NAIVE IN THE EXTREME

WEST HAM were naive not to leave anyone with pace back to deal with Liverpool’s catapult counter-attack. Liverpool have Olympic sprinters in their front line with the ability to punish teams and there is nothing worse for a defender than being exposed for pace. When Manuel Lanzini’s corner was cleared, Edimilson Fernandes was too indecisive. Either he wins the ball for his team, takes the foul or drops off and runs. Instead he missed the challenge completely and allowed Mo Salah to off-load to Sadio Mane. Those two are completely tuned into one another and Aaron Cresswell was left totally exposed. When I first broke into the Arsenal team, I never went up for corners. I sat back just in case we had to deal with pace on the counter-attack. As much as you want to score from a corner, it is vitally important you don’t end up conceding.