Liverpool 5 West Ham 1
Areola:4 Forced into kicking so many times due to the team’s inability to play through Liverpool’s pressing. No chance with the opening goal. Second goal went through his legs. Faced an onslaught.
Coufal:3 His technique was severely put to the test as Klopp’s team forced The Hammers into one touch football.
Mavropanos:4 Tried his best but really had no chance considering the players in front of him couldn’t keep the ball. Backed off too much for the third and got caught up field for the 4th (or was it the 5th?).
Ogbonna:3 Didn’t have the pace to close down Jones for Liverpool’s second but was asked to do far too much. Ogbonna has been a good servant for West Ham but to play him against such a fast high pressing team is negligent.
Johnson:6 Made quite a few blocks/interceptions . . . He had no choice. Should have closed down Szoboszlai quicker. Made mistakes but probably our best dribbler. Excellent pass created the chance for Bowen’s goal.
Alvarez:6 Incredible piece of skill in the 18th minute turned defence into a rare attack. Deserved to play in a better midfield.
Liverpool West Ham Bowen struggled with no supply line
Soucek:2 I felt sorry for him. Watching Soucek trying to move the ball quickly whilst Liverpool’s quick players closed him down was painful to watch. He made blocks and headers as one would expect. Didn’t track his man for Liverpool’s second. Lost control of the ball in midfield for The Reds third and gave up.
Fornals:3 Worked hard and defended manfully like everyone else but fluffed his lines when in a good position to pick out Bowen.
Kudus:3 Tried to help out Coufal when he could but hindered by the fact that West Ham couldn’t cope in defence or attack.
Benrahma:1 Awful ball control resulted in Liverpool’s opener. Wasteful with the ball but produced one good dribble albeit with no end product. Too hesitant when the time comes to pull the trigger. Bottled a 50/50 challenge in the 46th min which should have seen him substituted immediately.
Bowen:6 What chance did he have with such a poor supply line? Eventually broke through at the end of the game scoring a great goal with his right foot.
Substitutes
Paqueta: 56 min sub for Benrahma. Liverpool scored their second whilst Paqueta was stood on the side-lines waiting to come on. Pointless really, 10 mins too late and should have been one of many. Lost the ball for Liverpool’s 4th.
Ward Prowse: 72nd min sub for Kudus
Kehrer: Why didn’t he start at CB? Hopefully someone asks Moyes in the press conference. Anyway, 72nd min sub for Coufal.
Ings: 80th min Sub for Alvarez.
Surely they must sack Moyes now………..that was diabolical
I only wish
Not sure what you saw that makes Soucek deserve a 2. Putting his shirt on the right way round?
To be fair to Moyes he did start with 4 up. However you cannot go to anfield and pick a defense like that. Tactically Moyes got it all wrong. If you are playing Bowen up top you cannot have Areola consistently playing long balls up to him, tonight we needed Zouma in between Dinos and Ogbonna in a back 3 to be able to play from the back.. Everyone knows Liverpool press high !! If you are playing out from the back you cannot play soucek. What was confirmed to me tonight is that areola is not good enough to be a no 1, Ogbonna has no longer the pace in his legs to play in a back 2, soucek tge same, is killing the team, his performances lately have been poor but tonight was embarrising, moyes should be ashamed how he continues to put him in the team. Finally both ings and benràhma have to been given so many opportunites and have failed to deliver, i dont see how moyes can persist with them especially Ings, again a pointless substitution by Moyes. Tonight also proved that Moyes is not the person to progress us any further. He can make all the excuses he wants but his race is surely now up. The last two games were encouraging but it should not mask moyes tactical team selection and in game incompetence which is totally visible when you play good teams, not some of the average teams in europe.
Brw the player ràtigs are very accurate, from the 1st to 94th min the performance delivered by the team and Moyes was shocking. In my opinion the players and Moyes should reumburse the 6000 fans for their travel, tickets and costs out of their own pockets.
It makes you wonder why football insist on coaches having to have a UEFA pro-license to manage a prem club when you see that last night!
Angelo Ogbonna should never be selected to play against a team with that pace & movement, same goes for Johnson and Fornals who have had barely any mins this season – to expect them to perform to their best against a team like Liverpool away from home is totally unrealistic.
The one thing you have got to do when you play away, against a high pressing intense side, who keep the ball well, is when you do get the ball, you absolutely have to try and keep it. So bearing that in mind, the only consistent thing I know Benrahma does is to lose the ball regularly. In what world did it seem like a good idea to start him at Anfield?
Lastly, you have to feel for players like Mubama who sit on the sidelines and watch the team fall apart but still don’t get a look in. I can’t say it was a bad thing for any of them last night not to play, as I don’t think playing in that side would have given him any chance to shine, but it must feel hugely demoralising seeing Ings come on instead of you.
I don’t want to round on Moyes, but I’d actually like to hear him admit this was a tactical disaster than just provide excuses about the volume of games – maybe if you had bled some of the youngsters in over the many games we’d had (like Liverpool have done over the years – ala Elliiot, Jones etc) we would have had some different options to the sorry show we got yesterday.
Time to start taking responsibility Moyes that football is about being agile and adapting, or like many things in life, you get left behind for someone with fresher ideas and more energy.
As soon as I saw our starting line-up I knew what was to come.
When you play Liverpool away, you HAVE to play your strongest eleven from the start, regardless of which competition you’re playing in.
Last night was just like David Moyes had thrown the towel before the kick off. His negative words in the pre-match interview gave it away.
I’m usually backing Moyes in whatever he does, but now I’m sad to conclude that he just has to go.