Sam Allardyce has admitted that he would have preferred to come up against Liverpool further down the season, when he has a better idea about his players, as reported by the Echo.
The newly appointed Baggies boss replaced the out-of-favour Slaven Bilic last week, with Allardyce’s first game in charge resulting in a humbling at the Hawthorns in a 3-0 defeat by Aston Villa.
“I’m going to do my best to set the tactics out as best we can against Liverpool and ask the players to stick to those instructions in how we coach the team in the next day or so before we play there,” the former Everton manager said. “If we can do that and stick to playing all together, in and out of possession, then we can frustrate Liverpool.”
It’s a tall order for Big Sam to get a result against Liverpool so early in his reign at the West Midlands side, which is worsened by the fact that his club face an unenvious visit to Anfield with 2,000 Reds fans lying in wait.
That’s not to say the game will be a walk in the park of course, as we should know, given that Allardyce was the last manager to grab a win at L4 back in 2017 with Crystal Palace.
We’ve had our own shocks already this season, however, so one might imagine that Jurgen Klopp will have all the motivation he needs in past results to keep his Liverpool side focused.
It’s always a tough fixture against the Englishman’s organised teams, but this is also a very good Reds XI and the power of the fans can’t be ignored.