KLOPP’S FLYING MACHINE...
Liverpool soar but dire West Ham are stuck on launch pad
SAME old Liverpool, same old West Ham. As Jurgen Klopp’s dashing team came flying from the blocks of the new season with a typical display of energy, invention and speed, West Ham proved desperately compliant opponents. Liverpool scored four times and that felt about right.
For the home team, this was the perfect way to begin a season from which so much is expected. After Klopp’s boxing analogies last week, Liverpool reminded us just how hard — and how often — they can punch.
Liverpool were terrific at times and once Sadio Mane had scored his team’s third goal early in the second half, they dropped their levels to something close to walking pace. It is a long season, after all.
New signing Naby Keita fitted seamlessly into Liverpool’s midfield and looks like he possesses subtlety, cleverness and confidence. Mo Salah, Mane and Roberto Firmino have clearly not been discouraged by relatively modest World Cup efforts and captain James Milner was absolutely magnificent.
Over the coming weeks, however, Liverpool will have to work considerably harder than this.
West Ham, supposedly reborn and remodelled under Manuel Pellegrini, looked desperately familiar, despite the presence of five new signings. The London club defended with too high a line, inviting Liverpool to execute their favourite attacking plays at will. Both Liverpool full backs were able to play like wingers and that pretty much said everything.
To do well against Liverpool here you must work murderously hard, concentrate and try to cut off your opponents at source. West Ham did none of these things and never looked like they believed they could take something from the game.
Shortly after Liverpool had scored their third, Milner thumped a freekick straight into Jack Wilshere’s midriff. The former Arsenal player went down as though struck by a cannon.
As he contested the loose ball, Salah then thumped it straight between the legs of Mark Noble. Two down, nine to go. At that stage, West Ham probably knew this was not to be their day.
So both teams are off and running on familiar trajectories. Liverpool know they must find their levels early this season and keep them high. They thrilled us last season but they also finished 25 points behind Premier League winners Manchester City. That cannot happen again.
West Ham must only hope their new players can settle quickly in the wake of this hard lesson. Before the end of the month Pellegrini’s players will face Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United so there really is no time to acclimatise if they are to avoid a return to the unrest that characterised so much of last season.
Here, Liverpool were almost ahead early as they flooded the West Ham half with bodies.
When they eventually took the lead, it was with a goal straight from the Klopp blueprint.
Receiving the ball in centre field from Trent Alexander-Arnold in the 19th minute, Keita ran forward into space and almost immediately saw Liverpool’s other full back Andrew Robertson galloping down the left. For a second or so it appeared as though Keita was unwilling to release the ball but he was merely drawing defenders towards him.
By the time he slipped possession left to his team-mate, West Ham were in all sorts of trouble and Robertson’s first-time low cross was rammed home at the far post by Salah.
It was a goal reminiscent of last season, born of lightning quick play, intelligence and understanding. It could have been followed by two more but West Ham goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski — his team’s best player — saved well from an Alexander-Arnold free-kick and then point blank from Salah after Firmino set him up.
Briefly West Ham settled down and Marko Arnautovic and Declan Rice threatened. Rice’s header was a free one from a corner which suggested that Liverpool’s achilles heel of last season may not have yet disappeared.
West Ham needed to get to halftime still in touch but it didn’t happen. Robertson’s first-time cross in added time seemed to be heading out of play but as West Ham switched off, Milner didn’t. He reached the ball on the stretch to invite Mane to score from four yards. That felt like a significant moment and so it proved.
Mane was a yard offside when screwing a right-foot shot low past Fabianski in the 53rd minute but Firmino had still been afforded a criminal amount of space to play him clear. Then, 24 seconds after coming on, Daniel Sturridge scored at the far post from a corner simply because he reacted quicker to a near post flick-on than his marker, Ryan Fredericks.
Fundamentally that was what we witnessed here. One team looked ready for this season and the other didn’t. Maybe we should not have been surprised.
LIVERPOOL (4-3-3): Alisson 6; AlexanderArnold 7.5, Van Dijk 6.5, Gomez 6.5, Robertson 7.5; MILNER 8.5, Wijnaldum 7, Keita 8; Salah 8 (Sturridge 87min), Firmino 8 (Henderson 69min, 6), Mane 8 (Shaqiri 82). Subs not used: Karius, Clyne, Fabinho, Lallana. Scorers: Salah 19, Mane 45, 53, Sturridge 88. Booked: Alexander-Arnold. Manager: Jurgen Klopp 7. WEST HAM (4-2-3-1) Fabianski 7: Fredericks 5.5, Balbuena 5, Ogbonna 6, Masuaku 5.5: Rice 5.5 (Snodgrass 46, 6), Noble 6: Antonio 6, Wilshere 6, Anderson 5.5 (Hernandez 62, 6): Arnautovic 5 (Yarmolenko 67, 6). Subs not used: Adrian, Zabaleta, Obiang, Diop. Booked: Antonio, Balbuena. Manager: Manuel Pellegrini 5. Referee: Anthony Taylor 5. Attendance: 53,235.