MATCH PREVIEW: West Ham United vs Liverpool

You know it’s crunch time when you look at the fixtures list to see who’s coming up next, only to see it’s one of the big clubs of the Premier League. No matter, Liverpool are shaky at the moment, and could fall asleep at the helm.

Ha, but this is our Match Preview for West Ham United vs Liverpool Match Preview. As always, we’ll go through the Players to Watch, my predicted Starting XI, as well as score predictions from myself and Chris.

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PLAYERS TO WATCH: Andre Ayew (WHU) and Mohamed Salah (LIV)

After breaking into Slaven Bilic’s Carabao Cup squad and putting two past Tottenham Hotspur, Andre Ayew is on form and will no doubt be included in Slav’s match day squad for Liverpool. He put another goal past Crystal Palace last weekend, and could be utilized well if placed up top beside Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez. His pace and skill on the ball will be a great partner with Chicharito’s height and ability to slip into the box to score.

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Mohamed Salah, on the other hand, will be a big problem to deal with. The Egyptian forward has arrived back in the Premier League and has caused some serious problems for opposition defences. He won’t have any issue breaking past West Ham’s either, especially if he’s partnered with Philippe Coutinho and Roberto Firmino in Liverpool’s favourite 4-3-3 formation.

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WEST HAM UNITED PREDICTED STARTING XI:

This Starting XI we turn out for Liverpool needs to be defensive, yet highly attacking to counter-attack Liverpool. However, with us knowing Slaven Bilic well, this may not actually happen.

Our formation of choice will be a 4-2-3-1. It’s been a while, but with our injury-riddled defence, it’ll be tough.

In goal, we’ve gone with Joe Hart again. He’s doing a great job in goal and could be good against Liverpool. Our Right-Back of choice will be Sam Byram as Pablo Zabaleta is suspended due to his final yellow card before suspension. Our Center-Back defenders will be Declan Rice and Angelo Ogbonna as Jose Fonte and Winston Reid are both injured. Left-Back will be Arthur Masuaku with Aaron Cresswell acting as cover for Masuaku. Our two defensive midfielders will be Cheikhou Kouyate and Pedro Obiang as both of these players have shown their class in more than one occasion and will be able to drop back to assist the defence as and when needed. Left-Midfielder is difficult to decide. On the Left-Midfielder position, we’re putting Marko Arnautovic in, with Manuel Lanzini operating in the Central Attacking Midfield position. We’ve opted to start Andre Ayew over Michail Antonio in the Right-Midfielder position as Ayew deserves his chance to extend his goal-scoring form with Chicharito operating up top. We know he’s not a lone-striker, however Hernandez is a classy player who’ll no doubt score with the service from Lanzini and Ayew.

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SCORE PREDICTIONS:

TKH: There’s no easy way of saying it. I hate Liverpool. With them in form at the moment, it’s clear we’re going to concede quite a bit. Their attacking three of Salah, Coutinho and Firmino are a lethal combination and I’m not hopeful for a win. I’m saying this will be a 4-0 loss.

Chris: Liverpool are in 6th with 16 points. Salah has 5 goals from 9 appearances in the League while Coutinho is 2 goals from 4 appearances in the League as well. With that in mind, I say it’ll be a 4-1 loss.