Wrestling with an injury crisis in defence, Liverpool have just about been getting by.
There were two odd men out in Jurgen Klopp’s starting eleven: Nathaniel Phillips given his league debut at centre-back and Curtis Jones getting another start after a solid half against Ajax. It was otherwise familiar faces in Liverpool’s usual 4-3-3 formation.
Having claimed a point against Manchester City last week, David Moyes stuck with the 5-4-1 formation that he had also used against the Reds in January. There was just one change to the starting eleven: Sébastien Haller replacing spectacular goalscorer Michail Antonio in the lone striking role due to injury.
The game quickly settled into its expected pattern of West Ham sitting back for Liverpool to break them down, although Jarrod Bowen and Pablo Fornals would step up to press the full-backs and Haller would sometimes chase after the centre-backs so they didn’t completely cede ground to Liverpool.
This pattern only solidified after West Ham took the lead as Liverpool hardly covered themselves in glory. Jordan Henderson was pulled forward to press Declan Rice, leaving space between the lines for Bowen to tuck inside and advance the ball into attack, then Jones followed the overlapping Aaron Cresswell rather than leaving him to Trent Alexander-Arnold, leaving space for Arthur Masuaku to cross. Phillips missed his header and Joe Gomez stooped to meet his, only clearing it as far as Fornals on the edge of the area, who placed it past Alisson Becker.
Liverpool’s performance was for the most part pretty awful. They showed little of the creativity needed to break down West Ham’s packed defence and passed the ball too slowly to really move them about, particularly given West Ham’s defensive width.
West Ham’s wingers would curve their runs so that when Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson received the ball, the wingers would block the runs down the line, encouraging them to just knock it back inside rather than advancing.
Against such a packed defence, Liverpool desperately needed width but it was sorely lacking. Bowen would track Robertson back into defence, often forming a makeshift back six to nullify the Scot’s runs. On the opposite flank though, if Alexander-Arnold advanced past Fornals, Masuaku could be drawn out to close him down. It came to nothing, but there was one moment where Masuaku was pulled out to meet Alexander-Arnold and Jones made a run in behind the full-back, getting Liverpool four-versus-four against West Ham’s defenders – these were the kind of moments that Liverpool needed if they were going to pull apart West Ham.
They weren’t frequent enough though. Alexander-Arnold is typically held back these days to use his fantastic crossing from deep and so Masuaku was rarely drawn out. Henderson dropping into the backline was enough to tempt Fornals forward, freeing up Alexander-Arnold, but Liverpool’s captain generally stayed in midfield.
Failure to stretch West Ham meant Liverpool were generally left trying to work their way through a solid block of nine players. Liverpool’s attacking trio would tuck inside, but any attempts at combinations would be smothered by the sheer number of defenders around them. Sadio Mane was the brightest but even when he could get past one man he would inevitably run into another crowd, while Mohamed Salah did a decent job of running into gaps in behind and holding up the ball, however chances to do so were few and far between against a team happy to sit back and defend.
They didn’t exactly get much supply either. Georginio Wijnaldum doesn’t pass forward, Henderson has a good range of passing but isn’t really the man you want picking out through balls and the task of single-handedly slicing through nine men looked a bit beyond teenager Jones.
Liverpool did manage to create space for their forwards occasionally by pulling Haller over to one side of the pitch then switching play, forcing one of the midfielders to step out of the midfield line to stop the recipient advancing. This only created a gap in the line of four rather than the last line of five though, so while it helped Liverpool progress the ball, it didn’t help them create chances.
Despite barely threatening West Ham, Liverpool did emerge winners though. They equalised in the first half just by getting the ball into the box – Masuaka needlessly swinging a leg at Salah in an otherwise safe position to give away a penalty that the Egyptian converted.
With twenty minutes of the second half left to go, Klopp changed to a 4-2-3-1, swapping the ineffectual Roberto Firmino and Jones for Xherdan Shaqiri and Diogo Jota.
Jota scored a goal on the counter from a rare West Ham attack only to have it disallowed, but minutes later he managed the winner, perfectly timing his run into the box to meet a Shaqiri through ball. Liverpool had been lacking creativity for most of the match, but Shaqiri’s eye for a pass made him the perfect answer to their problem.
It was a match very much in keeping with Liverpool last season: not great, looking a bit lost for ideas, but claiming three points through the brute force of their individual quality.
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