You alluded in your post that we lost the midfield battle because of Lucas. If you didn't mean that then my mistake.

it's actually a different sentence, but my bad not to start with capital letter

okay.. it's not about Lucas fault, or Gerrard's fault, or even Skrtel...
it's the whole team fault.
they not closing down WH players quickly whenever WH touch the ball, agree with that?

I think our 3-5-2 didn't seem to work against their 4-3-3. I don't know what is wrong there but it didn't produce enough fluidity in passing and movement.

I saw some glimpse of potentials in the link up play between Gerrard and Suarez, something like what we used to have in Gerrard-Torres partnership. Maybe KD can try to play Gerrard behind Suarez.

suarez looked good at times, slowly coming to terms with the speed of bpl. gerrard lack match fitness, that was obvious, what puzzles me is why mr greek is on the bench when west ham's main strength up front was power and aerial threat. is it just because of the europa game ? lucas and raul looked really tired out there. pretty disappointed with the result, but in a way, a good reality check for the lads to not get complacent and keep their heads firmly on gaining 3 point every game. hope for better next sunday ! really hope we win, just to get one over manu fans. some of them are just off, needling at friends at every opportunity. pity arsenal fans too.

guess kelly is out of the game next weekend. another matter that puzzles me is why joe cole aint performing, what is wrong with that guy ? good thing benny is injured in chelsea if not he would have easily outshone cole. frustrating to see cole play..

i don't know. it just doesn't seems right. we have been outplayed again. against wigan, and west ham. what more man utd? lolx

You wanna know why what more for man utd? It's cause Caroll is finally starting! Come on lads. Forget the past! See the future!

not really agree with this..any1 can beat any1 else...quality is nothing if we play sloppy...that is why we see big team got pawned by struggling club..cuz thay more concentrate than big team...MU control every stage of the game...they avoid sloppy mistake..that is why they really good...if any club can play the way they played...any1 can beat them...

Buckle up lads, a Man City and Arsenal had bad weeks too (I felt for Arsenal). West Ham played their heart out, and we we marred with fatigue, off form players, and some injuries.

Forget about this week and focus on the next game. YNWA!

IMHO, we cant give excuse that our opponent really played well and overcome us.

c'mon, west ham is just bottom of the table. not even middle.

but the match last nite, i will blame the players for not fully take the chances.

always the remaining 10 mins struggle to find a goal.

i feel sad tho for the defeat.

we nearly to the 4th place and losing to bottom club is not acceptable.

Cole has been out of the game for a long period. so it will take him quite a while to regain his form and fitness again.

i don't agree with this. even Man Utd was defeated by Wolves few weeks ago. it is just that against relegation battlers it will always going to be a tough game. West Ham sheer survival spirit was their main driving force for the win.

We're in the home stretch portion of the season and relegation threatened teams have got to step it up. The term "relegation threatened team" however has a broader definition this season as even one win for bottom club, Wigan could mean them climbing out of the relegation zone. Unlike in seasons past, you don't have one "certainty", one two "hopefuls". Anyone could go down right nwo. Wolves turned up against Blackpool whilst Wigan got turned over by some a little Mexican and what happened? They've swapped places and Wolves are now just above the drop zone.

West Ham did turn up against us and they put on a scintilating display with Scott Parker in particular, standing out. It still surprises me when no one picked up him early in the season as his contract was expiring. I really thought that Newcastle were going to resign him, but there you go. His toe poke into the far corner was deliberate and well executed. I don't think any keeper would have got to that. Pepe throw himself to the right immediately but it swerved beyond his reach into the far corner. Simply sublime finishing. West Ham's second, you could see coming from a mile away. We were outnumbered as West Ham broke and it turned out to be a pretty simple goal in the end as we failed to pick up the trailing man. Good play from Suarez to set up Johnson but you always felt that West Ham were going to put the final nail in the coffin at some point.

Where did it all go wrong?

I do know the 5-4-1/3-5-1 had worked pretty well for us against Chelsea but I think we gave West Ham too much respect. We were passive and we let them dominate us in midfield. We were short going forward and lacked penetration in the middle. Mereiles was virtually invisible the whole game. We needed more bodies in the middle of the park. Suarez was to me our best player by far. His turn must be one of the quickest in the Premiership and he looked the only player interested in trying to salvage the game.

I watched Gerrard whenever he was in the camera frame - he had a poor game. At times, he did not even seem interested or want to play!

Not saying that the defeat boils down to Gerrard alone, but because the players look to him and often pass the ball to him, his listlessness inevitably has an impact on Liverpool's game.

Disappointing...

i noticed the same thing actually but i guess that was because of he just return from long lay off. Liverpool will have plenty of rest before Braga and MAn Utd game, that should be sufficient.

The game was very frustrating actually. The 1st thing i sense that my team were going wrong when our boys have the ball, WH player suddenly there, pressuring. Then, it makes our tempo/fluidity of the game stuck. And the pressure from WH, make our midfiled seems no idea how to attack. Seldom? often? i saw Gerrard pass back the ball to the defender. Is it he want to start the attack from defender? And when Gerrard pass the ball to defender, WH player were at their half.

Yeah, goal from scott parker and Ba, theres nothing (in normal condition) you can save that ball. Credit to them.

Overall, i would like to blame our midfield for not being able to give a good performance. Mereiles, Gerrard not showing their best. because of them, Lucas and the defensive line has to do more job. In results they got more pressure and intend to make mistake.

Sorry to Apiy, hehe...i thought you were trolling here, cause im replying from phone. But dont call our player bodoh la...kecik hati aku..heheh...lapik sikit...call dissapointted la....

After that lost. I couldn't sleep well. I couldn't accept the fact that we were outplayed by West Ham but I admit that they are back in form. We need Midfielders and Defenders. Agger plays an important part in the 3-5-2 line up. His passes are accurate, he has great vision, he assist in attacks, he can defend and IMHO is an all rounded defender. I think Wilson was showing potential, give him a couple more years and he'll come out good like Agger. Our midfield line up has always been plain and uncreative but seeing Suarez come in, I've seen some creativity and life in it. I reckon we need one or two more players like him.

West Ham was fighting for their lives to stay in the premier league. The hunger and motivation was always there. All of their goals were either very close to the posts or aiming at the top corner. They will be no goalkeeper in the world who can save all these 3 goals from going in. In other words, West Ham was razor sharp, they could have beat any team at home playing like that. Plus Gerrard's was way off his best form. And Kelly has to be injured in such a bad timing. It's just not our day..

I thought Cole was playing better and improving in each game.

Yesterday game, I can only say one conclusion, the whole team look tired after the Europa game, plus Gerard just came back after injury and WH defended very well, they closed down Liverpool attacting space effectively. I think yesterday game was a good lesson to Liverpool, and King Kenny should know what to do when we meet such situation again next time, really a good lesson.

It's a reality check after yesterday game. All the hopes of getting into 4th place is gone. There're a lot more tougher teams for the remaining 10 games.

We'll just have to content with a 6th place finish and hoping a Europa title to get us into European qualification next season.

On yesterday match, tactical wise I think Liverpool could play better should we take a more positive and offensive approach, especially in the first half. It's a pain to watch when all we can do is just passing the balls among defenders at our own half.

also something to note, its kenny's first weekend match after a midweek europe game if im not mistaken though both sammy and clarke has lots of experience in that albeit as a no.2 . also i noticed clarke is more involved with kenny compared to sammy, was sammy around on the bench last night(unsure ) ?