definitely. Maybe he is pencilled in for a central midfield spot? All in all, it will be a very intriguing game to watch, from a tactical standpoint and also because both teams will try to build possession. In the end, the game might come down to Luis and if he takes his chances, or the midfield three and how they work against the Wigan midfield shape.
I'm not vaccinated against covid and ... I don't wear masks.
