12 Apr 2025 08:36:10
What's the betting GP will start with 3 centre backs, AWB and Emerson as wingbacks, Paqueta, JWP and Soucek in midfield, Bowen up front with no recognised centre forward, and Kudus out wide? I bloody hope not, but somehow he's become so predictable.
I'd like to see a starting XI of
Areola
AWB
Scarles
Kilman
Todibo
Alvarez
Paqueta
Soler
Bowen
Kudus
Füllkrug
but I won't hold my breath. Liverpool are beatable, but it all depends on Potter. We can't sit back and let them come onto us. If GP surrenders the first half, we're in for a drubbing. Fingers crossed it's swashbuckling time!

1.) 12 Apr 2025
12 Apr 2025 14:03:48
That's not bad Tin. AREOLA fills me with dread and Alvarez is a red card waiting to happen but this lineup is about as good as it gets. As long as we have a go and don't just sit back

2.) 12 Apr 2025
12 Apr 2025 15:19:26
Areola just pips it over Fab, and Alvarez is just what we need in a scrap. The alternatives are Soucek, who’s about as useful in midfield as ashtrays on a motorbike, or JWP who is still trying to find a way out of reverse gear. Kilman just edges it over Dino and the same with Scarles over Emerson. Füllkrug definitely should start, but I think he’ll be sacrificed so the duo of Laurel and Hardy can be used in midfield.

3.) 12 Apr 2025
12 Apr 2025 17:12:20
I like the look of the side, more attacking. but just can’t see the change to 442 as we didn’t do that against far lesser sides than Liverpool. Let’s hope there is a bit of enterprise and something like this happens.

4.) 12 Apr 2025
12 Apr 2025 20:13:38
Liverpool who have lost 2 games in the league out of 31 are beatable? Technically everyone in the league is beatable but the probability at anfield is slim based on both teams form this season is slim at best.

5.) 12 Apr 2025
12 Apr 2025 21:34:59
My team for tomorrow is:

Areola
AWB
Emerson
Kilman
Todibo
Cresswell
Bowen
Soucek
JWP
Alvarez
Fulkrug

1-5-3-2

6.) 13 Apr 2025
13 Apr 2025 05:51:20
Brooking is actually David moyes.

7.) 13 Apr 2025
13 Apr 2025 07:50:37
All Premiership sides are beatable, and any team who doesn’t believe that doesn’t deserve to be in the Premier league. History shows that the best sides are vulnerable, usually in the final stretch of the season when things seem settled. We all know the odds, but GP must throw caution to the wind and at least have a go. We are never going to win by fielding three central defenders. It shows a total lack of ideas and ambition, as does playing Soucek and JWP in the same midfield. COYI!

8.) 13 Apr 2025
13 Apr 2025 08:03:48
hammerdave: “Brooking is actually David Moyes.”
????

9.) 13 Apr 2025
13 Apr 2025 11:23:53
Personally, think we’ll be comfortably beaten today. The Salah news will lift the crowd. Reckon 4-0

10.) 13 Apr 2025
13 Apr 2025 12:24:18
Is the Pope catholic? Brooking should be a football pundit - stating the obvious! What this thread is about is what might happen if Potter throws caution to the wind and gets the boys to have a go, but that has obviously gone above some heads. ?

11.) 13 Apr 2025
13 Apr 2025 13:05:03
To be fair, you’ve given up on the new manager already after, what is it, 12 games?

Back to your old habits of moaning everyday. Didn’t you post something at 6AM the other day moaning? You should be called Moanlegs, or MyLegsAreMadeOfTinJustSpendMyLifeMoaning.

12.) 13 Apr 2025
13 Apr 2025 13:12:37
Teams are up.
Surprise, surprise - three centre backs and no centre forward. So predictable. Clueless; bereft of any ideas. Hold onto your seats boys; we’re in for a rough ride.

13.) 13 Apr 2025
13 Apr 2025 13:13:31
Rofl ??? a bit surprised he has reverted back to bowen up top with Kudus, paqueta behind. Soler and Jwp midfield? No fulkrug? Is he not fully fit yet? Some strange choices but again, at least he can say in the summer that they were all given chances to prove themselves!

14.) 13 Apr 2025
13 Apr 2025 13:26:49
I think we will miss Alvarez and Fulgrug and hopefully don’t regret putting macro and JWP in.
Still we play better away from home and against the bigger sides. That is a lot of straws I am clutching at.

15.) 13 Apr 2025
13 Apr 2025 13:50:45
Agreed mate. Five at the back tends to indicate we’ll let them come onto us and try and hit them on the break. Without a recognised centre forward this might prove a problem. Nothing wrong with living in hope though. Fingers and toes crossed, regardless of what they’re made of! ?

16.) 13 Apr 2025
13 Apr 2025 13:54:10
Mavro

17.) 13 Apr 2025
13 Apr 2025 14:00:17
Hmmm some strange choices in the line up but, football is a funny old game. Yes I expect us to get beat 3 or 4 but, u just never know and even if we do it shows Potter more about the character of the players so for me it's a win win.

Let's remember this squad was built by LOP and Moyes so let's judge Potter when he has players he wants to play and they are all fit, not until!

18.) 13 Apr 2025
13 Apr 2025 14:59:19
Mac,
Are you saying Potter doesn’t know how to get a tune out of this pool of players? That’s what it sounds like. Let’s face it, he’s a professional very well paid coach who has had 3 months with this squad. He also had best part of a transfer window and all he brought in was Ferguson on loan. He wouldn’t be very good at his job if he didn’t know the players he was inheriting, or those players he had an idea might fit in. All this nonsense about having to give him time is just that - nonsense. He’s already shown us he can field an attacking side. Sadly, it’s been after half-time. What worries me is I fear he‘s clueless about how to set up a formation to combat good sides from the kick off. If that is seen by some as ‘moaning’, then bloody right it’s moaning. Potter wasn’t my choice in the first place, but it’s time we saw some evidence to justify his vast salary and so called ‘reputation’. So far, I have no idea where this ‘reputation’ came from and I’ve seen little evidence he knows what he’s doing, apart from talking a good job! I hope things change, but I somehow doubt it.

19.) 13 Apr 2025
13 Apr 2025 15:57:40
Right then Tin what you got to say for yourself now? Bound to be something negative as always. We could have Ancelotti (who in my opinion is one of the best managers on the planet) and you'd still not be happy.

Great effort by the boys. Quality is certainly missing and I have no doubts next season will be better than this but get of the managers back and give him a chance

20.) 13 Apr 2025
13 Apr 2025 16:03:07
Moan moan f****n moan, this whinging is getting very boring again fellers and some of you that I had new gained respect for have well and truly fallen into your terrible old habits of using this forum to spout nothing but negativity! The job done in the 1st half was to nullify a very partisan crowd and we did that. 2nd half we were excellent and I had a Liverpool fan mate text me from the ground saying they were finding it horrible as we were battering them! I’ve been
a big critic of Paqueta but I thought he was brilliant today, simply outstanding. If people on here can’t take the positives out of that game today then shame on you!

21.) 13 Apr 2025
13 Apr 2025 16:26:32
Sorry to put the boot in Mac but you I agree with Tin that must make me moany D! But I feel you are giving this guy too much Lea way.
The second half today was an improvement but why didn’t we play that way from the get go.
All that has changed is we are not getting tonked in some games and we have a manager who seems rational and is a nice bloke as opposed to a grouchy nutter.
The football we are playing under him is almost a carbon copy of Moyes. I didn’t think we would be relegated even with loopy-Loppy in charge and it became more evident as the season has progressed because the bottom 3 are SOOOO poor, not because we were any good.
We spent the first half of the season moaning about the manager (rightly so) and now seem to have spent the second half of the season moaning about the players, apparently our poor results are now, nothing to do with the manager! Well with that same group of players and the addition of Ferguson we now have a more organised side that is in 18th position as opposed to 14th when he took over, with hardly any attacking style or play. No manager has ever had this luxury to have roughly 10 or so games where he can experiment with a more swashbuckling style even if the personnel are not all there we can at least see if this guy has it in him to try to play on the front foot, which I don’t believe he has. I would rather see us lose 4 or 5 nil and at least give it a go than go down the way we are now, losing by one or two.

22.) 13 Apr 2025
13 Apr 2025 17:10:56
Keep getting my numbers mixed up 17th not 18th

23.) 13 Apr 2025
13 Apr 2025 17:19:24
So Hammer-D you are actually saying you’d prefer the Lopetegui period when we were being beaten 5 nil and 6 nil than the Potter era? This is the 3rd time we have played Liverpool this season and yes they were better earlier in the season but we conceded 10 goals in the first 2 games ….

All new managers need time to bed in and have a chance at picking their own players. Look at Arteta, he was agonisingly close to getting sacked then turned things around. Don’t forget Potter did not inherit a happy team and in his first game lost both Summerville and Fullkrug (his only genuine CF) . The players at the time were all low and confused because of the idiot who had been in charge for the last 6 months. Potters first job was to raise positivity amongst the players and then stop the defence leaking 2-3 goals every game. To do that something had to give and that our goal scoring. Our expected goals per game has gone down but so has our expected goals conceded.

All I say is that we judge Potter in October after he’s had a say in player purchases/sales and has no excuses. If he fails I for one will not have a problem saying you guys were right

24.) 14 Apr 2025
14 Apr 2025 06:31:42
Hi Dabber no I am not suggesting for one moment that Loppy was better than Potter. But do feel it is unfair that Potter seems blameless having taken us down a further 4 places in the league. I’m not a stats man but they are important. It would be interesting to see how many attacks, attempts on goal we have had since he took over, I am pretty sure it would be the lowest in the league compared to the other managers.
For sure you are right that the team spirit is far better and the players look happier. I have said that we are more organised under him. But I do feel these things mask his negative tactics. It is what Brighton and Chelsea fans have said about him. With nothing to play for, wouldn’t it have been good to see us play the way we addressed the game in the second half in the first half yesterday .We aren’t going down and not going to jeopardise any European place.
You asked Tin what was period he liked last at West Ham. For me the last season at Upton Park was great. It was a bit of a one-off as Bilic didn’t continue in the same way. Take away the emotion of leaving the old place. It was a one off where virtually all new signings came off and the football was fun and exciting and we took many a big scalp including Liverpool. I didn’t actually mind Moyes early period of his second stint during the covid era, I know Tin wouldn’t agree with that. But he is totally entitled to his opinions and to a degree it turned out he was right Moyes shortly turned into a complete bore fest.
Potter seems a nice guy but he needs to be held to account more than he is.
I hope he does get some of his players in who can transform our play and I really hope he can change his over cautious approach, I’m just not holding my breath…….

25.) 14 Apr 2025
14 Apr 2025 18:32:21
Well said Hammer-D. Potter’s record at Brighton is way overrated. His sides had difficulties scoring goals. He was found out very quickly at Chelsea where the total goals scored plummeted. At WHU we now have the worst record of shots taken and shots on target in the Premier league under Potter. And guess what? We’ve dropped from 13th to 17th under Potter. We’ve been overtaken by Spurs, Man Utd and now Wolves. Potter spent most of the January transfer window trying to get Ferguson in on loan, and now never plays him. What makes you think this bloke is going to make things any better once Sullivan has spent the summer trying to save a few quid like Boycie in Only Fools and Horses? I think we’ll be in a relegation battle with Potter next season. Nothing would make me happier than to be wrong, but I’m not going to hold my breath. ‘Bonjour’ as Del would say! ?