HOW strange was that first half? It was everything a football match shouldn’t be.
Let’s be crystal clear — I’m not complaining. We tell ourselves all sorts of lies about the fixture list. We say “well, it evens itself out”. We say “you have to play everybody twice”. This isn’t the case. There is a good time to play every side across the course of the season and it just so happened that for 45 minutes Liverpool got the sweet spot against West Ham United. It was the perfect moment to play them.
In truth, we probably didn’t do enough. We go in 0-2 but we should have been finding a way to make two into four. It sounds churlish, of course it does, but it was there. In every sense they didn’t want to know.
It made the game a surreal experience. It wasn’t even like a pre-season game. No one on theirs even seemed to want to impress. Instead they wanted so little to do with it bar one deflected ball forward. They were as flat as it is possible to imagine 11 driven footballers in their 20s and early 30s being. It’s staggering.
Listen to our post-match reaction show, LIVE from the Speakeasy Bar in Belfast
We often worry about Liverpool’s lack of leadership or direction on the pitch. In comparison to that from West Ham we’re an ’80s super team of characters; Graeme Souness beating Ruud Gullit to death to be made captain.
In the second half West Ham really did want to know, at least until 70, at least until their legs ran out. In the second half West Ham really did give as much as they could. But the ship had sailed, the gaps were too big, literal gaps on the pitch, gaps on the scoreboard, gaps in class.
The selection surprised everyone but, whether changes were through choice or informed, the manager picked pace. Everywhere you looked Liverpool had pace and, while in the first 45 they didn’t match that with the quality, you can see the thinking. This was a side that wouldn’t like turning round.
When the quality was there it was irresistible. The opening goal was an object lesson in breaking away, in seizing an opportuntity. Mo Salah, loads of Sadio Mane, definitely Salah. Salah everywhere. Salah in abundance. Drenched in the gear.
What an opening to a Liverpool career this has been. We’re almost too busy to doff our collective cap to it. Too caught up in all our other shit. Indeed, while our other shit has been going on, Salah has racked up a dozen goals.
It shows the value of just being able to play well in bursts. When the quality was needed it was there. It was explosive in a way Jose Mourinho and Alex Ferguson’s teams from 10 years ago so often were, when they made goals look cheap.
The second was wonderfully cheap and from a centre back. Glory be. Liverpool didn’t need to work and they were 0-2. You crave the cheap goal even at the best of times. It was a goal akin to knocking your king over in a chess match. Fuck it. Can’t be bothered.
The key goal is the game’s fourth. West Ham flurried successfully. They had roused sufficiently. But in the grand scheme of things that Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain goal was the final nail in their coffin. Roberto Firmino’s contribution to it was marvellous. Not for the first time he turned and carried brilliantly. Neither Liverpool nor Oxlade-Chamberlain turned down their second bite of winning the game.
Salah’s second leaves Liverpool resplendent. The travelling Reds getting to throw a party. Build it up in red and white. Poor old Hammers.
This thing of ours has seen us ease some of our troubles away. Not all of them. It gets harder again, it gets intense. But they could do no more than three wins in three, than a plus-nine goal difference. They’ve done the business.
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Pics: David Rawcliffe-Propaganda Photo
Good display. Most assured I’ve seen our midfield for a while. Well played Liverpool. Not much I would change… maybe I’d put Hendo on the bench when returns from injury
Spot on about our midfield. Gini stood out today in a positive way. He was so assured in the possession (and really put me at ease whenever he had the ball, knowing he won’t give away cheaply and would make a sensible pass).
Not going to complain at the level of opposition we faced, we’ve too often thrown those games away so up the reds!
Great to win when far from top form. Feel a bit churlish after this, but wasn’t overly impressed, lots of familiar problems around game management and lack of ruthlessness, and couldn’t make sense of the formation, way too narrow for too long. Poor man management from Klopp too, I felt. West Ham were there for the taking after 70, should have given Sturridge the chance to build on his recent run, particularly after Bobby’s poor miss.
West Ham were very poor and we got lucky, but we netted 4, so wtf do I know? Just don’t think we learned a lot from today.
For goodness sake. We win 1-4 away. Some people need ti get a grip and enjoy this. Man city or spurs win away like that and everyone is heaping praise. Why cant our supporters be happy with a 1-4 away win ? Why are people “not overly impressed” ? 10-1 since the spurs game. What more do you want ?
Loved it. Yeah, West Ham are going down the tubes, but so what? You still need to thrash them. We’re lucky with Ayew hitting the post and Joe – otherwise excellent – is too weak for their goal. Otherwise we were great. I don’t care how we win as long as we win but these are confidence boosters. Let’s nail top spot in the CL group and go on a winning run in the league. And one final thing: Mo might always miss the occasional sitter, though I hope not, but he’s been brilliant and just maybe we haven’t quite been giving him all the credit and glory he deserves.
Loved seeing AO-C celebrating his goal in the midst of West Ham’s bubbles, which proceeded to burst immediately.
Had been thinking about a conservative two in the midfield just to tighten things up in the back. We have the pace for the counter, and it seems like something needed to replace the intensity we no longer revel in.
Salah the Red. Run like an Egyptian.
Very good write up. It was very much a Benitez little drama and much needed at this stage. Great comment on Ox running through the bubbles ….. must be a GIF by now. Firmino excellent but stand out for me wa the slightly deeper Can and GIni which created everything we needed. Look forward to seeing if that can work against better opposition
Score like an Egyptian… forget the missed chances, celebrate the goals when they go in. Gaining confidence slowly but surely.
The threat we now pose to longball merchants at deadballs was there for all to see, and the look of despair on Carroll’s kipper when he was left for dead trying to scrag Mo, (or was it Bobby?), on the break out in the seconhalf, —f*ckin priceless! Lets hope we start making the hoofers pay and force them to thinking twice about overloading our box during deadballs. — Listen to Gareth on the Pink, if you can take the rest of the audio drivell for that show, that is.
Let’s be right, Newcastle aren’t much better than West Ham, and we fucked up big time there. We gave both of them a goal due to a defensive howler. But, fair play, Jurgen has indeed learnt from the first game. It looked like a diamond from the team sheet but it was more of a 4-4-1-1. Sit a bit deeper, keep it a bit tighter and wait for the opportunities to counter. With pace in the middle and wide areas this is very difficult to stop.
I can see why he brought the Ox in now. He’s ready made for this slightly inverted winger role, he looks like he’s lost a kilo or two and his work rate was first class.
It’ll be really interesting to see what other tactical tweaks the manager makes when he’s got his full squad to pick from. Upwards and onwards.