God I hope so pal... I really do.
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FTY
Player Valuation: £70m
Soz lads.
I have exited the excitement stage of the derby a lot quicker than usually schedule thanks to our woeful Crystal Palace result. I have firmly switched gears into the nervous anticipation with a jmore than generous dose of bricking it. As was said earlier, if you're not at the game it is best not to watch. That said I know I'm not alone in being unable to resist the draw of the Merseyside derby, even though I'll be up at 7.45 am to get my heart broken again. Maybe, just maybe we will snatch a win. As our horrible record against them continues to get worse, I just can't stop myself from watching them. Either we lose and the record gets worse and I end up as pissed off as I have been for the last 15 years, or we finally stick it to them in their pit again and I will proceed to bounce off every surface around. Either way, its like a car crash, you just can't not watch it.
Its not just the last time we played them with the tappy tappy stuff, how many 'hospital' balls did we play against Palace. We had a couple of long balls played across field to Atsu, who didnt control in the box, other than that not much in most games. Pretty basic really, play the long ball every now n then to your wingers and put their defence under pressure, like you say Gerrard does it, but instead we let teams play us deep cos of where the ball is.
Big Dunc's tongue must be in bits not seeing balls being lofted in there. End of day Naismith is a master at picking up on a loose ball, take a risk and get it in there, sod the possession stats its clearly not winning us games.
Both sets of fans have no confidence in their defence - or rather complete confidence that they are one moment away from an absolute howler.
dannyboy
Player Valuation: £60m
My big hope is that they've got quite a few new players who haven't experienced the derby before. That winning mentality they usually have going into this game might not be there.
Probably works the other way round for us, considering how mentally scarred some of our players must feel who've been there over the past 5 years.
Probably works the other way round for us, considering how mentally scarred some of our players must feel who've been there over the past 5 years.
bluegirl
Player Valuation: £15m
What we need to do is start fast. Press high on their back line and force them into mistakes.
Ourselves we need to stop the tippy tappy on the back line, they'll be onto that and will force us into mistakes.
Get the ball into Naisy, Kev or Pienaar then start playing.
We need to stop them scoring early and try and catch them on the break early.
If we start bombing forward from the off we'll play into their hands. Soak up the pressure, try and win it back and get them on the break. That's exactly what Villa did and it worked.
Ourselves we need to stop the tippy tappy on the back line, they'll be onto that and will force us into mistakes.
Get the ball into Naisy, Kev or Pienaar then start playing.
We need to stop them scoring early and try and catch them on the break early.
If we start bombing forward from the off we'll play into their hands. Soak up the pressure, try and win it back and get them on the break. That's exactly what Villa did and it worked.
bluegirl
Player Valuation: £15m
I can't remember a Derby were both teams are so unconfident. Providing there's no early goal I think it'll be a scrappy draw.
We've got our whole squad to choose from, barring Barkley.
I'm guessing Pienaar will be fit?
Any news on their injuries? Sturridge, Henderson, Coutihno back no doubt!?
We've got our whole squad to choose from, barring Barkley.
I'm guessing Pienaar will be fit?
Any news on their injuries? Sturridge, Henderson, Coutihno back no doubt!?
Billy Dean
Player Valuation: £70m
What would be your starting XI for the game? Mine would probably be:
Howard
Stones Jags Alcaraz Baines
Besic Barry McCarthy
McGeady Lukaku Mirallas
Howard
Stones Jags Alcaraz Baines
Besic Barry McCarthy
McGeady Lukaku Mirallas
Play like we did in the last two games, and they're going to fillet us
Pienaar isn't fit is he? Why do people keep including him for the game. Itl be McGeady playing instead?
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