Sam Allardyce has begun the mind games ahead of West Ham’s home match against Liverpool by saying that he is extremely happy to know that his team will not have to face the deadly Luis Suarez, who has been sold to Barcelona. The 27-year-old departed to the Spanish club for a fee of £ 75 million. He was the top marksman in the Premier league last season after scoring more than 30 goals. This led to the striker lifting the PFA Player of the Year award. In the absence of their star asset, Liverpool have been looking less convincing in the attack.
They have gone from a team that scored around three goals per match to having scored just six goals in the opening four league matches. The statistics get even worse when the fact that Liverpool scored three of the goals in one match against Tottenham is taken into account. Allardyce will certainly know that his West Ham team are not in the best possible shape to take on Liverpool even during the troubled times. He has resorted to mind games and has tried to unsettle the opposition by suggesting that the departure of Suarez weakens the opposition a lot.
The former Bolton boss, though, will have seen Suarez’ replacement Mario Balotelli score his first goal for the club in the Champions League. “From a selfish point of view, yes [happy at Suarez departure]. From a Barclays Premier League overall view, no. Those players you want to keep in this country and play in this country. There has been a huge amount of talent brought by Liverpool on the back of that fee. It looks like they took a stand on the basis that it was time (to sell him) after the troubles he has had,” said the West Ham manager.