Swansea City v Liverpool FC 16/9/13 KO 8pm

I've got to say I reckon if we win it'll be a narrow one. Thankfully we're making quite a habit of doing so.

Swansea are a good side, make no mistake. I reckon they will finish 7th or 8th this season, they've got a big squad so should be able to deal with European football and, in my opinion, possess not one but two very good goalscorers. Michu and Wilfried Bony are both more than capable of bagging 15 goals each in a league campaign; our chances of winning on Monday largely depend on how we combat those two big threats. Lucas will need to do a job on Michu akin to the type we've seen him pull off countless times, while I think it would be a godsend should Kolo return as Bony's the type of guy who troubled Skrtel and Agger last season. That said, it's very hard for a manager to change a winning team so it will be interesting to see if Brendan sticks with the latter pair after their excellent display against Man United. The general consensus is that Skrtel is best suited to playing deep and I expect we'll be doing that for a fair bit of the game against Swansea, but if he does play then he'll need to be super sharp because Bony is a really good player. I doubt Sakho will start, but you never know. Feels so good having options in defence though, I've got to say.

Of course while we will have to deal with Michu and Bony Swansea will be worrying about Coutinho and, if he's fit, Sturridge. Those two can do damage to any team when on their game. Hopefully Moses plays on the left so Coutinho can slot in to his favoured no.10 role. We'll probably play on the counter for some of the game and having him there when we launch counters is preferable to him being stuck on the left in my opinion. Not sure about the right-back conundrum, mind. Kelly is clearly not fit enough yet so it could be between Toure and Wisdom. My guess is that BR goes with Wisdom. If he does, then Hendo will probably be put on the right again and he'll have his work cut out.

So yeah, it should be a fascinating game. We both play similar types of football, but with us having better players in every position. They, however, have home advantage. Ultimately it will come down to four players I reckon; their front two and ours.

A draw would by no means be a bad result at the home of last season's League Cup winners, especially after our superb start and more promising looking upcoming games. Staying unbeaten would be nice. Wouldn't it be great to carry on the momentum though with a win?

SWANSEA CITY 0-1 LIVERPOOL
                          (Sturridge)

I would love that

You need to have a little more faith. Liverpool are on form. Our defence is solid.

I think the 3 points are there for the taking personally.

Too right, I'm probably stuck in the past too much. We have a decent chance to win it on current form but it'll be much more difficult game for us than United played there early in the season.

Nice post TDK. I actually wish for 1:0 Sturridge more than a 5:1 drubbing for some reason.. Another clean sheet. What a habit

Not his biggest fan but you can't drop Martin after his game vs the Mancs. Would be wrong.

I agree it would be hard on Skrtel, but I honestly believe these are the type of games Martin struggles most in. Possession football where it is hard to keep your concentration. I think Toure is the best option myself... hard on Skrtel but better for Liverpool.

Don't worry, if Shelvey continues the way he's playing for Swansea we'll get plenty of penalties. Bony and Michu are quality. ..going to be almost as tough as United.

So are we saying that Swansea are as good as United? If we play to the same level we have been playing at we will win this no problem. We are the in form team. Our defence is solid. We have added quality players who can add even more to the squad. 3..0 to us.

We dont just need to compete to win this one, I think we have to go out full fo confidence and completely impose ourselves on them. I'd be happy with a 1 - 0 win, if my nerves could tollerate it, so 2 early goals please, 3 - 0 result, and lets get about them a bit more in the second half. Being over defensive at 1 - 0 is a very dangerous game and gives me the jitters big time. Lets kill em off early.

Stupid Monday night game! Looking forward to it nonetheless! Not an easy game...

Swansea have had a tough start this season.

Looking back at last season:

0-0 away at the Liberty.

5-0 win for us at Anfield!

3-1 loss at Anfield in the cup.

Reckon it'll be a 2-1 win for us this time around. (Or maybe another 1-0.. )

So are we saying that Swansea are as good as United? If we play to the same level we have been playing at we will win this no problem. We are the in form team. Our defence is solid. We have added quality players who can add even more to the squad. 3..0 to us.

United were in form team. They went 14 games without conceding a single goal. Then Blackburn and Newcastle scored one each in 2:1 defeats, before Liverpool destroyed the mancs 4:1 at OT. This in form stuff means F**k all. From my experience, a "form" of a player lasts from 3 to 5 weeks.. Swansea seems to be finding their form recently. We might have just reached our best for the moment. Every F***ing pundit out there expects our first wrong step. Make no mistake - its going to be very difficult to win on a wet, windy Monday night in Wales.

The strongest team I feel we can field for this game. Skrtel can't be dropped after his last performance. But I think Moses will play ahead of Sterling for this one. Hendo will be forced on to the right wing but will cut inside.

United were in form team. They went 14 games without conceding a single goal. Then Blackburn and Newcastle scored one each in 2:1 defeats, before Liverpool destroyed the mancs 4:1 at OT. This in form stuff means f**k all. From my experience, a "form" of a player lasts from 3 to 5 weeks.. Swansea seems to be finding their form recently. We might have just reached our best for the moment. Every f**king pundit out there expects our first wrong step. Make no mistake - its going to be very difficult to win on a wet, windy Monday night in Wales.

It's not Stoke though. Swansea are a team that like to play with the ball on the ground, just like us. They will be worthy competitors, but Rodgers has had almost a year since the last visit to Swansea to fine tune his squad to the way he wants them to so I would expect them to play better than last year. I think it will be quite an open game with these two attacking teams, but I trust Liverpool to prevail.

United were in form team. They went 14 games without conceding a single goal. Then Blackburn and Newcastle scored one each in 2:1 defeats, before Liverpool destroyed the mancs 4:1 at OT. This in form stuff means F**k all. From my experience, a "form" of a player lasts from 3 to 5 weeks.. Swansea seems to be finding their form recently. We might have just reached our best for the moment. Every F***ing pundit out there expects our first wrong step. Make no mistake - its going to be very difficult to win on a wet, windy Monday night in Wales.

The Redmen are going to F**k those sheep-shagging bas**rds!!

3 points coming back to Anfield.

Need another decent perfo.,rmance, Swansea will give us a decent game at home, need not to give the ball away too much, grab a couple of goals and come away with all three points.

Well well well, after another international break we face a decent Swansea side who as always look decent. We are top of the league and playing good football and need another performance to get all 3 poits. I beleive we can, and would take a 1 goal victory all day long. However, I think we will do better than this - I would like to think 3 - 0 to us.

Moses will no doubt get a runout, either starting or on the bench. I would like to see the same strting 11 that we had against Utd, with Johnson replaced with Kelly if fit (if not then Wisdom).

If we win then I would guess that people will start to take a bit of notice especially regarding the top four push. Couple of results go our way and we could be 6 points ahead of Arsenal and Spurs - this would be amazing!

interesting to see Chris Bascombe in the telegraph suggesting long term that Toure could play at right back with Sakho and Danny as CB's, can't see it myself, two left footed CB's
                       Mignolet
Wisdom    Skrtel      Agger      Enrique
           Lucas           Gerrard
Henderson     Couthinho          Moses
             Sturridge

Personally hope that is the team too. I think I would nearly prefer another 1-0 Sturridge win that a 2or3-1 or anything like that! Weird I know!


One thing we have to be wary of here is how much emphasis they place on the wings. Their full backs provide a lot of attacking width, as do their winger. Lately we have seen inverted wingers but Swansea still play wide, giving morte space to Michu & Bony. Henderson has the nows to cover back, hopefully Moses/Aspas/Coutinho do to, for the whole game as one slip up can be costly.

Posted this in a different thread but really should be in here

Some stats I've been looking at....

Last time we won our opening 4 matches was 1990-1991. 

That season we won our first EIGHT games. 

Gaining 37 points from a possible 39....  By mid November.

We finished 2nd that year behind Arsenal.

Anybody know the last club in Premier League years, if any, who won their opening 4 games?

Well, I know it would seem risky to change up our approach after having won our opening 3 games, but I just don't think Wisdom is up to the task of being an attacking outlet down our right hand side and I don't think Kelly is fit enough to feature as our starting RB.  There has been mention of experimenting with a 3 CB formation, and I think this could be an ideal time to try it out.  Hendo would provide the energy and industry to  run tirelessly up and down the right flank, while Enrique would be able to do the same on the left flank.  A switch to this formation would also allow our trio of attackers (Coutinho, Sturridge, and Aspas/Moses) to focus on attacking and not have to worry about tracking back and defending.  For this reason, I'd go with this lineup on Monday:

                   Mig
       Toure  Skrtel  Agger
Hendo  Lucas  Gerrard  Enrique
              Coutinho
         Aspas  Sturridge

However, I doubt BR will go for this and will probably keep it safe and play the same team that beat the Mancs but will put one of Toure/Wisdom in for Johnson. 

Well, I know it would seem risky to change up our approach after having won our opening 3 games, but I just don't think Wisdom is up to the task of being an attacking outlet down our right hand side and I don't think Kelly is fit enough to feature as our starting RB.  There has been mention of experimenting with a 3 CB formation, and I think this could be an ideal time to try it out.  Hendo would provide the energy and industry to  run tirelessly up and down the right flank, while Enrique would be able to do the same on the left flank.  A switch to this formation would also allow our trio of attackers (Coutinho, Sturridge, and Aspas/Moses) to focus on attacking and not have to worry about tracking back and defending.  For this reason, I'd go with this lineup on Monday:

                   Mig
       Toure  Skrtel  Agger
Hendo  Lucas  Gerrard  Enrique
              Coutinho
         Aspas  Sturridge

However, I doubt BR will go for this and will probably keep it safe and play the same team that beat the Mancs but will put one of Toure/Wisdom in for Johnson.

That is probably the daftest lineup I have seen.

Well, I know it would seem risky to change up our approach after having won our opening 3 games, but I just don't think Wisdom is up to the task of being an attacking outlet down our right hand side and I don't think Kelly is fit enough to feature as our starting RB.  There has been mention of experimenting with a 3 CB formation, and I think this could be an ideal time to try it out.  Hendo would provide the energy and industry to  run tirelessly up and down the right flank, while Enrique would be able to do the same on the left flank.  A switch to this formation would also allow our trio of attackers (Coutinho, Sturridge, and Aspas/Moses) to focus on attacking and not have to worry about tracking back and defending.  For this reason, I'd go with this lineup on Monday:

                   Mig
       Toure  Skrtel  Agger
Hendo  Lucas  Gerrard  Enrique
              Coutinho
         Aspas  Sturridge

However, I doubt BR will go for this and will probably keep it safe and play the same team that beat the Mancs but will put one of Toure/Wisdom in for Johnson. 

I can't see us playing a 3-5-2 and having Lucas and Coutinho involved.
They both suit the 4-2-3-1 perfectly.

If we do play a 3-5-2 it'll be while resting one or both players.

Well, I know it would seem risky to change up our approach after having won our opening 3 games, but I just don't think Wisdom is up to the task of being an attacking outlet down our right hand side and I don't think Kelly is fit enough to feature as our starting RB.  There has been mention of experimenting with a 3 CB formation, and I think this could be an ideal time to try it out.  Hendo would provide the energy and industry to  run tirelessly up and down the right flank, while Enrique would be able to do the same on the left flank.  A switch to this formation would also allow our trio of attackers (Coutinho, Sturridge, and Aspas/Moses) to focus on attacking and not have to worry about tracking back and defending.  For this reason, I'd go with this lineup on Monday:

                   Mig
       Toure  Skrtel  Agger
Hendo  Lucas  Gerrard  Enrique
              Coutinho
         Aspas  Sturridge

However, I doubt BR will go for this and will probably keep it safe and play the same team that beat the Mancs but will put one of Toure/Wisdom in for Johnson. 

I think it's a good lineup personally .... I don't think Brendan will play it, but it's a good idea especially as we are missing Johnson. Flood the midfield and hope that Sturridge knocks one in. 

Posted this in a different thread but really should be in here

Some stats I've been looking at....

Last time we won our opening 4 matches was 1990-1991. 

That season we won our first EIGHT games. 

Gaining 37 points from a possible 39....  By mid November.

We finished 2nd that year behind Arsenal.

Anybody know the last club in Premier League years, if any, who won their opening 4 games?

Here you go....
http://www.fl125.co.uk/records/league-wins#ConsecutiveWinsHomeAwayatstartofaseason

That is probably the daftest lineup I have seen.

I'll take that as a compliment coming from you as I place zero credibility into anything that you say

This won't be easy by any stretch, however,
WE are top of the league and full of confidence, if we get at them early the pts will be ours,

With Glen out I'd go;

              Mignolet
Toure. Skrtel Agger Enrique
           Gerrard Lucas
Henderson. Coutinho Moses
              Sturridge

Bench; Jones, Sakho, ilori, Aspas, Sterling,
            Wisdom, Ibe

Not playing til Monday suits us fine, we'll know what's needed by then,
Brendan will want to negate Michu & Bony and control midfield, do this we'll win,
although we're facing a toughy I believe we will do them black jacks,

another 0-1 will do for me,

Get up and at em Redmen,

YNWA