Liverpool went into this game unbeaten in their last 25 matches and last ten against West Ham, yet, sitting just two points behind them in fourth, the Hammers were lining up to be one of their more difficult recent tests.
Jürgen Klopp made two changes to the team that eased past a lacklustre Atlético Madrid on Wednesday, replacing Kostas Tsimikas and Roberto Firmino with Andy Robertson and Diogo Jota. Liverpool set up in their usual 4-3-3 formation.
David Moyes had played a weakened team against Gent on Thursday, but kept with the exact same side that thrashed Aston Villa last week, lining up in a 4-2-3-1 shape.
West Ham took the lead pretty much immediately, as Alisson Becker got caught up pushing with Michail Antonio at a corner before attempting to claim the cross, only managing to deflect it into his own net. Any interfering with the goalkeeper at set-pieces can easily see a goal ruled out for a foul, and generally is in most countries, but the Brazilian buckled under the pressure West Ham put on him, getting caught under the ball, failing to get a good spring in his jump as he hopped on one leg and flapping at the ball with one fist rather than a stronger two-handed punch.
Whether or not they intended to from the start, with the lead West Ham were in a good position to sit back and defend against Liverpool. They coped much better than most teams do against Liverpool’s right side overload that Klopp calls “the flexible triangle”. With the right-sided central midfield typically making runs wide to join Trent Alexander-Arnold and Mohamed Salah, most opponents end up outnumbered on their left, leaving one of Liverpool’s players free. West Ham refused to let this happen, with Pablo Fornals dropping back into midfield, often forming a 4-5-1 shape out of possession.
When Liverpool tried to play down their right, either Fornals or Saïd Benrahma would push forward to pressure Alexander-Arnold, while the other could track Jordan Henderson as he moved wide. Behind them Aaron Cresswell kept tabs on Salah, but Angelo Ogbonna also moved wide to join him in case Salah tucked into the centre, meaning Cresswell was able to deal with any overlaps down the outside if called upon. The weakness of this was that it left Ben Johnson and Kurt Zouma alone in the centre against Sadio Mané and Jota, however Liverpool weren’t getting the space to cross into them from the right, so the danger wasn’t felt too much. Whereas usually opposition widemen are caught two-against-three by Liverpool, West Ham shifted enough players across to make it a four-against-three.
Rather than beat a dead horse, Liverpool made use of the space elsewhere. West Ham would pull four men out to their left, but that inevitably meant they had less players to protect the centre and their right side. With Fornals pulled over to the right, it was generally left to Antonio alone to deal with Liverpool’s centre-backs and Fabinho, so the Brazilian and Virgil van Dijk would happily receive the ball inside and pick out passes through the centre or move it on down the left.
The issue for Liverpool was that they aren’t structured to get the best from their left side like they are their right. Mané was mostly tucking inside into the centre, meaning Robertson was left alone out wide. The Scot is a good crosser but nowhere near that of Alexander-Arnold, who could pick out a pass from anywhere, and so he was getting high and wide, but, left isolated against Jarrod Bowen and Johnson, he was pretty predictable. Whereas Alexander-Arnold can rely on Henderson overlapping or Salah inside opening up some space for him, West Ham always knew a cross was coming in because Robertson had few other options, so, ready to defend against them, they were frequently blocked (which also has to do with Robertson’s crossing technique: whereas Alexander-Arnold can loft in a ball over defenders, Robertson’s crossing is at its best when he can drill them across the face of goal, which was exactly what West Ham were set up to combat). He tried mixing it up with cutbacks, taking advantage of the defensive line dropping off with him, but West Ham’s midfielders were disciplined, dropping into this area to support their defence.
With Henderson pushing forward down the right, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was forced into being more reserved on the left to balance out the midfield, meaning he could do little to help Robertson. Even when he did push forward into attack, he struggled to really do much, as he was on his wrong foot.
Although this reserved role didn’t suit him, Oxlade-Chamberlain was picking out the odd decent pass through the centre from deep. Liverpool equalised from a free-kick won when Oxlade-Chamberlain picked out Salah in attack and the Egyptian was scythed down by Declan Rice as he tried to wriggle away, giving Alexander-Arnold a shooting opportunity from the edge of the area.
The match continued into the second half like this, with Liverpool on the attack but unable to break West Ham down, yet it was West Ham that took the lead again. Liverpool were again on the attack and passed into Mané, but, with several men surrounding the Senegalese, Craig Dawson recovered the ball. Fornals picked up the loose ball and laid it off to Bowen who dribbled forward. Oxlade-Chamberlain was ahead of the ball when it was lost and, although he sprinted back, he never actually did anything to impede Bowen as he ran forward, while the winger avoided Fabinho’s weak challenge, putting him through to run at Liverpool’s backline. With Fabinho taken out of the game and Oxlade-Chamberlain doing nothing to stop him, Joël Matip was forced into stepping up to meet Bowen, who slipped the ball into Fornals running in behind as soon as the Cameroonian stepped up, allowing the Spaniard to finish as Alexander-Arnold failed to get back in time having failed to track him.
Oxlade-Chamberlain was about to replaced as the goal went in, with Klopp bringing on Thiago Alcântara. The Spaniard couldn’t start as he was coming back from an injury, but he made much more sense than Oxlade-Chamberlain in this reserved role, able to influence the game better from a deeper position.
West Ham added to their lead from another corner. With Bowen sending a great ball towards the back post, Zouma ran past Mané unimpeded and leaped to head the ball as Alexander-Arnold backed away rather than try to stop him, finishing past Alisson.
Klopp made attacking changes, introducing Divock Origi and Takumi Minamino for Jota and Fabinho, changing to a 4-2-3-1.
Origi pulled one back with a goal from nothing, controlling a loose ball and spinning to finish it, but this was all Liverpool could manage.
The victory saw West Ham leapfrog Liverpool into third place.
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