When we were discussing the upcoming Liverpool game and West Ham’s chances to get a result I maintained throughout that anything could happen, especially on Opening Day. Well, what happened was the drubbing that most pundits (and probably most of our own fans) had anticipated all along.
You hope against hope that you may catch the Scousers on a bad day at the office for them, you think maybe our new West Ham team will click instantly and nick another rare win at Anfield for us.
The cold hard truth is that Liverpool on normal form are a terrifyingly good side, skilled, ruthless, focussed and also, as much as it pains me to say it, a wonderful side to watch for any fan who loves the game of football and doesn’t hold a hatred (irrational or not) against Liverpool FC. I will say one thing about Liverpool though – and it’s really getting to me – and that is the love-in that Sky and the media are celebrating when it comes to covering Liverpool.
Yes, they are a great footballing team (again, it took them a while to become one under Klopp), they are one of the best supported sides on the planet and it’s good they exist.
However, is it really necessary to overload the TV crews with (biased) former Liverpool players or self-proclaimed Liverpool fans ?
Is it necessary to completely ignore whichever team has the (mis)fortune of playing the Scousers on any given weekend and blabber away about Liverpool this and Liverpool that ?
One of Liverpool’s goals was CLEARLY scored from an offside position, yet that wrong refereeing call was laughed off by the commentators as Mane’s finishing was so brilliant. WTF ??? The goal didn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things, but that ain’t the point. I may be forced to find myself an internet stream with Chinese or Swedish commentary in future in order to avoid busting a blood vessel from getting riled up over punditry that is overly biased towards West Ham’s opponents.
I won’t dwell too much on the game as most things have been properly discussed on the match thread and on David Hautzig’s article. Liverpool didn’t have a bad day at the office, they played like a well-drilled and oiled machine (or a solid old Volkswagen, as Klopp is managing them…LOL) and frankly we just didn’t get a sniff.
I believe Liverpool will give Man City a run for their money, one of these two teams will win the PL title at a canter and I would expect them to dish out plenty of drubbings along the way.
I still saw some positives in the game from our perspective which may sound odd after losing a game by a 0:4 scoreline. But I think there were, under the circumstances, some very decent performances and first glimpses at our new players. In my book Fredericks and Balbuena looked promising, same goes for Wilshere and Anderson.
And we didn’t even see Diop, Lucas Perez or Carlos Sanchez in action yet, not in a competitive game anyway.
We will not play Liverpool every weekend and indeed I would expect our team to play some great football this season against most other clubs in the league.
Rome wasn’t built in a day, neither was Liverpool under Klopp and I would just hope that West Ham fans don’t overreact after this game.
We need to be patient and if we are I am absolutely certain that Pellegrini will deliver over the course of the season.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not exactly enjoying watching us lose 0:4 to anybody, but putting it in perspective I know we will see us play a lot better in far more games this season as compared to the previous one. Even in this drubbing I saw us passing the ball well at times, but it’s difficult against Liverpool as they keep the ball so well and don’t make a lot of mistakes you could pounce on.
We will all be a bit wiser after the upcoming home opener against Bournemouth. I’m sure Pellegrini will be busy this week in training, devising a gameplan and working the players so we will all hopefully be in for a treat next weekend. COYI!!!
Hamburg football update, starting with Concordia whose first team got spanked 0:3 away at Teutonia 05 in Ottensen in Hamburg’s west, with me being one of several Cordi supporters who attended that game. Teutonia are widely tipped to finish the season as champions (they are loaded as they are getting sponsored by a Russian oil company), so it’s no shame to lose at their place. Unfortunately the Cordi boys were lacking in many departments yesterday, body language, running, general willingness to go into tackles and win balls. The Cordi U23s on the other hand won their home fixture by a ridiculous scoreline of 10:0. The young Cordi lads already look like they may be headed for a third successive promotion season.
As for the Hamburg heavyweights St.Pauli got the perfect start, winning their second game of the season as well, this time at home against Darmstadt.
And Hamburg SV managed to win back some pride and goodwill by winning their away game at Sandhausen 3:0, after suffering a defeat by the same scoreline the previous week against Kiel.