West Ham struggle to bridge gap between ambition and results
They are bottom of the form table and in the drop zone of the actual standings. The crowd created a series of banners to protest about the owners. The two biggest summer signings could not get into the team.
And West Ham became the first team this season to score twice in a game against Alisson, Liverpool’s often unbeatable goalkeeper.
Two-thirds of the league goals Liverpool have conceded in 2020 were scored by the Hammers on Monday.
While they still lost, it felt illogical, a strange sequel to their passive performance against Manchester City where their honest captain Mark Noble admitted: “We didn’t take part in the game.”
West Ham can be irrational and unpredictable, a publicity seeking club who attract bad publicity, one where the gulf between ambition and actual achievement can be huge.
They have 11 games to avoid one of the Premier League’s more expensive and embarrassing relegations.
They have not won since New Year’s Day, David Moyes’ first game, and the manager’s bullish assertion when reappointed that “winning is what I do” has led to plenty of mockery.
He has famously never triumphed at Anfield in 16 attempts, though, as West Ham have only tasted victory there once in 57 years, perhaps that makes him a quintessential Hammers manager.
Even a performance of unexpected fight and potency illustrated why West Ham are in their current plight.
To widespread surprise, they led. They were nevertheless defeated. In isolation, that is understandable but the loss of other leads are less forgivable: West Ham have scored first twice against Brighton and drawn twice, giving up a 3-1 advantage this month, and twice against Crystal Palace, taking no points.
Noble said: “We are the team that has lost more points than anyone from winning positions. If we did stay in the lead, I think we would be in fourth or fifth.”
Add those 17 dropped points and West Ham would be level with Chelsea.
The often excellent Lukasz Fabianski had a traumatic night at Anfield. Mohamed Salah’s equaliser amounted to a personal aberration, but conformed to a wider trend.
“It is just a shame this season, more than any I have been involved with, that individual errors have really cost us,” Noble explained. They abounded during Roberto Jimenez’s disastrous spell deputising for Fabianski.
Roberto highlights the wretched recruitment.
While substitute Pablo Fornals put West Ham ahead on Monday, it was damning that he and Sebastien Haller, who arrived last summer for a combined cost of £69 million (Dh328m), began on the bench.
Moyes has instead narrowed in on the earthier qualities of the cheaper Michail Antonio and Robert Snodgrass, though Virgil van Dijk was effusive in his praise for the Scot’s corners.
“They were very dangerous,” said the Liverpool defender. “Fantastic delivery.” Set-pieces may yet offer Moyesian salvation.
West Ham’s fondness for stardust and failings at team building mean they tend to commit a disproportionate amount of their resources to attack-minded players.
Lacking the injured free transfer Ryan Fredericks, they had a rookie right-back, Jeremy Ngakia.
The sense has been that West Ham were simply looking to get through a run of games against Liverpool and City.
The fixture list offers little respite. It is in-form Southampton next followed by Arsenal, Wolves, Tottenham and Chelsea, each with Champions League dreams.
Noble at least took solace in the spirit shown at Anfield, adding: “This is not a team that is going to roll over.”