Trip To West Ham But There's No Carroll

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Carroll will not feature...
Image: guardian.co.uk
Liverpool have an away trip to Upton Park on Sunday as they prepare to face Sam Allardyce's West Ham. Ex Liverpool man Andy Carroll won't be present though as he's unavailable through injury and would be ineligible to play against his old side.

Other injury worries for West Ham mean Vaz Te, Diarra and Collison are out but Yossi Benayoun could be available to start on Sunday. For Liverpool their main problem is the absence of Luis Suarez who misses the game after picking up his 5th yellow card against Southampton.

West Ham are currently in 8th whilst Liverpool are down in 11th however the gap is only 3 points. The Reds last match in the league saw them notch up a win against Southampton and coupled with their win over Udinese they go into Sunday's game in decent form.

The problem Liverpool will have to assess though is where they're going to get their goals from, with Suarez out it makes things tens times harder. Jonjo Shelvey has played a few times further up the field and so Brendan may opt to start him there against West Ham.

The last time the two sides met was February last year, the clash at Upton Park saw Liverpool lose 3-1, Glen Johnson got the Reds only goal. In the three meetings between the two sides after this loss though Liverpool managed to score thrice on all occasions.

Stat Sandwich

  • Liverpool had 19 efforts at goal in the game against Southampton.
  • West Ham have not conceded via a headed goal yet in the league this year.
  • The Reds have won 5 out of 15 games in the league this season.

For me, this one is going to be a tough game but we should take some heart from the Southampton and Udinese performances, if we can find a goal and maintain the level of concentration, that would be a perfect result in London.

Enjoy the match folks!