West Ham 2 - 3 Liverpool: Post Match Phew

reminds me of the bolton game similar. we have to get the defence sorted out some performances were shambolic and its getting regular. torres cant save us every game. better defending on corners. carra was being outpaced by hines a lot

But did you all see, on Babel's assist to Torres' goal, he completely outpaced Hines!

WESTHAM 2-3 LIVERPOOL HD 19/09/09

Well done to Dirk, Fernando and Babel, who came on and did well for the second time on the bounce.

We didn't play very well today, and we were ripped apart by that Hines fella. Have to say though, that was never a penalty. It's the type of challenge that you see about 500 times in every game, and it's never a foul. This is supposed to be a physical league, what's the point in calling it physical if we can't play the physical side of the game? Softer than soft, that penalty. The fact that he touched the ball twice is a different matter altogether.

The second goal proves we need someone on the posts. That header is gobbled up and hoofed away by anyone on the post, and thus, we retain our lead.

The officiating in general was absolutely dire. Some of that blokes decisions were abysmal, and the rest were sub standard.

The referee is dumb, blind and naive, when  Carra was in contact with that fella, he fell like a bowling pin while his foot was still stucked on the ground as he threw himself forward. What a diver, Eduardo is no match for this idiot, and the referee is a bigger idiot.

The referee is dumb, blind and naive, when  Carra was in contact with that fella, he fell like a bowling pin while his foot was still stucked on the ground as he threw himself forward. What a diver, Eduardo is no match for this idiot, and the referee is a bigger idiot.

To be honest,I think I saw a nudge from Carra. :-[Probably a soft penalty but I have seen them being given before.

Yossi for me.

By far our best attacking player on the pitch.  Torres first goal was class no doubt about it - but for people who can look past the final score and scorers on teletext - then it has to be Yossi.

Good and best he may be but he tried to walk the ball into the net one too many times already.

Yossi's running was brilliant, but a couple times, as is often with him, his final ball just lacked. When i say 'as is often with him' i mean he goes on a mazy run and then forgets or doesnt check to see where his support his. Sometimes a touch less would help.

Well I only managed to catch the last twenty minutes (thank me for the winner then )

Pleased with the result, off to watch the full 90 minutes now and to give a better summary of the match.

Call me playing the blame game or being superstitious, I don't care and I'm still boiling,  but I notice everytime when Torres tracked back defending a free kick our defence ended up sixes and sevens and goals conceded. Play back those recordings and you can see what I mean. He should be at the half way line standby for a counter attack. Having Torres back defending would give the opposition the opportunity to throw more bodies forward as the threat against them is temporary off.

And, and what the hell is Skrtel doing, ball watching, at least f**ks jump and give this Carlton fellow a nudge at the back to throw him off balance and the second goal may have been avoided. No, he preferred to ball watch and watch Torres defending.

Our passing is truly pathetic, most of the time the final crucial pass is either overhit, underhit, misshit or whatever and is truly dissapointing. Insua's centre is no better, week in week out he continues with those useless centres. I kept asking the question what do the players do on the pitch, don't they train on full pitch and their weaknesses???

On the positive, I'm happy to see Masch shooting outside the box more often and he has hit the target a few times. He keeps doing that and I'm sure he'll score soon.

When Nando was going through the defence for his first goal their last man challenged him and it was a carbon copy of the Carra penalty the only difference  was that Nando stayed up and scored - he could have gone down when the lads arm came out but his desire to score overuled that.

It was crucial to win this game.

Upton Park is never an easy place to go to, that you have to be pleased whenever you get all the 3 points. Last season we have had 11-12 silly draws, that was about 1/3 of our whole campaign and many points were wasted at that area - draws. I'm happy we didn't just settled for a draw, but instead pushed on for the final goal despite the defensive fratalies we have.

Now 6 games in and it's commendable that we haven't got any draws on board yet. I reckon if we should keep the number of draws to less than five, we have a good chance of the title. I wouldn't mind losing more but winning more as well, because its always the points that count.

However, I'm very afraid of the defensive errors, especially from set pieces at the back. What was Carra thinking in the 2nd min? We nearly got bollocked there, and then our centreback pairing was constantly threatened by Cole and Hines, we couldn't take control of ourselves in central defence, Insua was only the bright spark.

It was a shambolic performance from both Skrtel and Carra yesterday, they need to get this sorted ASAP. Although we are winning now, we are walking on a tight rope and just about grinding out the right results. I don't want to see us brutally exposed when we face stronger teams, and Chelsea is coming up on 4th October.

We have conceded a lot of goals which is unusual for a side like ours, where we are usually very rock solid at the back. We seem to defend extremely poorly from set pieces, sometimes it's individual errors but then again I feel its the collective responsibility of the team to ensure that the goal is protected.

I also noticed we don't put 2 players on the posts to do a goal-line clearance if necessary. Any explanation on that?

The return of Agger from injury should help matters much, Carra and Skrtel looked very comfy as though their places in the team were assured as always.

I do hope we get it sorted out against Leeds and Hull, we need to really point out the errors made in defence. We were playing decently and against the run of play West Ham didn't deserve to get two goals at all, and we were punished for it.

Sort this out against Leeds and Hull, I wouldn't want to see mistakes repeating themselves time and again because if this continues, I honestly think that we ain't going to do the job against Chelsea - the defence might be a letdown.

Watched the game on broadband, a deserved three points in the end, although always felt on tender hooks the way the defence plays. Certainly needs some radical work some where along the line.Nice to see Torres once again amongst the goals

Also where did those black shorts come from?

They'll probably go on sale soon bit like that white kit from 2001/2002 when they sold the black and white shorts.

On Topic:

Job done, and as Chris Waddle said we were always on top, just got to stop shooting ourselves in the foot when we go ahead.

A very positive result away from home andTorres looked on fire. Babel made an impact when he came on so credit to him and credit to Rafa for making the decision to put him on. For the most part defensively though we were very poor. It is absolutely vital that we stop conceding so many goals and tighten up at the back. We are making games so much more difficult than they should be through letting in ridiculously 'soft' goals. If we do tighten up then we have every chance again this season. We have to keep improving and keep working hard and the results will continue to roll in.

the longest 90 mins of my life as i only needed Liverpool to win for £500 on my coupon.. Overall I'm glad we got the points but we do need to sort out our defensive errors, I'm sad to say it but Carra was our worst player on the pitch & has probably made more mistakes than anyone else this season. This is not a Carra bashing but maybe when Agger is fit we could maybe give him a rest & time to compose himself. Good to see Torres shutting those tit head pundits up, he's tired blah blah blah! idiots.. Lucas & Insua had a reasonably good game in my opinion, considering they are both more squad players at this stage of their career but in the team because of injuries, they are certainly holding their own, just lack a bit of confidence, which will come with time. Babel impressed, there were still some sloppy passing but his contribution with pace down the right wing looked an exciting option & his attitude seemed better after all the sh*t in the papers.. Benayoun is looking world class at the moment, Johnson when called up on defensively made the tackles. All in all a valuable 3 points as west ham at home are no push overs with Zola in charge.

Going forward we were great, Torres is starting to look like his old self again and with SG playing ahead of Masch and Lucas, we looked dangerous most times we went forward. Notice Masch was hitting quite a few Xabi-type long incisive passes, which was good to see, getting good ball into the front four.

Problem is, as the front play is improving week to week, the defense is going a little backwards. Full backs are doing OK, but in the centre Skytel and Carra are looking shaky. A lot's been said about the zonal marking, and I'm not a big fan of it - but it served well enough last season when we looked fairly solid defensively. Think it's more the form of the central defs, and in particular Carra. He doesn't look his old self at the moment, just a little rusty or short of pace. Either way, we can't keep leaking so many goals from set plays, I'm sure Rafa will sort it.

What's great is that we're winning games even though we can definately play better. With players like Agger, Aurelio and Aquilani to come in, and with the form of Torres and SG improving, things are lookin up.

Also, no harm that we haven't yet played any of the other 'big four' contenders yet, fingers crossed that at this rate we'll be coming into some really good form when we do, and take a few points of the feckers...

A solid but uninspiring team performance as it was only Torres individual brilliance got us out of jail. The way its going Jamie is going to be looking over his shoulder he isnt the player of 2 or 3 years ago and seems to blame everyone but himself these days is he struggling?. Still it shows character to win a game like that which was clearly "bitty" to say the least and when will we get a run of clean sheets again Pepe looks well pissed off at the moment, role on Hull.

yes we have been fortunate in the schedule to get lower placed clubs. what is interesting last year the games we played this year would have been draws. re 3-2 wins over bolton and west ham. also goals have not been a problem. just a leaky defence which seems to be a situation which has to be corrected. like someone sted by the time we play man utd chelsea this negatives will be sorted out hopefully

Hines hit the deck every time he was challenged..no class we deserved the win but not the scraped  through headlines once a agai. Bet the scummers get glory headlines

Huzzah!  3 points!

Best quote ever! Definitely gonna have to say Huzzah more!

But obviously the three points are the most important thing. We've got to keep them points coming.

I was really surprised at how badly we defended in the first half. We looked far from solid - actually we looked like we didn't have the capacity to cope with strength and pace. And there has been other times this season in the league where we've looked unsure at the back. I really hope it improves. And it would be good to see Gerrard give a few players a proper bollocking.

But thankfully Torres was back to his menacing self. Thought his first goal was brilliant. It made a mark in the West Ham's players minds to be wary of him, whereas he hasn't really had that much of an influence in the league this season. He's scored goals yes, but his influence hasn't been that strong. But it was yesterday!

He definitely took some pressure off Skrtel and Carra and he definitely stopped West Ham from being confident. I feel it was a really important game for Torres and I hope he moves on to become even better this season because of this game.

Come the second half, you could only see us winning. Although at the time, it was very tough to accept that!! We certainly bossed the play though and I was extremely impressed by Babel's influence when he came on for Dirk.

A very good win. And I'm also very pleased I was on the ale while I was watching it. Pure stress!! (as always)

im delighted that El Nino scored twice, i think this will kick start his season now!

I wish they would work more with Yossi on his finishing skills. Doesn't make sense that he passes 5 players and doesn't take the shot.

Benitez: More to come from Torres

Mon, 21 Sep 09:33:43 2009

Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez insisted two-goal hero Fernando Torres could become even better after the Reds edged a five-goal thriller 3-2 over West Ham at Upton Park.

Torres and Dirk Kuyt put Liverpool in front but Alessandro Diamanti, with a penalty, and Carlton Cole levelled. But Spain forward Torres head the winner in the 75th minute, delighting Benitez.

"If he continues to play like he did, he can be one of the best," said Benitez. "When you talk about the Premier League you talk about a lot of players with quality so it is not easy to pick just one, but he is among the best."

The victory, Liverpool's fourth successive win, lifted the Reds into third place in the table and left West Ham in 14th. Benitez also praised Kuyt and substitute Ryan Babel, who set up Torres' winner.

"We were in control of the game and the reaction of the team was very positive," said Benitez. "I could see that Kuyt was tired and Ryan was really good. His pace was crucial for us and the key at the end."

West Ham boss Gianfranco Zola admitted it was difficult to find an answer to Torres.

"He is a great striker, he is not easy to mark," said Zola. "It is not easy to defend against players like him especially when they are in the form he was in."

was in the stand....great atmosphere...Brilliant.. .sounded like the full kop at Upton Park.