trousers

Heart says stick with same starting 11 Head says tweak it a bit, thus: ---------------------- McCarthy ---------------------- Cedric ---- Stephens --- Hoedt --- Bertie ------------ Hojbjerg ---------- Romeu ---------- ------------------------ Lemina ----------------------- ----- JWP ------------------------------- Boufal --- -------------------------- Carrillo ---------------------- Subs: Forster, Yoshida, Davis, Tadic, Sims/Redmond, Long, Gabbiadini On the surface, that maybe looks too defensive, given the clamour for attacking football, but by bringing back Hojbjerg alongside Romeu, we can give Lemina the freedom of a more box-to-box roll IMO, so I would still see it as a positive line up. I admit that line up is somewhat harsh on Tadic though, and there's always a case for starting him, especially now as he should link up well with Carrillo, but on current form it's difficult to justify dropping JWP too, and I feel we need to retain Boufal in the starting line up for his creativity and unpredictability. Good to have a few selection headaches though.

Could it be argued that said chant sparked the players into a reaction or was the improved performance thereafter just a coincidence?

If you read back through this thread, I initially posted that I thought Stephens was fouled by Hegazi. A few posters then told me that it was Stephens who was pulling Hegazi's shirt. So I watched the footage again and can see Stephens had a tug (so to speak). So, in conclusion, perhaps it was a case of six of one and half a dozen of the other?

https://goalsplanet.com/west-b...2-3-highlights-premier-league/

Yep, my bad

Just watched it again and it's a fair cop... When I first watched it I thought it was Hegazi grabbing Stephens' shirt, but it's the other way around. I'll shut up now!

I'm getting a tad annoyed about this now.... have a butcher's at the replay.... Stephens was almost pulled to the ground by Hegazi just before he scored.... it was a clear cut foul on Stephens... he didn't lose his man... Hegazi impeded him such that it was impossible for Stephens to follow him.

Fair call, but I think Bertrand plays much better when he's got the captain's armband on. He seems to thrive on the accolade...

I'd forgotten about the Long stonewall penalty... I was thinking of the trip on Boufal when responding to Jonnyboy.... so that's two good penalty shouts we had, to WBA's one....

To be (slightly) fair to Pellegrino.... Lemina was below par in the last few games he started.... probably because he still wasn't 100% match fit... but, yes, when he's 100% fit and in form, as he was today, then he's a 'must start' every game, f'sure

And good to see Boufal eager to take responsibility. Good all round

This. Whilst 'heart' says stick with the same starting 11, 'head' says we should deploy Lemina, Romeu and Hojbjerg vs the better sides, of which Liverpool is one.

We had a clear shout for a penalty too that would have put us out of sight, not to mention Long's gold plated opportunity to make it 4-1. It was a scoreline than flattered WBA in the end.

Yep, I mentioned that on the match thread when people were criticising Stephens for losing his man. He was fouled, plain and simple

I'm going to stick my neck out and predict that JWP makes the England world cup squad....

It was Stephens and he was fouled by Hegazi so the goal shouldn't have stood anyway

We won a premier league game!!

Redmond on.... Yikes...

We haven't played poorly (IMO)

I feel sick

We need Hojbjerg on to shore things up in midfield

Anywhere else on the pitch and the ref gives a free kick for that.

Jesus Long.... How the f*** does that header not go in?

Long elbowed in the back but no penalty.