Having finally put a stop to their winless run with a victory over Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool will hope that they have pulled out of their rut now.
Hamstrung by injuries, Jürgen Klopp didn’t select a particularly convincing side to be making the trip to East London, especially with West Ham just two points below them in fifth. He made three changes to the team that beat Spurs – Nathaniel Phillips replacing the injured Joël Matip alongside Jordan Henderson for Liverpool’s twelfth centre-back partnership of the season, Divock Origi coming in for the injured Sadio Mané and Xherdan Shaqiri given a chance as Roberto Firmino was rested.
At first glance it appeared Klopp had gone for a real change, with Shaqiri playing behind a front two of Mohamed Salah and Origi, but in practice this was only a nominal difference. It was a 4-3-1-2 formation rather than the usual 4-3-3, but only because there was little chance of Shaqiri pretending to lead the line like Firmino. Origi and Salah would still split wide – playing as wingers who drifted inside rather than proper strikers – so there was no real switch from Liverpool’s usual set-up.
David Moyes set up West Ham in a 4-2-3-1 shape, making no changes from the team that beat Crystal Palace.
The match had a familiar attack versus defence set-up. West Ham offered basically nothing in attack, sending quick balls forward to Michail Antonio. He was too isolated to hold the ball up and not quick enough to trouble Liverpool’s high line, so the Reds would reclaim the ball and get back to work trying to break the Hammers down.
In the first half, they did a poor job of this, although they did find it easy to work the ball into West Ham’s half. This was largely thanks to them outnumbering West Ham in the midfield. Antonio would typically stick to Phillips, enabling Henderson to push forward on the ball. One of Thiago Alcântara or James Milner would drop in alongside Georginio Wijnaldum, outnumbering Saïd Benrahma, so West Ham could either allow one to go free or pull one of Declan Rice or Tomas Soucek forward to close him down, leaving space behind them. Whichever one of Thiago or Milner didn’t drop deep would push forward alongside Shaqiri in this gap between the lines, while Salah and Origi frequently joining them.
This left three West Ham players trying to cover six potential Liverpool players interchanging positions. If Pablo Fornals and Jarrod Bowen tried to tuck inside to help them out, Liverpool would simply play wide to Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold in space. It was far too much for the West Ham midfielders to deal with, making it easy for Liverpool to play through them.
The problem came when Liverpool advanced into attack. They would outnumber West Ham in midfield, however, with both Origi and Salah frequently dropping off and Shaqiri preferring to act as the link man rather than attacking the box, they would either have no one leading the line or one man going up against four West Ham defenders. This led to Liverpool having lots of possession, yet no actual threat.
Thankfully in the second half this improved. Both Origi and Salah took up more central positions, with Salah still dropping off to link play but Origi generally staying in attack. All of a sudden Liverpool had someone to aim their attack towards and looked more of a threat.
Immediately after substituting Milner for Curtis Jones, the young Scouser dribbled through the centre and combined with Alexander-Arnold and Shaqiri to receive the ball on the edge of the area – four-on-four against the West Ham backline as Origi, Shaqiri and Salah joined him. Angelo Ogbonna stepped out to close him down, requiring Aaron Cresswell to tuck inside to cover, which left Salah in space down the right. Jones found the Egyptian, who had space to control the ball, cut inside and finish inside the far corner, giving Liverpool the lead.
It took Liverpool just eleven minutes to double this lead, Salah getting a second as Liverpool countered following a West Ham corner.
Having brought on Jones, Firmino and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Liverpool’s passing was flowing nicely against a dispirited West Ham, sealing their win with a lovely team move to set up Wijnaldum for a tap-in.
West Ham managed a consolation goal – Craig Dawson evading the marking of Oxlade-Chamberlain t meet a corner as Phillips failed to cut out the cross – but they had never been an attacking force during the game. They had barely been a defensive force, surviving more through poor Liverpool play than their own.
Having gone without a goal for four games, Liverpool now have six in their last two. Neither London side put up much of a fight, not answering the questions over how Liverpool play against packed defences, however it’s arrested Liverpool’s immediate downturn in form. With Manchester City on a 12 match-winning run, Liverpool are outsiders in the title picture, but at least they are back in it.
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