Morning folks, Jonny Forumer reporting for duty. You may have noticed West Bromwich Albion making an ideal start to life under Steve Clarke with a 3-0 win over Liverpool, for whom Clarke was assistant manager to Kenny Dalglish last season, with the profligate Reds beginning a new era of their own under Brendan Rodgers. Let’s take a look see what the respective online fan bases are saying, starting with the Hawthorns faithful…

West Bromwich Albion

Albion Legend, WestBrom.com…

Great performance with a lot of positives to take. Pleased with Clarke making attacking substitutions and not just sitting back. Apart from his poor penalty (do we have anyone who can take a decent penalty!?) Shane Long was very impressive.

jsam, WestBrom.com…

‘kin fantastic. I think we’ve just seen the future in terms of a young lad called Lukaku – he’s big, powerful and what pace! I don’t suppose for a minute we’ll keep him, but let’s enjoy it while we can.

Apart from that, it was a brilliant all-round team performance. A few mix ups at the back, but Liverpool were never really at the races. Gera outstanding. Yacoub, a new star.

But Lukaku looks a real talent. Keep him raw. Keep him hungry.

Well done Steve Clarke.

tremtastic, WestBrom.com…

Brilliant game. Attacking football is a proper antidote to Hodgson.

Yacob looked good. Long really got on the back of their defence. And Gera seems back to his old self.

Only slight worry is pace at the back, but we’re not going to play someone like Suarez every week.

Happy days.

hardtobeat, WestBrom.com…

Brian Clough once said football is a simple game……….. When you have the ball find space to recieve the ball and pass to a man in the same coloured shirt,when they have the ball deny them time and space to do either,i can only assume Yacob is one of his foremost disciples,admittedly only watching out her on tv but that looked as good a debut as i´ve seen in my nearly 50yrs of watching the stars in stripes!!

GrGr, WestBrom.com…

I was very impressed with SC today and happy for him getting off to such a great start. We have a BIG and Powerful team now but we can also pass it around when needed. We looked a bit flat at times, and made some bad mistakes gifting Liverpool some opportunities, and our defence looks short on pace at times but overall we should be a class better than last year. The new players looked great, and we have Rosenberg still to come once he gets fit.

I loved to see Fortune on for Gera, what a substitution. Jean-Antoine tore them to pieces and Lukaku what a debut! And Yabob deserved his Mom, very impressive indeed, two good feet, toughness and so calm under pressure. Mulumbu also looked improved on last season with better ball control.

Since this was the first game of the season and it will take the players a few games to hit their strides I won’t be too critical, but I am a bit worried about Reid (even if I am a fan of his professionalism on the pitch). He looked worryingly slow when running and especially when turning. But overall what a performance and what a win! Well done Baggies!

Liverpool

BuckoYNWA, Red and White Kop…

Not many positives, but I still believe we looked good in the first half, defiantly title winning ability.

BostonScouse, Red and White Kop…

Downing should not be playing for this team. ever.

Gerrard was shocking.

Suarez is the best ever at not finishing.

Borini looks soft but probably just nervous.

Squad is to shallow.

Glen Johnson is right behind Downing as the second worst starter.

Brutally disappointing all around as usual.

reddybear, Red and White Kop…

Not once. Not once did we get fully in behind. It’s the same problems we’ve had for the past couple of seasons – no one with an ounce of creativity and guile in our midfield to create clear-cut chances for our forward line. This slow build up doesn’t help matters, especially if downing is the one we are looking to to open up defences.

I’ll tell you what, I’ve seen a lot of people buy into the hype about how we are going to be the new Barcelona, and how BR is the second coming… Well I don’t want to hear BR talking as much this week about all his ground breaking spanish ‘methods’. I want graft, a new attacking player, and for certain people to stop believing their own hype.

Bring on next week.

World Champions, Red and White Kop…

Awful second half made worse due to the red card. Gerrard and Downing offered nothing all game, in fact I would go as far as to say Gerrard might as well not been on the pitch.

On another day Luis could have had a hattrick and probably should have. Saying that though we were lucky not to concede about 7 goals.

Not looking forward to the next few games without Agger considering the opposition. Gera summed it up in his full time interview, it was easy.