I don’t think many fans, even staunch optimistic ones, will be looking forward to the game today as struggling Newcastle take on the resurgent Reds. Then again we have to play them at some point and we make every one look good at the moment so losing this one won’t be too much of a surprise.
You see there is the problem. There’s a losing mentality among the fans right now and generally feelings like that transmit to the players. This time however it has been the opposite as fans have remained extremely patient and have backed the team to the hilt with very little in return from the players.
But now the time to start performing is most definitely upon us. It’s gone from saving the season to saving Premier League status, again, and that just isn’t good enough.
To ease you into the game you can view the match preview by clicking here as it details all the injury news you need to know about, a (not very pleasant) history of the fixture as well as some stats and facts and general rambling.
I mentioned injury news above and that will manifest itself into the team news which you can find at the bottom of this article a little under one hour prior to scheduled kick-off subject to me arriving back home from my carvery lunch in time, in which case should I not manage that I’ll get it posted as soon as I return.
The other thing to look out for are streams of the game. It is of course live on Sky Sports so our defensive generosity can be beamed live around the world, but for those who don’t have Sky or aren’t in the ground or are too skint in the run up to Christmas to be in the pub then you’re likely to be looking for a stream which you can usually find in the ‘comments’ section below.
So are you ready for this? I’m not.
Howay the lads!
Newcastle: Rob Elliot, Paul Dummett, Chancel Mbemba, Fabricio Coloccini, Daryl Janmaat, Georginio Wijnaldum, Vurnon Anita, Jack Colback, Moussa Sissoko, Siem de Jong, Papiss Cisse
Subs: Karl Darlow, Jamie Sterry, Kevin Mbabu, Yoan Gouffran, Florian Thauvin, Ayoze Perez, Aleksandar Mitrovic
Liverpool: Simon Mignolet, Nathaniel Clyne, Martin Skrtel, Dejan Lovren, Alberto Moreno, Lucas, Joe Allen, James Milner, Jordan Ibe, Firmino, Christian Benteke
Subs: Adam Bogdan, Kolo Toure, Jordan Henderson, Daniel Sturridge, Adam Lallana, Divock Origi, Cnnor Randall
Why were Liverpool ****?
Was it because we actually didn’t give them a sniff and out ran them according to the stats?
toonsy(Quote)
Aye no doubt we will hear the excuses about them being tired, but our players simply wanted it more IMO. They did miss Coutinho but when they as a club are happy ot go out and sign players for huge money year onyear then I don’t want to hear them whining about injuries in their squad. Only we can do that 😀
Newkie(Quote)
I thought SM lost the plot before kick off 😯
icedog(Quote)
cracking result
exactly Newkie. we wanted this game. makes you wonder why we havent wanted previous games.
Sissoko ran himself to the ground
gashley(Quote)
Liverpool were **** compared to how they were on Wednesday against Soton and that is why everyone feared the worst talking telephone numbers as final scores.
joe hawkins(Quote)
TOONSY
that 1st goal was going wide og that is 😉
TOONARMYELITE(Quote)
Newkie – Gini was brilliant today and Sissoko had a good game too – but they need to turn up every week mate, that’s what we’ve been missing. Hopefully that’s the result that turns things round.
I’ve questioned Mcs team selections & formations in recent weeks, but I think he got it right today. Playing Cisse & De Jong was a good call in my opinion – give the young lads up front a break from the heat. They may not have been a major threat, but I thought they did OK.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Daft thing is, I have seen us play better and get nowt from the game. Funny game this football .
kimtoon(Quote)
I know exactly what you mean, Kim – trying to take the emotion out of it, I went back to the fixtures so far this season and reassessed what a ‘par’ point total would be – thanks to unexpected points from Liverpool, Chelsea and Man United making up for expected points dropped I make us within a point or two of ‘par’. We played better, for example, against Stoke and the mackems, but got only 1point. What I can’t decide is which Schteve we have – the winner of the League Cup and Dutch League, or the one run out of the England and several other jobs.
GTE(Quote)
Cisse and deJong played well today. Gini put in a good shift but my man of the match would be Anita. He covered so much of the pitch He seems to be the only player who can keep a pass down. We weren’t brilliant today – not many shots on goal but hey I’ll take the three points.
Groucho(Quote)
Well all my pre-match comments make me look like a right numpty eh , WTF do i know 😳 maybe this is the game that starts a turn around in in our season but it will take another few games yet before i believe that McClaren is the man for the job . Fair do’s though he got them fighting today and looking like a team .
Axel(Quote)