Neil Atkinson’s post-match review after West Ham United 3 Liverpool 2 in the Premier League at The London Stadium…
LIVERPOOL weren’t good enough.
It’s a painful sentence, this kind of thing. Not good enough hurts.
But the truth of the matter is they weren’t. The question is around whether or not “aren’t” applies.
West Ham United, in this moment, find themselves in their absolute pomp. They are the best version of themselves and tonight Liverpool can’t get anywhere close to the same thing. Now we know enough, and have known enough for long enough, to know that nothing shifts a plan like a punch in the face and the opening goal is a punch in the face.
But Liverpool respond reasonably well to being punched in the face. The most disturbing period of the match from a Liverpool point of view has to be 45 to 67. At that stage they had no longer been punched in the face. They’d had chance to recover enough to equalise and further a half time. They should have been irresistible. Instead they were the opposite.
Painfully, upsettingly, simply resistible.
Resistible is awful. There was no moment between 45 and 67 where it felt like West Ham United had to give everything to keep Liverpool away, to keep Liverpool out. There were no heroics from Lukasz Fabianski. There was no moment where it felt like the whole thing could be too much to bear.
There was nothing to break any will, any certainty. There will be those, and it may include the manager, who think this is unfair, who think that you build in minute 55 from minute one. I understand the logic and the idea there, but the truth is the game demanded a certain thing from Liverpool from 45 to 67 that they simply did not show.
In amongst all of this we learned a thing or two. One was, whoever plays six for Liverpool at the moment has a bastard of a job. Fabinho got hooked around 75 and rightly so but he isn’t the first to find playing six is such a burden at times. Sadio Mane played perfectly well but we could have done with the next gear. Diogo Jota didn’t play perfectly well but we could have done with his usual extra gear of a goal.
Andy Robertson could get in at will but could never do the next bit at leisure. Jordan Henderson could dictate tempo but never quite quicken it. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain had the first, second and third touch but never the fourth.
Liverpool as a whole, and Alisson Becker in particular, would regret their lack of appreciation of West Ham’s game theory around set pieces which, as a man who loves game theory, I can’t help appreciate.
There’s a league to be won here. And while Liverpool have played all the likely top five, Antonio Conte not withstanding, we need and needed that bit more.
Because what worries me, beyond Liverpool not being good enough, is that today was one of those days to be good enough. One of those days to be irresistible.
This league’s not going to win itself. And it isn’t going to offer endless chances to win it. Today Liverpool turned their nose up at one.
Other side of the international break it needs to be better and fast. Nothing lost today but worse, far worse, nothing beginning to be won.
Always be beginning to win, Liverpool.
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“Liverpool’s defenders should be shoving Antonio out of Alisson’s way. We don’t seem to be street wise anymore.”
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What I found particularly hard to swallow, on a day of many unswallowable factors, was that NO-ONE gave Ali any protection after the first goal, or even before the first goal. Surely jurgen would’ve been screaming at them to get round him when there’s a corner. But no there he was all alone with Antonio sticking his massive arse in his face. It was glaringly obvious what was going to happen. Slow motion Hollywood nooooooooooooo.
Following on from your Thiago article, he’s a world class passer but he’s a world class dawdler as well and never seems to look fussed that his dawdling nearly caused a goal. He just keeps on dawdling. Last few mins we need a goal to level it. He’s the lad man dawdling whilst virg n Joel push up. Easy to say this when we lose but I’m starting to feel convinced his tika taka just don’t fit and he’s not gonna change it for anyone coz it’s got him a pile of medals.
Thought Joel did alright and mo had 6 players round him every time. Rest were dogshite.
That was a real kick in the balls. It’s more annoying, obviously, because it’s moyesy and because they could have had a red card and because the first goal is questionable. But we weren’t at it. It’s most annoying because we’ve lost ground when we could have gained it. I was hoping Brentford was an aberration, but maybe it was a warning. We need to toughen up and now we need to reel off a list of wins and get right in the mix.
We’ll still finish ahead of West Ham. But Chelsea? Only if we sort it and quick. We’re still the business but we need to show it in all weathers
I haven’t seen anything from this team so far to show that they can win the league. They give away leads, gift easy goals, haven’t scored any late goals at all if I’m not wrong. They are either amazing and blow away teams, or they’re not quite good enough. I don’t see any “mentality monsters” and it’s really disappointing to say that.
Today was a turning point, because if we won today, closed it to within 1 point of Chelsea, I’d have said this is a team still finding itself – with all those draws in the league, and not at its peak but still close enough at the top and consistent enough to win the league. But today’s defeat puts those draws in a completely different context – this looks like an inconsistent side who at its best is the best team in the world, but isn’t at its best nearly often enough to win the league. Let’s see if Klopp can turn this around, because they need to improve.
Can’t say I buy into the word juggling “nothing lost today….worse, nothing beginning to be won”
I normally enjoy your post match reviews…but like the team, perhaps today not quite at your best.
“…too much to bare”
Sloppy football…sloppy grammar.
We’re still in good shape..it’s one defeat…We’ll be fine
I don’t know how people expect this side to win the big trophies with a lack of investment year on year, it’s not 1981.
We are up against teams that are doing their uptmost to win the big titles and mid table teams that fancy themselves at breaking into the top four. Do we think everyone will just let us walk to the big trophies?
A criminal lack of investment will see us off by Christmas. Once the games come thick and fast the injuries mount and Jurgen starts running out of options. The midfield has been singled out by everyone pre season and we sat and did nothing, now teams are running through massive gaps in our midfield.
Seems a total waste of the talent we have at the Club and a once in a generation manager.
A top 4 finish in the League and hopefully a deep run in the CL. That should always be the agenda for Liverpool these days. If we would win the CL and secure CL footy through the League, that would be a magnificent season.
It’s early doors but so far we score buckets of goals and leak too many. That recipe never wins you the League. If this keep happening, soon we are out of the title race. The players only have themselves to blame. Brighton, West Ham, Brentford. That’s mentality, desire, hunger, more than anything. The Reds threw away all those points. Gotta accept it if the boys don’t perform to their abilities consistently.
We do have a problem and Brentford should have been the warning sign. We’ve gone from a team that’s happy to mix it up to one that’s far too easy to bully and undo with fast but basic football.
I expected this game to be tough because West Ham are organised with powerful with quick weapons on the break. That we were so easily screwed over by set pieces when that should be easy to organise and prepare for beforehand is borderline unforgivable.
I’ve never said this before, but I think the coaching staff were naive.
You are absolutely right Neil we weren’t good enough.
We just weren’t good enough.
For me although this was our first defeat,
For some time now it feels for me like we lost against Brentford and Brighton and we’ve not address many issues in our defense.
So clearly,
A loss was on the cards it was a matter of when and how
I think since the match against Brentford we’ve been riding our luck we’ve been throwing away leads left, right and centre till we finally lost.
West ham rolled the tapes of us of couple of years ago the copied the first goal from a goal against Burnley back in the 18/19 season yet we’ve not learnt from it how?
Our defence just can’t seem to keep it together
We’ve been Conceding too many soft goals we can’t keep clean sheets,
We are one ball winner light in midfield, two CBs coming back from long term injuries also doesn’t help.
The balance just doesn’t seem right.
The belief in the team has dropped quite low due to lack of clean sheets.
It hurts to say but we actually needed this loss to keep us head screw properly before December.
Jurgen need to realize our performance in the league has been dreadful.
Now he and his team have ample time to sit deliberate and figure out how to fix our issues in defense
We’ve dropped too many unnecessary point in some games we shouldn’t have
I’m sure they will find a way to fix it.
Hopefully We’ll come back stronger after the international break
We support Liverpool fc through thick and thin YNWA.
Reds defending is a return to the Rogers, Evans, Souness eras.
Not replacing Gini was another example of Fenway penny pinching .
Keita is only interested in playing internationals , Ox continually passes sideways ; this pair should of been sold and two midfielders purchased. Could of conceded five against the seagulls .
Reds are playing for third or fourth.
Whilst I share the disappointments of games drawn from winning positions and the underperformance which caused us to loose our first game since April, some of these comments are just wrong. Keita has scored two great goals recently…we kept clean sheets against MU and Madrid.
The players try…they win …they draw…and they even loose occasionally. We are one tiny point behind City. If we loose 5 or 6 on the trot we can then vent some anger..bit of perspective needed