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Mattys Greyhound 5:22 Sun Aug 12
Our New Players on First Showing

Not many positives I know after an easy 4-0 drubbing but my thoughts on the new guys.

Fabianski - even though he shipped 4 I actually thought he looked a decent keeper today.

Balbuena / Ogbonna - I may have spelt his name wrong but I thought Balbuena was ok today and had a decent understanding with Ogbonna - it was more just midfielders running beyond our midfield and at the back line constantly, it will be easy to dig out these 2 but I didn't think they did too bad. Is a threat in the air in opposition penalty box.

Wiltshire - tidy but completely inneffective, Im not sure what additional qualities he brings to the team, is similar in many ways to Noble.

Felipe Anderson - you can see he has quality but doesnt look as pacy in the Prem when up against pacy teams like Liverpool and needs to be stronger as noticed even in pre-season he can easily be bullied off the ball.

Yarmolenko - again tidy and skillful, not the quickest but will offer invention into our play, not on long and by then game had been lost

Fredericks - had a difiicult afternoon trying to defend against a dominant Liverpool side and had very little opportunity to get forward which is where he is strongest.

We all knew in our hearts this was going to be a very tough game, it was my only frustration is with all the investment I thought we would make more of a game of it but was very much like previous seasons. We have to find a solution to the midfield as we were overrun today as a lot of teams will be at Anfield but we looked even more exposed in that area than normal. We move on and hope for better time ahead. KEEP THE FAITH.

Athletico Easthamico 12:12 Sun Aug 19
Re: Our New Players on First Showing

Sanchez and Perez were improvements when they came on.

boltkunt 12:03 Tue Aug 14
Re: Our New Players on First Showing

Anderson looked good, good work rate and very confident on the ball.

Balbuena is no nonsense and I like that, just need to form the understanding with Ogbonna, however I can't see him playing all that much once Diop is up to speed.

One thing that annoyed me was the way the defence were so high up, the players aren't quick enough to drop back when the balls played through or over the top

Uncker 11:41 Tue Aug 14
Re: Our New Players on First Showing

"If he's not interfering with play, what's he doing on the pitch"
said Danny Blanchflower in his commentator years.
I agree with Scorchio. If it is a tactic that is being used then the offside players are active and therefore offside.

Darlo Debs 1:52 Tue Aug 14
Re: Our New Players on First Showing

i could only listen to game i dribs and drabs as waz havi g to do other stuff in my work break, from.what i did hear though, Noble just hasnt got the legs for 90 minutes of play any more.

Capitol Man 1:44 Tue Aug 14
Re: Our New Players on First Showing

El Scorchio 7:22 Mon Aug 13
Re: Our New Players on First Showing

Exactly - they were clearly able to turn this to their advantage, how can having two players inside the six yard box not be interfering with the keeper and defenders even if the ball is eventually played backwards to them.

There needs to be a change to either allow for the interfering with play as before or to have them have to return to behind the last defender before touching the ball. The first would be easy to revert to the second probably too complicated to enforce.

Texas Iron 12:03 Tue Aug 14
Re: Our New Players on First Showing

Well said Scorchio...
Exactly my interpretation of what happened ... for the first 2 goals...

Bill W 11:49 Mon Aug 13
Re: Our New Players on First Showing

I've supported West Ham for 30 odd years. We have always been shit with the occasional sprinkle of stardust. I don't expect anything to ever change but I will always love West Ham United football club. Irons!

El Scorchio 7:22 Mon Aug 13
Re: Our New Players on First Showing

Don't think it's changed.

Liverpool just interpret/apply the rules in quite a clever way which by the letter of the law is fine but obviously isn't.

Clearly they DO gain an advantage when Salah, Firminho and Mane all purposely stand behind our defence while the ball is played wide to someone else who is onside but then runs on and squares it for them for a simple tap in, seen as they still have a yard or two on all our defenders from being offside but 'inactive' when the ball was played forward to someone else. When they become 'active' they are no longer offside because the ball is played square or backward to them.

All the defence can do is either drop deeper and deeper to the edge of the 6 yard box or risk it happening again and again- as was what happened yesterday. Damned if you do and damned if you don't. The rulemakers need to look again at what's 'inactive' or 'gaining an advantage'. Can't blame Liverpool. They've found something clever which gives them an advantage and is technically permitted even if I think it's not in the spirit of the game. No reason to stop doing it until someone tells them otherwise.

I'm surprised no pundits have picked it up. Probably because it's Klopp and Liverpool it's ok and 'clever' tactics. I'm sure if it was a Burnley or a Stoke or an Allardyce or Warnock managed team doing exactly the same thing it would be brought up and mentioned as sneaky and underhand.

No excuse for the third goal though, which was absolutely blatant by anyone's interpretation of the rules.

Texas Iron 7:10 Mon Aug 13
Re: Our New Players on First Showing

Has offside rule changed again...???

Active vs inactive ...definitely favours attackers...

And definitely helped Pool yesterday...

Thames Ironworks 7:01 Mon Aug 13
Re: Our New Players on First Showing

Well according to the pundits and experts, all of our summer signings need to change or face the chop.

Wow, so our £100m was well spent then according to these f*ckwits.

goose 6:32 Mon Aug 13
Re: Our New Players on First Showing

felt a bit sorry for Fredericks, Balbuena & Fabianski......... we could have had Bobby Moore, Maldini and Nesta in that back four and they still wouldnt have chance.

Fivetide 6:21 Mon Aug 13
Re: Our New Players on First Showing

Guys? GUYS?

El Coucho 4:31 Mon Aug 13
Re: Our New Players on First Showing

Wilshire looks a bit like Ray Wilkins reincarnated. That said I'm told Wilkins was better than I remember.

Krap not Pu 4:23 Mon Aug 13
Re: Our New Players on First Showing

Lets be honest we were woeful , so very hard to find a positive...however ,the best I could come up with that they were all at least better performers than last years dross of Antonio and Noble....incredibly they played the whole 90 mins without getting hooked?? Sort it out Pellers !

El Scorchio 4:03 Mon Aug 13
Re: Our New Players on First Showing

scott_d 3:56

and not to mention getting to the Champions league final, knocking out Roma (who beat Barca) and Man City on the way there.

They were already just about the finished article and are in the process of buying very expensive cherries to go on top of an already very luxurious cake.

We have a long way to go from the shamble of the last 18 months to be anywhere near their level. They have a team of basically 11 Felipe Andersons cost/market value wise- probably more, actually.

scott_d 3:56 Mon Aug 13
Re: Our New Players on First Showing

agree with threesixty.

Liverpool came second last season and have added 3 players who cost over £150m between them, plus Shaqiri at a relative snip for £14m.

They didn't need an overhaul, they just needed to strengthen and sort out their weaknesses and they have done that.

We are a team, once again, in transition so we are behind them by a long way not least because we have 8 or so players to bed into our first team, of which 5 of them starters on Saturday.

You can bring in 2-3 players rather seamlessly, as Liverpool have done, but with 5 players making their debut there is bound to be some work to do to get the team playing well together and to the managers philosophy.

Most of that work is done in pre-season but you don't really know how it's going to pan out until the season really kicks off.

I expect we will see an improvement at home to Bournemouth on Saturday and more of what Pellegrini is trying to do with this team.

Trevor B 3:32 Mon Aug 13
Re: Our New Players on First Showing

Well, not the first corner, but you know what I mean ;-)

Trevor B 3:31 Mon Aug 13
Re: Our New Players on First Showing

When our first corner went in I was rather encouraged, as unlike before with Noble taking corners, it managed to beat the first man!!!

Unfortunately it then went on to beat virtually every man, and helped the scousers outnumber us as they counter attacked.....

Russ of the BML 3:28 Mon Aug 13
Re: Our New Players on First Showing

crystal falace 2:01 Mon Aug 13

"When we did our classic "go from having a corner to looking like we're about to concede"

LOL

Yes, our corners do often end up being good set plays for the opposition.

crystal falace 2:02 Mon Aug 13
Re: Our New Players on First Showing

*impressed

crystal falace 2:01 Mon Aug 13
Re: Our New Players on First Showing

Agree regarding Anderson, having not seen him play before I was expecting more of a Payet type attitude.

However on several occasions he worked really hard to get back with Alexander-Arnold. was really empressed specifically when we did our classic "go from having a corner to looking like we're about to concede" and he was the first man sprinting back to break up a counter.

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