Topic: PL: Liverpool 1 v West Ham 0 Nunez 21

[Jshooters]

Loved how Darwin Nunez silenced the West Ham fans with a goal when they were halfway through a rendition of GSTK.

I had the same thought 

[Judge Red]

I thought we did ok in blustery conditions. We played some lovely high tempo stuff in the first half and if it was less windy, we go in to the break with more goals. I think rice looked better than Hendo for the mere fact the latter was playing a different role for me. Hendo was much more progressive and therefore having to play the riskier football. I rarely saw him play a backwards pass which his detractors often accuse him of playing too many. Rice was popping off short simple balls to runners off him bit like Fab does for is when he’s not running in treacle.

Like many on here, feel the subs plus the swirling wind broke up our rhythm and we lost the intensity in our pressing. We were much more standoffish and allowed them on to us. Moyes, to his credit went for it and that forced us back even further. They had chances to nick it but it would have been unfair on the balance of chances.

Pen wise, no way are we given that at the other end despite me feeling it was a pen. Brilliant save and was fucking annoyed how the amazon commentary was trying to make out virgil roughed up the spot. He literally just stands on it.

[carling]

Rice is the kind of player you hope goes to City before they sign Rodri.  Same as you hope they sign Kane before going in for Haaland.  And on failing that you hope he goes to Man United.

When Liverpool are at so much of a disadvantage financially it's a big boost when our rivals get terrible value in the transfer market, and the number one way to get terrible value is go for English players.  We want City and United going for Grealish and Sancho while we go for Thiago. City and United going for Maguire and Stones while we go for Van Dijk etc.

Rice is in the same ballpark.  Signs for one of our rivals and it gives us an opportunity to make up for the lack of cash.

[Nick110581]

Rice is an excellent player but needs better coaching.

He lost Mo early on when pressing like a headless chicken.

[jepovic]

I like your attitude. At the end of the day, if we were up by ten points right now, we'd be telling ourselves that the title isn't won in October and we just need to keep winning as many points as we can. So, for me, it should be the same in the situation we're currently in. All we can do is do as well as we can in all the games that remain this season and then see where we end up with the points we've won.

Sadly, I couldn't watch the match, but glad to hear that Nunez scored (a fine goal BTW) and was doing well and we got the three points. That's all that matters right now. We're in a difficult situation as a team, but if we keep winning (even if it's grinding out wins) things will get better.

Yeah, it would be weird to say that it's impossible to catch up when we almost did exactly that last season.

[El Lobo]

Who said he’s one of the best in the world, he’s a good player that’s it really.

He did

“I feel like I am one of the established top players around the world..”

[Crosby Nick]

Mid-week round of games so often a total turd as all the players cannot lift it again - this round looked entirely the same.

We were atrocious. West Ham were worse. It was like watching early era Rafa team, waiting for the inevitable equaliser. Thankfully it didn't come.

Yeah, lots of low scoring games across the board. Think it was only Palace v Wolves where both teams scored. Pretty dreadful stuff all round!

[jepovic]

Rice is the kind of player you hope goes to City before they sign Rodri.  Same as you hope they sign Kane before going in for Haaland.  And on failing that you hope he goes to Man United.

When Liverpool are at so much of a disadvantage financially it's a big boost when our rivals get terrible value in the transfer market, and the number one way to get terrible value is go for English players.  We want City and United going for Grealish and Sancho while we go for Thiago. City and United going for Maguire and Stones while we go for Van Dijk etc.

Rice is in the same ballpark.  Signs for one of our rivals and it gives us an opportunity to make up for the lack of cash.

Exactly. I hope Chelsea replace Kante with Rice. Massive dropoff in quality there.
They would be under immense pressure to actually play him as well, him being the new stalwart of England and all that. Of course you can find good English players, but not when they are starting for England.

[Mister Flip Flop]

Can't understand the love for Rice. Don't think iv'e ever once seen him play and said "yeah i'd love him in our team". He's grade A average.

[carling]

Exactly. I hope Chelsea replace Kante with Rice. Massive dropoff in quality there.
They would be under immense pressure to actually play him as well, him being the new stalwart of England and all that. Of course you can find good English players, but not when they are starting for England.

Yeah Chelsea are due something like that, let them take Rice for £100mil.  We need them making more signings like Ross Barkley, Chilwell, Drinkwater etc..

As soon as a player gets one England cap Liverpool shouldn't be going anywhere near them (exception being Yorkshiremen on free transfers).  Glad we signed Harvey when we did.

[Fromola]

I agree with others here that after the win on Sunday then just getting the 3 points by any means necessary was all that mattered.

With that said the game was basically a microcosm of our season in that it highlighted all the reasons we've fallen from being a title contender to now just being a top 4 contender.

When you're playing every 3 days you get games like that all the time, we did when we won the league or got 97 points or last season. Play well in patches and then grind it out.

It's about winning. Issue in many games this season has been not playing well at all and starting really slow and conceding.

[Zeppelin]

It's not nothing – it was clumsy from Joe. I don't think we could've had any complaints if it was given in the moment, it's probably one of those that gets given 40% of the time. But for to meet the bar of a clear and obvious mistake is ridiculous.

Yeah - clear pen I thought. My seat in the MS is right behind the radio guys and I could see it on their monitors - I knew it'd be awarded as soon as I saw it.

[Adeemo]

It's not nothing – it was clumsy from Joe. I don't think we could've had any complaints if it was given in the moment, it's probably one of those that gets given 40% of the time. But for to meet the bar of a clear and obvious mistake is ridiculous.

Exactly but no one’s got a clue what constitutes clear and obvious, it’s all just random. In my opinion there’s no way that was a clear and obvious error, even though you couldn’t really argue, had the on pitch decision been to award a pen.

[decosabute]

When you're playing every 3 days you get games like that all the time, we did when we won the league or got 97 points or last season. Play well in patches and then grind it out.

It's about winning. Issue in many games this season has been not playing well at all and starting really slow and conceding.

Exactly. I think it's nonsense that people are saying how poor we were. West Ham put everything into that second 45 and we still saw it out. We had as many big chances second half to kill it as they had to equalise too. And it's absolutely correct to say that in our 97 point and 99 point seasons, we had loads of wins where the opposition seemed to be on the verge of an equaliser, only for us to somehow keep it out. That's down to mentality - last night and against City we look desperate as a collective not to concede. Mistakes happen, but then people kill themselves to cover and bail others out. That's what was missing the most the first two months of the season.

[vicar]

Loved how Darwin Nunez silenced the West Ham fans with a goal when they were halfway through a rendition of GSTK.

Even worse was their rendition of 'you're just a shit andy carroll' but directed at Kostas!!

[Mighty_Red]

Much needed win. Missed the second half but from MOTD seemed we just ran out of puff. Great block from Milly, not sure how it didn't go in, but they pretty did the same with Bobby's goalbound effort.

Brilliant first half from Darwin, his ball striking is getting better as he gets sharper. One of those volleys go in and we're talking a Goal of the month contender. His goal was so good, that lovely pass from Kostas and the way he just hung back a touch so he could time his run and jump was perfection.

This week is so hard on the legs, so 3 pts is all that matters, will same the same on Saturday.

[Jm55]

Yeah, it would be weird to say that it's impossible to catch up when we almost did exactly that last season.

The thing is we’re 7 behind City.

Yes Arsenal could carry this form on and if they do fair play to them, but it literally takes a bad week and that gap can be halved, and Arsenal aren’t exactly strangers to a bad week.

As far as I’m concerned if we finish above City we’ll win the league, there’s a slim chance that may also involve finishing above an Arsenal sitting in a higher position than them but I’ve no doubt that if we do the former we’ll do the latter.

All of the above said, I’d take too 4 currently as there’s still a way to go for me to feel convinced we’re a team capable of challenging for the title.

[tubby]

Can't understand the love for Rice. Don't think iv'e ever once seen him play and said "yeah i'd love him in our team". He's grade A average.

Did you not watch last night?  He was excellent.  Mark Noble was an average midfielder, Rice will be playing for a CL team soon.

[LovelyCushionedHeader]

Did you not watch last night?  He was excellent.  Mark Noble was an average midfielder, Rice will be playing for a CL team soon.

He was good in the 2nd half, pretty bad in the 1st.

He's obviously a good player for the level West Ham are at. Whether he can make the step up though remains to be seen - he wouldn't be the first to struggle. He has it pretty easy at the moment, playing for a defensive-minded counter attacking team, with Soucek next to him and his full backs staying deep. He would be much, much more exposed playing for us or another team of our calibre.

[tubby]

He was good in the 2nd half, pretty bad in the 1st.

He's obviously a good player for the level West Ham are at. Whether he can make the step up though remains to be seen - he wouldn't be the first to struggle. He has it pretty easy at the moment, playing for a defensive-minded counter attacking team, with Soucek next to him and his full backs staying deep. He would be much, much more exposed playing for us or another team of our calibre.

I mean, he's not ever going to be world class, he's not in Thiago's league, for example.  But he was dominating games in the Europa as well as PL and I'm not sure he really has it all that easy at West Ham.  If he were in a more attacking team, he would flourish even more.  I wasn't convinced about him a few years ago when the hype started to build, but he really is a very good midfielder.

[liverbloke]

good win - but not a classic

but onward and upward - and all the teams above will undoubtedly hit a bad spell so there's still hope but let's also keep our feet on the ground/pitch

long way to go yet and surely we can't hit another bad spell of form or injury - can we?

rice? he's alright - possibly city will buy hm and bench him to piss off the rest of the league

["21C or 70F?" SchizoidWeatherMan!]

Did you not watch last night?  He was excellent.  Mark Noble was an average midfielder, Rice will be playing for a CL team soon.

🤣 🤣

Rice will be playing for Newcastle or Everton in a season or two.

What a load of bs.

You need to reevaluate the meaning of the word 'excellent' if you think yesterday's performance was that.

Bog standard average, backed up by his numbers.

Mark Noble is a good comparison. He is exactly that category of player.

And you are having a laugh if you think a "CL team" is going to come for him.

[Dr Stu-Pid]

Exactly but no one’s got a clue what constitutes clear and obvious, it’s all just random. In my opinion there’s no way that was a clear and obvious error, even though you couldn’t really argue, had the on pitch decision been to award a pen.

Unfortunately we have no idea what actually happens as PGMOL refuse to let us hear what is said, but from what we are told when these incidents happen the referee tells the VAR what they think happened and why they didn’t give a penalty. If the VAR thinks that description could apply to the incident then they are told not to intervene even if they think it was a penalty. Only when there is a difference between what the referee says and what the VAR sees are they supposed to suggest a review.

If you watch the VAR review from last night they seemed to be concentrating on whether or not Gomez gets a touch on the ball or not, so my suspicion would be that the referee said that he didn’t give a penalty because Gomez got the ball. When the replays showed that Gomez didn’t get a touch then it becomes a ‘clear and obvious error’ and they can suggest a review. If the referee had said that it was a ‘coming together’, ‘not enough contact’, etc then they may not have suggested a review.

Of course we’ll never actually know as PGMOL don’t actually release any useful information, and maybe they did just randomly suggest a review when they shouldn’t have. That’s what makes VAR, or more accurately, the way that the PL implement VAR, so frustrating.

[LovelyCushionedHeader]

I mean, he's not ever going to be world class, he's not in Thiago's league, for example.  But he was dominating games in the Europa as well as PL and I'm not sure he really has it all that easy at West Ham.  If he were in a more attacking team, he would flourish even more.  I wasn't convinced about him a few years ago when the hype started to build, but he really is a very good midfielder.

He might well flourish in a more attacking team but at the moment I just don't see enough to show that. His main assets on the ball seem to be either bursting through the midfield with pace, or springing a quick break with a long ball. Both pretty useless against a parked bus, or at least with opportunities more uncommon.

One of the biggest criticisms of our midfield in recent years has been a lack of creativity, but both Thiago and Henderson outscored and out-assisted Rice last season. Fabinho had more goal involvements. Obviously Rice's numbers could improve surrounded by better players, but still.

I'd have taken a Bissouma or an Anguissa over him any day.

[tubby]

He might well flourish in a more attacking team but at the moment I just don't see enough to show that. His main assets on the ball seem to be either bursting through the midfield with pace, or springing a quick break with a long ball. Both pretty useless against a parked bus, or at least with opportunities more uncommon.

One of the biggest criticisms of our midfield in recent years has been a lack of creativity, but both Thiago and Henderson outscored and out-assisted Rice last season. Fabinho had more goal involvements. Obviously Rice's numbers could improve surrounded by better players, but still.

I think that we'd definitely have to see him in a team that isn't managed by Moyes or Southgate to see what he's really capable of, yup.

[LovelyCushionedHeader]

I think that we'd definitely have to see him in a team that isn't managed by Moyes or Southgate to see what he's really capable of, yup.

But you wouldn't want to pay £100 million for the pleasure would you

[tubby]

But you wouldn't want to pay £100 million for the pleasure would you

Well, no.

[BER]

The defending that led to the Milner two point toe poke..

[redk84]

That was an important win...

First half was absolutely fine. Nunez was a huge problem for them. Had we conceded and the match ended as a draw - i'd have questioned taken him off...

We could have scored a few more, we had a bit of a hangover in how we were defending from our poor start but hey we won and that was the most important thing.
Keep stringing these results together and we can start to breathe easier - these matches coming thick and fast are where we thrive in comparison to the rest of the league.
Injuries have battered us so far but Nunez/Mo/Bobby seem to be playing well and need to for the rest of these games prior to world cup - Curtis was a welcome surprise, even saw Ox on the bench who might actually like this formation

We look ok. We are finding our way with this 4-2-2-2/4-2-3-1/4-4-1-1 tactical change for the last 3 games and if the season started vs Arsenal (which it essentially has for us in the league) then would consider this a decent start.

Beat Forest and this week will be perfect

[El Lobo]

That was an important win...

First half was absolutely fine. Nunez was a huge problem for them. Had we conceded and the match ended as a draw - i'd have questioned taken him off...

We could have scored a few more, we had a bit of a hangover in how we were defending from our poor start but hey we won and that was the most important thing.
Keep stringing these results together and we can start to breathe easier - these matches coming thick and fast are where we thrive in comparison to the rest of the league.
Injuries have battered us so far but Nunez/Mo/Bobby seem to be playing well and need to for the rest of these games prior to world cup - Curtis was a welcome surprise, even saw Ox on the bench who might actually like this formation

We look ok. We are finding our way with this 4-2-2-2/4-2-3-1/4-4-1-1 tactical change for the last 3 games and if the season started vs Arsenal (which it essentially has for us in the league) then would consider this a decent start.

Beat Forest and this week will be perfect

We're just gonna have to bumble through the next seven games to be honest, probably not going to be pretty. The EFL Cup at least we should be able to rest most of our big guns and give us a weeks rest. We've got to go to Ajax, where I almost think a draw would be the best result so the Napoli game really is a dead rubber. Hopefully Ox is fit because I think he's a good option to give Mo a rest here and there.

Then after the WC we can really, really attack it. Diaz and Jota back, Mo and Bobby (likely) rested, hopefully a new midfielder, potentially Naby back, Konate and Matip the same.

[Charlie Adams fried egg]

That was an important win...

First half was absolutely fine. Nunez was a huge problem for them. Had we conceded and the match ended as a draw - i'd have questioned taken him off...

We could have scored a few more, we had a bit of a hangover in how we were defending from our poor start but hey we won and that was the most important thing.
Keep stringing these results together and we can start to breathe easier - these matches coming thick and fast are where we thrive in comparison to the rest of the league.
Injuries have battered us so far but Nunez/Mo/Bobby seem to be playing well and need to for the rest of these games prior to world cup - Curtis was a welcome surprise, even saw Ox on the bench who might actually like this formation

We look ok. We are finding our way with this 4-2-2-2/4-2-3-1/4-4-1-1 tactical change for the last 3 games and if the season started vs Arsenal (which it essentially has for us in the league) then would consider this a decent start.

Beat Forest and this week will be perfect

Even after the explanations provided, the concentration of fixtures and our injury list?

Anyway, grinding our way to one nil, especially after the City game was a great result. Yes it could have been more, but equally they could have had a couple too. I enjoyed the game and actually had the sound on. McCoist makes such a difference, just not being an agenda driven dickhead helps, but he conveys enjoyment of the game. Which is somethings that's lost from much of the media who are intent on perpetuating the constant circus surrounding the game.

[redk84]

Even after the explanations provided, the concentration of fixtures and our injury list?

I have been trying to avoid football apart from the actual game due to the ridiculous stuff ive been reading surrounding City game

I have only just read that he had a loose hamstring - makes sense now. Didn't at the time for me

[Pistolero]

A clear case of after the Lord Mayor's show....but a terrific 3 points.............just like his teammates and opponents, I haven't quite worked Darwin out yet....but definitely has the X-factor....hat-trick incoming...hopefully around Saturday lunchtime..

Rice is a tidy player and no mistake...and impressed by Bowen - quick and tricky, could see him thriving at a top club

[Sharado]

Nunez was great first half, could have had a hat trick. Looking forward to one of those mental smashes ending up in the net soon, then the whole league is done for.

[Charlie Adams fried egg]

I have been trying to avoid football apart from the actual game due to the ridiculous stuff ive been reading surrounding City game

I have only just read that he had a loose hamstring - makes sense now. Didn't at the time for me

Fair enough.
I was disappointed to see him go off because I was enjoying watching him, but my initial thought was saving him for Saturday, although to be honest I'd forgotten he hadn't played the full 90 on Sunday!

Couldn't agree more about the ridiculous stuff around the City game. That said it's from one direction only. Guardiola and the coin mystery, the cheerleaders about they should have let the foul on Fabinho go (ignoring the one on Ali and the fact it was a corner to us), and the worst, which was their cynical PR style briefings hintint at xenophobia and letting client journo's do the rest. Makes me sick. A shitstain of a club, but even more contempt for those that enable them.

[Fordy]

Tough game. We got the result. Performance in the second half was worrying but it was all about the 3 points.

[PaulKS]

We deserved to win to be fair and should've been 2/3, yes second half wasn't great but we grinded it out which is what matters

Another win at Forest and things are starting to turn for us. We've only 4 PL games left until the WC...  10 points from them would be decent IMO, the break will serve us well and we can basically start the season again come boxing day (hopefully not turn up like we did at Fulham...)

We look a hell of a lot better than we did pre the Arsenal game

7 points behind City at this stage isn't the end of the world, so much time to go yet. Unsure about Arsenal, they actually look class but it's Arsenal at the end of the day and could collapse... i'd be gutted about the World Cup if i was them

[Coolie High]

Rice is the kind of player you hope goes to City before they sign Rodri.  Same as you hope they sign Kane before going in for Haaland.  And on failing that you hope he goes to Man United.

When Liverpool are at so much of a disadvantage financially it's a big boost when our rivals get terrible value in the transfer market, and the number one way to get terrible value is go for English players.  We want City and United going for Grealish and Sancho while we go for Thiago. City and United going for Maguire and Stones while we go for Van Dijk etc.

Rice is in the same ballpark.  Signs for one of our rivals and it gives us an opportunity to make up for the lack of cash.

Kane would have been great for City, wouldn’t want him going there at all.

[Coolie High]

🤣 🤣

Rice will be playing for Newcastle or Everton in a season or two.

What a load of bs.

You need to reevaluate the meaning of the word 'excellent' if you think yesterday's performance was that.

Bog standard average, backed up by his numbers.

Mark Noble is a good comparison. He is exactly that category of player.

And you are having a laugh if you think a "CL team" is going to come for him.

I think you’re the one having a laugh, it was only CL teams interested in him last year(Chelsea and United) he was simply priced out a move, Phillips went to City only last summer and you think Rice won’t go to a CL team?

[Sharado]

Some incredible critique of rice in here. He'd get into our midfield 100%. The idea he's not champions league level, based on that alone, is for the birds.