Sam Allardyce laughs off suggestion his side will attack Liverpool without Ravel Morrison
Sam Allardyce without suspended Ravel Morrison for West Ham's trip to Anfield
Sam Allardyce is without his mercurial midfielder Ravel Morrison for West Ham's trip to Anfield to take on Liverpool on Saturday.
Morrison was booked after the final whistle on Tuesday night after the Hammers' 1-0 defeat away at Crystal Palace, for pushing Joel Ward in the face, picking up his fifth caution of the season - although the England under 21 star was lucky to escape a red card.
Big Sam is still without Andy Carroll - although the former Newcastle man has returned to light training this week - and is sweating on the fitness of Ricardo Vaz Te (shoulder) and Razvan Rat (hamstring) with George McCartney and Alou Diarra (both knee) also absent.
The Hammers slipped to 17th after Tuesday's defeat and, having only picked up one win away from home all season, will be desperate to avoid a similarly humbling defeat handed out to Norwich - who are a point above West Ham - by Luis Suarez.
Allardyce handed Carlton Cole his first start of the season on Tuesday and may persist with the front-man even after hauling him off just before the hour mark, with Modibo Maiga his only other option, as the 'false 9' system played earlier in the season depended on the suspended Morrison.
Provisional squad: Jasskelainen, Adrian, Demel, Collins, Tomkins, O'Brien, Rat, Chambers, Collison, Noble, Nolan, J Cole, Downing, Jarvis, Taylor, Diame, C Cole, Maiga
Star showing: Philippe Coutinho (right) is expected to keep his place following Liverpool's 5-1 thrashing over Norwich
Ruled out: Ravel Morrison (front) is suspended after picking up five yellow cards this term
Hot shot: Luis Suarez has scored more Premier League goals this season than the entire West Ham team
Probable line-ups: Liverpool vs West Ham
LIVERPOOL v WEST HAM: Latest team news and stats ahead of the Anfield clash
Liverpool team news:
Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has to decide whether to stick with a winning team for the visit of West Ham in the Barclays Premier League.
The Reds boss made three changes for the Luis Suarez-inspired 5-1 midweek demolition of Norwich and that trio of Daniel Agger, Joe Allen and Philippe Coutinho will expect to retain their places.
Striker Daniel Sturridge will be sidelined until the new year with an ankle sprain.
Provisional squad: Mignolet, Johnson, Skrtel, Agger, Flanagan, Lucas, Gerrard, Henderson, Suarez, Aspas, Coutinho, Jones, Sakho, Toure, Cissokho, Allen, Alberto, Moses, Sterling.
West Ham team news:
West Ham will be without Ravel Morrison for their Barclays Premier League match at Liverpool on Saturday after the midfielder picked up his fifth booking of the season in midweek.
The 20-year-old was cautioned after the final whistle in Tuesday's 1-0 defeat at Crystal Palace and will serve a one-match ban, meaning he will sit out at Anfield.
Rodgers: Luis (Suarez) is extremely happy here at Liverpool
Former Liverpool forward Andy Carroll is back in training for the Hammers after a long-term heel injury, but is not yet in contention. Ricardo Vaz Te (shoulder) and Razvan Rat (hamstring) are likely to miss out with George McCartney and Alou Diarra (both knee) also absent.
Provisional squad: Jasskelainen, Adrian, Demel, Collins, Tomkins, O'Brien, Rat, Chambers, Collison, Noble, Nolan, J Cole, Downing, Jarvis, Taylor, Diame, C Cole, Maiga.
Big match stats:
Luis Suarez (13) has scored one more Premier League goal than West Ham have as a team (12) this season.
The Hammers have failed to score in five of their seven Premier League away games this season.
Sam Allardyce: Suarez is a menace to defenders on pitch
Glen Johnson has scored in three of his last four Premier League appearances against his former club West Ham.
West Ham United have not won away in the league at Anfield since 1963, losing 29 and drawing 11 of their subsequent 40 trips since.
The Hammers have scored just six goals in their last 28 league visits to Anfield, failing to score on 23 occasions including the last five in a row.
West Ham have been involved in the two Premier League games with the lowest passing accuracy this season (away at Southampton and away at Crystal Palace).
10 of Luis Suarez’s 13 Premier League goals this season have come at Anfield.
Suarez has scored 10 goals and assisted one more in his last six Premier League appearances.
Liverpool have hit the woodwork 10 times this season, more often than any other Premier League team.
Liverpool have already scored five-plus goals in five separate Premier League games under Brendan Rodgers (in less than a season and a half), something Rafa Benitez managed only six times in six seasons.
*Stats supplied by Opta
Stewart Downing celebrates scoring for Liverpool
Rodgers admits he did not want to lose Downing in the summer
Stewart Downing returns to Anfield today with Liverpool FC boss Brendan Rodgers admitting he didn’t want to lose the winger.
The 29-year-old, who was one of the club’s highest earners, was sold to West Ham for £6million back in August.
Downing made 91 appearances for the Reds following his arrival from Aston Villa for £20million in the summer of 2011.
“Stewart was arguably a player I didn’t want to lose to be honest,” Rodgers told the ECHO.
“It’s one where after a difficult start he showed in the second half of last season what he could do and was in the team nearly every game. I thought he got better and better.
“Throughout pre-season he played a prominent role and then towards the end of pre-season he had to be sold in order for us to maybe invest in other players.
“That was the disappointment really because when he was called upon he had showed up really well.
“He ended up moving on and he’s a good guy. I like Stewart a lot. Every time I’ve seen West Ham this season he has been one of their best players.”
Fellow Anfield old boy Joe Cole, who joined the Hammers in January, could also face his former club but ex-Reds striker Andy Carroll is still recovering from a heel injury.
“It was difficult for Joe here because he was littered with injuries,” Rodgers said.
“The way things went for him in his first game – getting sent off – was a signal of how things were going to go for him here.
“He’s a good player but at this stage of his career he wanted to go and play regularly. West Ham was maybe his best opportunity to do that.”
The fourth placed Reds have netted 16 goals in their last four home games and Rodgers is out to pile on the agony for Sam Allardyce’s side, who are just three points above the drop zone.
“We love playing at Anfield,” he added.
“It’s a place where hopefully visitors now look at it and you hear people talk about the difficulty of going to Anfield.
“That’s great because certainly when I was in the Premier League with Swansea you really looked forward to going to Anfield.
“That’s the mark of how well the players have progressed. We need to keep that mentality and professionalism going.
“If we keep our focus and concentration then we know our quality will come through and we will score goals.
“We need to make sure we finish the week on a high and get to 30 points. We know West Ham will be resolute and hard to beat but we need to find the answers.”
Could this Spanish manager be West Ham’s Mauricio Pochettino?
talkSPORT's man with his finger on the pulse of Spanish football gives you the lowdown on a manager linked with the Upton Park hotseat…
Reports in Spain earlier this week claimed that Sam Allardyce's days with West Ham could be numbered, and former Real Betis manager Pepe Mel is said to have been contacted by the London club in anticipation of a shake-up.
Believe it or not, employing a manager that has just been sacked by the team at the bottom of La Liga could have an incredibly positive impact on West Ham United’s fortunes, and if that sounds crazy, it's worth casting our minds back to Mauricio Pochettino’s appointment as Southampton boss in January 2013.
Back then, the Saints were just about managing to keep their heads above the relegation zone under Nigel Adkins, and the general reaction in England was one of outrage, with pundits calling Nicola Cortese mad for bringing in a man that had left Espanyol in difficult circumstances in November 2012.
‘He won’t last’, ‘he doesn’t speak English’ and ‘I don’t even know who he is’, were three of the phrases used most frequently in response to the decision, yet fast forward almost a year, and the Saints sit only two points behind fourth placed Liverpool, with the appointment of the Argentine now hailed as a stroke of genius.
Like Pochettino with Espanyol, Pepe Mel’s stature as a manager is not accurately reflected in the situation Real Betis currently find themselves in, and the Spaniard certainly has the raw qualities to have a similar impact at Upton Park as the Argentine has had at St Mary's.
When Sam Allardyce’s football delivers positive results its aesthetic deficiencies can be overlooked, but when a struggling side like Crystal Palace beats West Ham and the Hammers find themselves falling into a relegation battle, the manager’s credentials start to come into question.
Reports in Spain not only insist that Pepe Mel has been sounded out by West Ham should Allardyce face the axe, but also, as a happy coincidence, the former Betis man has been taking intensive English classes in recent months.
So what exactly could he bring to the side? Good technical football, ambition, and excitement for the fans. Not a bad package.
Pepe Mel has had to do things the hard way in management. Learning his trade in the lower leagues, he is still fondly remembered by Rayo Vallecano supporters for dragging them up to the Spanish second division after four years in the third tier.
It was at the Benito Villamarin with Real Betis, who he also played over 100 games for, that Mel really made his name however.
In his first season in charge as Betis manager, Mel’s side comfortably achieved promotion to La Liga, finishing 14 points above the play-off places, and four points above second-placed Rayo Vallecano.
With an emphasis on moving the ball from back to front as accurately as possible at a high tempo, Betis finished the season with a record of 85 goals scored, the highest number in the league along with Barcelona B, as well as the third best defensive record in the Liga Adelante.
The true reflection of their quality was not in the league however, but a Copa del Rey encounter with Barcelona.
In the quarter-final stage of the 2010/11 Copa, Betis met a Blaugrana side that would go on to destroy Manchester United at Wembley as well as defeat Jose Mourinho’s Real Madrid in La Liga.
The gulf in financial power and individual quality between the sides was exposed in a 5-0 defeat in the first leg at the Camp Nou, but in the return fixture, the Andalucians stunned the Catalans with their energetic, high-octane football and quality finishing, scoring two goals within the opening seven minutes and going on to win 3-1.
Following the game, Pep Guardiola hailed Betis as ‘one of the best teams Barcelona have played against’, and he wasn’t exaggerating. That display helped to cause great excitement in Spain over Mel’s future as a manager and the future of his Betis team.
In their first season back in La Liga, Mel continued to improve his Betis team, working on their defensive solidity in particular in order to make sure his side avoided the drop in the 2011/12 campaign.
The best was yet to come however, as the 2012/13 season marked the peak of an exciting, high quality Betis team that would exceed all expectations by competing for a Champions League spot for much of the year.
Last year, Betis turned over top sides like Real Sociedad, Valencia and Malaga in comfortable victories, and the pick of their results was a 1-0 win over Real Madrid at the Benito Villamarin.
With an emphasis on attacking football that captured the minds of neutrals, Mel built his team around the passing quality of Beñat Etxebarria and the energy of fellow midfielder Jose Cañas, and though the side from Sevilla ultimately missed out on Europe’s top tier, they did pick up a Europa League spot, capping off a dream season for Beticos.
The dream ultimately wouldn’t last long, as Betis sold both Cañas and Beñat last the summer, and the loss of two of their best players, as well as injury problems for top scorer Ruben Castro has hit them hard.
As a result, the Andalucian side sit rock bottom of La Liga, and Mel was dismissed from his position earlier this week. Ask supporters of the club if they agree with the decision, and the answer is likely to be no. Ask them if they think Pepe Mel is one of their greatest managers in recent memory, and the answer is likely to be yes.
In Pepe Mel, West Ham would have a versatile, intelligent coach capable of playing a number of systems, with the Spaniard using a 4-4-2, 4-3-3, 4-2-3-1 and 4-4-1-1 over the course of his time with Betis.
Beyond his tactical understanding, Hammers supporters would surely appreciate his focus on attacking, exciting football that makes it worth the price of a ticket. In the past, Mel has noted the importance of ‘speed, creating one on one situations and overloading the opposition’ to his approach, and that style would certainly help to get the best out of Ravel Morrison in particular, who thrives when taking on an opponent in isolation.
Admittedly, Mel’s teams have struggled somewhat against sides that shut up shop in the past, but in England, where tactical rigidity is not as common as Spain, that shouldn’t be much of a problem, while few teams are likely to park the bus against the Hammers anyway.
Should things ‘click’ for Mel, West Ham could quite conceivably make any thought of relegation ones of the past, and begin to have far bigger ambitions, something the manager proved was possible in Spain by taking Betis from the second division to competing for a Champions League spot in only two years.
To those not familiar with Pepe Mel, bringing in a man that has just been sacked and has never coached in England in an attempt to save West Ham from relegation may be shocking, but sometimes the bravest decisions in football can appear to be the most baffling on the surface.
English pundits may not have been familiar with Mauricio Pochettino's managerial qualities upon his appointment at Southampton, but watchers of La Liga certainly didn't doubt his credentials, and the same is the case with Pepe Mel. If there is a manager within West Ham's resources that is capable of replicating Pochettino's feats, it's him.
Hammers in the Heart
We need to talk about Kevin
One thing Big Sam has to consider for future games is dropping Kevin Nolan. As Morrison is suspended against Liverpool, he will probably keep his place, but in the games to follow you do wonder if Nolan can justify his place. There's no doubt Nobby Nolan is a good captain, a strong character away from home, popular in the dressing room and a great finisher on his day. But he's not scored for 13 games since the opening match of the season against Cardiff and if Nolan isn't scoring then how much else does he bring to the side? Often he is bypassed in midfield. It's significant that Diame looked a lot better in the middle when Morrison was dropped against Fulham. If we want to keep Morrison in the side though, and also Mark Noble, then Nolan is the obvious candidate for demotion to the bench. And might he not benefit from a rest or indeed coming on late in games to nick a goal? I doubt if Sam will ever drop Kevin, but in our position he should surely try every option.
This is what West Ham have to do
LiverpoolThere wasn’t too much to like about the game against Crystal Palace.
No one likes being beaten by a side at the bottom of the Premier League table, let alone when it should have been a draw. But that was the last game; the players must focus on this game against Liverpool.
We haven’t won a game at Anfield sine Bobby Moore was playing for the Hammers. We also have lost our best player, Ravel Morrison to suspension. Luis Suarez also scored four goals in the week and Liverpool are looking good to return to the Champions League. So on paper this is a Liverpool win.
But the game isn’t played on paper and if West Ham are to win or draw, this is what we need to do:
Defence to remain tight
So far we have conceded 15 goals, which is less than Liverpool but we have lost our best defender in Winston Reid. If we have any hope of getting anything from this game the defence must be tight. Almost the same defence was able to hold Liverpool to a 0-0 draw earlier in the year, so it can be done.
Chin up if we concede
If we concede a goal, chin up and do something about it. There is no point crying over spilt milk, go clean it up. Big Sam will tell them the same, be proactive and if we do concede, the game isn’t over it’s only just begun.
Stewart Downing
Some Liverpool supporters feel he was a terrible player and a waste of money. Downing has a point to prove to them and to himself. Downing has been in good form the last few games and will cause some real headaches with his delivery into the box. Liverpool are seriously vulnerable with crosses into the box and there is no one better to deliver the ball into the box than Downing.
Play with a striker
As I previously mentioned, Liverpool are vulnerable from crosses. It makes no sense to not have a target for Downing and Matt Jarvis to deliver to. Sam is well aware that 4-6-0 didn’t work so I am sure he will have a striker.
Take your chances
There will only be a few chances in this game, so we must take them. When the opportunity rises, people must take their chance. It what separates good players from ordinary ones, and will be the difference between a win and a loss.
While I never want a team to play for a draw, I think it’s our best option and one point is better than none.
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