Quality not quantity is what counts

GIVEN the number of new players they fielded, it’s too early and too harsh to suggest the West Ham bubbles of optimism have already been burst.

Yet at Anfield that hope and excitement, inevitably delivered by summer signings these days, was quickly put into context by a Liverpool side whose own spending was a little more forensic, a lot more targeted.

Five of the Hammers new boys started, and it showed. Just not in a good way.

They began well enough, showing aggression and determination in tracking the runs of Sadio Mane and Mo Salah, with Michail Antonio leading the way. Yet as Everton discovered last season, simply taking a handful of new players and throwing them at the wall to see who will stick is not always the best policy.

Jurgen Klopp showed with Naby Keita – and before that Virgil van Dijk – that sometimes, the best policy is to wait and fight for the player you want, rather than the scattergun approach that is the Premier League norm right now.

West Ham looked firmly in the latter category, their energetic opening fading away in a fit of puzzled arm-raising and horrified looks as the home side began to ask more complex tactical questions. They never got to grips with the running of Salah and Mane, and twice in the first half Arthur Masuaku showed he is more a wing back than defender by losing his man – and losing a goal.

The wide players failed to track those runs too, and in the second half, it was simply a question for the visitors of trying to keep the score down. They did in a way, four goals being an escape, because on another day Salah would have had a hat-trick.

But it still means an unenviable record for West Ham. They have now conceded four or more goals against Liverpool in their last four Premier League meetings – a feat the Reds have never achieved before against any top flight club in their history.

If all that sounds a little foreboding for Manuel Pellegrini (above), then now is not the time to overreact. Liverpool away on the first day, with Keita complementing so brilliantly the threat of their front three, is not the test of West Ham’s summer spending.