Midweek derby defeat, so a big weekend reaction, right? Apparently that’s wrong, as Liverpool went on to draw 2-2 to a struggling West Ham. Season over.
West Ham 2-2 Liverpool
Premier League (35), London Stadium
April 27, 2024
Goals: Bowen 43′, Antonio 77′; Robertson 48′, Areola OG 65′
Alisson – 6 (out of 10)
One routine save down to his right, one fine reaction stop after a deflected shot went same side.
Beaten a minute later though by a header which he got fingertips to – left exposed by his defence once again.
Largely an onlooker for much of the second 45 but inexplicably dropped one routine catch, was forced into a brilliant save seconds later and the ball was in the net with the next chance. Weird.
Trent Alexander-Arnold – 5
Extremely fortunate to be in the team and didn’t exactly produce a stirring performance in response to the garbage he served up in the derby.
Sloppy passing throughout the first half gave him the worst completion rate of any player on the pitch making 20 or more.
Kudus beat him for fun, set-pieces were off-target.
A couple of shots and really clever, inventive passes across range in the second half should not mask how poor his effort and concentration levels were again at times earlier on. Must get back to his best across the full match and soon.
Jarell Quansah – 7
A decent enough showing with some aerial wins, a couple of good covering moments behind his fellow defenders and one moment where he overpowered Paqueta on the run.
Generally dealt well with Antonio’s speed and strength but totally lost him on one cross which the forward headed in.
Virgil van Dijk – 7
Fortunate to escape a booking for a trip on a West Ham counter and almost deflected a shot in before the break.
Commented the squad weren’t hungry enough for the title after the midweek defeat but his own appetite doesn’t seem high either right now.
Like the rest, raised it after the restart and a few good challenges and strides forward were positive.
Andy Robertson – 7
Scored with an absolutely ferocious missile of a laser-guided thundercracker! Or, put another way, scuff-volleyed in his first goal since September with just about our worst shot since then!
Plenty of running, overlapping and the usual bursts into the box, though the crossing and passing wasn’t always up to scratch.
Wataru Endo – 4
Back to the raffle-competition-winner version of Endo recently. Slow and ponderous on the ball, nothing progressive in his game, overrun, bypassed.
Slightly better after the break but he’s in a poor moment after his great form of a couple of months ago.
Alexis Mac Allister – 7 – Man of the Match
Took a heavy tackle from Paqueta early on but thankfully was unscathed. Some excellent one-touch play and looked to enjoy the freedom he had as the most attacking central player.
Should have scored with a header just after 2-1 but was basically the most consistent player in green and white throughout the game. Work rate, some defensive proficiency, always forward-looking with his passing.
Made a big block in stoppage time to prevent us almost certainly losing.
Ryan Gravenberch – 6
Two hammer shots which lacked accuracy but too often was again missing the power in his actual man-to-man play, losing challenges, being run past and battled off possession.
Definitely raised his own tempo and effort levels after the break, which made him just about acceptable for a spell.
Harvey Elliott – 5
Handed the start ahead of Salah on the right but made next to no impact. A few decent runs off the ball weren’t utilised and his one chance was a right-footed strike on the angle into the side netting.
Bit of a passenger, in truth, including when he went into midfield later. Struck the bar late on with a great hit.
Cody Gakpo – 5
Disappointing in both boxes.
Fouled for a penalty only for the move to be offside, but aside from that offered very little in the buildup, didn’t trouble Areola in goal and was supposed to be marking that noted 6’8″ giant Jarrod Bowen on a set-piece.
Guess who won the header to score.
Anyway, Gakpo got to celebrate when ‘his’ shot ended up in the net…after deflecting three different ways off three different West Ham payers.
Luis Diaz – 7
Once again the only attacking player to offer any tempo, direct running, ability on the ball or apparent knowledge of where the goal was.
Made a chance or two, smacked the woodwork again with a first-half shot and sent another just off-target.
Slightly quieter after the break but maybe that’s in comparison to others actually starting to run? Saw a one-on-one saved from a tough angle, then another good strike pawed away from the top corner.
Really interesting he was the forward subbed off, having been the best performer of the trio and the one most likely to score (on purpose).
Substitutes
Joe Gomez (on for Alexander-Arnold, 78′) – 6 – Generic flank-running and passing.
Mohamed Salah (on for Diaz, 78′) – 6 – Fuming with the manager as he came onto the pitch. Almost set up Nunez with a decent cross and dribbled the length of the pitch once.
Darwin Nunez (on for Endo, 78′) – 6 – A couple of good runs off the ball but nothing ran his way in the area.
Dominik Szoboszlai (on for Quansah, 90′) – N/A – Pointless introduction in stoppage time. Made a foul.
Subs not used: Kelleher, Tsimikas, Konate, Jones, Bajcetic
Jurgen Klopp – 4
Looks like it’s all about getting to the end of the campaign now rather than rallying the troops, unfortunately.
Very low-key on the sidelines despite another shocking first-half performance, no real reaction to lift the tempo of the game and despite another big bunch of changes to the lineup, didn’t necessarily take out one or two who certainly didn’t warrant staying in the side.
No subs at half-time was a surprise but perhaps Klopp was going for the ‘you’ve got 10 minutes to get things right’ approach.
It was better, no doubt, but not excellent. And still little additional input, reaction or changes thereafter.
No subs until inside the final quarter of an hour was perhaps as much about making a point as making a difference to the performance, but after 2-1 the match drifted, he waited too long to make changes as West Ham started to push on and sure enough, the equaliser came before the subs.
We didn’t even get an irrelevant Tsimikas cameo this time either.
Perhaps most of all, what was said between him and Salah before he came on? That’s just one of many answers needed from this game.
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