Sky Sports pundit Paul Merson cannot see West Ham managing a win or draw at Anfield on Sunday.
However, given he can’t get the Irons’ manager’s name right we should perhaps treat all else he says with caution!
Speaking on the Sky Sports website Merson said “I can’t see anything but a Liverpool win. West Ham have bought well but so have Liverpool.
“Jurgen Klopp has targeted where he needs to strengthen and I expect Alisson, Naby Keita, Fabinho and Xherdan Shaqiri to improve them. They look a really good team and this is a really tough start for Mauricio Pellegrini.
PAUL PREDICTS: 2-0 win for Liverpool“
At the Premier League launch earlier this week Pellegrini said: ““My expectations for West Ham are just to win the first game. Then, after that, we will see what happens with the second game. We will go step by step. We have a lot of new players and it’s not easy to make a team when you have a lot of new faces, but we trust in what we are doing, the players are happy, so we will take things game by game.”
*Manuel* please. It’s not Mauricio. maybe Paul thought it was Southampton and not West Ham. I also believe he hasn’t been seeing us play neither has he seen our squad.
Anyway I have nothing against Paul. I still admire his prowess and I believe we will prove him wrong.
COYI!!!!!!
It is possibly the best time to play them, with a few injured and others still recovering from World Cup exploits, that being said they have a hell of a team I would settle for a good performance and some promise although I hope for a famous win COYI !!!
Should be a good game, I feel the Manager will be wise in his line up, you can’t throw in too many new players and allow them to instantly gel, we need a leader on the pitch and Noble can do that.
I’m sure you meant to say “ expect them to gel “ , jaybs .
Yep , must agree though in principle . A massive day for Both Noble & Wiltshere . Centre of the Park on game one of the new season with a new squad . Just hoping for a good performance to be honest .
Nobody knows at this stage how either team will perform given the summer signings .
It could be Liverpool great , West ham poor ,,,,, or West ham great , Liverpool poor . It’s always nice to kick off the season with a win . A lot depends on the starting 11 “ Merson Pellegrini “ picks . 😂 . There are a lot of players on both sides who want to prove themselves on the opening day and show they can gel into a team . It’s up for grabs .
Can’t see Liverpool as clear favorites . ; Sorry Mouricio , or should I say , Paul .
If you search Mauricio Pellegrini on Yahoo you get “image results” under that name showing pictures on Manuel Pellegrini. Perhaps that’s how Merson got it wrong.