Report by
Dave Usher
One down one to go then. This was supposed to be the more difficult of the two but I always felt more confident about us winning this than I do about next week. I didn’t think it would be as comfortable as it turned out, but we’ve been picking up wins regularly on our travels so this game worried me far less than the idea of facing an ultra defensive, pressure free Boro at home next week.
Still, more of what we saw in this game and we should be fine. It was the most fluid we’ve looked in weeks and Firmino being ruled out actually worked to our advantage I think, simply because it forced Klopp into shaking things up. Had the Brazilian been fit we’d probably have seen more of the same, but a change was desperately needed as we’ve looked stale and predictable ever since Mané went down.
I like the diamond formation, always have, and I think it suits both Origi and Sturridge, especially when they play together. Neither one of them is particularly adept at playing in the middle of the three, but by going with this set up Klopp allowed both of them to play to their strengths.
I always think back to that demolition job on Southampton last season and wonder why we haven’t seen this system more often. Then I remember that fucking Sturridge is hardly ever available, and that's why. Still, even without Sturridge it would still have been worth a look I reckon. I wouldn’t change anything next week, regardless of whether Firmino is available or not.
I’m not kidding myself, I’m fully aware that West Ham were decimated by injury and didn’t look particularly arsed, but half the teams we’ve played recently have had nothing to play for but it didn’t stop us making painfully hard work of it. This was the easiest game we’ve had since the derby and I’d say a lot of it was due to the formation, and also that we were able to get Sturridge on the pitch at long last.
Let’s make no bones about it, he’s still fucking brilliant on the odd occasions he’s willing/able to get out there. His last start in the league was against Sunderland the day after New Year and he was class that day too. His clever movement pulled West Ham’s defenders all over the place and he took his goal with the kind of composure and class that nobody else in the squad possesses.
Did anyone think even for a split second he was going to miss that? Honestly, as soon as I saw he was through I knew it was a goal. If I had to put money on any one player in the league in that situation, it would be between him and Hazard.
He mightn’t have any pace these days but he can finish and his touch and intelligence are still there. Not that any of it matters much anymore, he still has to go simply because we can’t be paying him £150k a week to never be available. If you could guarantee he'd be available for 75% of our games I'd keep him, but as it is we're lucky if he makes 50%.
The goal had been coming. We hadn’t tested the keeper much but we’d got into some good attacking positions and it felt like we could do something at any moment. We were especially dangerous from corners, bizarrely. Matip hit the bar with one he headed into the ground first and he also got his head on another couple too.
One of my pet hates - and something I constantly row with my arl fella about - is this whole "you're supposed to head the ball down" shite. I don't care how many coaches tell you to do it, it's fucking bollocks. The theory is that it's harder for a keeper if you head it down, but it's just not true.
It's not about heading it down, it's about heading it into the fucking net, whether it's top corner, bottom corner or just either side of the keeper. Too often you see this where a player tries to head it down and ends up losing all the power off the header. Don't head it down, just fucking burst the net with it.
It didn't prove costly because two players we recruited back before someone decided that you cant sign any good players in January, combined to slice the Hammers apart. Coutinho’s pass was terrific and it was a throwback to when him and Sturridge first arrived and they were doing this seemingly every week.
West Ham hadn't really done much, but they had looked like in the opening few minutes when Cresswell got the better of Clyne on a couple of occasions and put dangerous crosses in, and on the other side Byrom shot just wide when when he probably should have done better.
After that we were untroubled until an incredible let off from a corner just before half time. The defending was shite, Lovren in particular just stopped and lost his man as he ball watched, but fortunately lifelong Red Andre Ayew somehow hit the post twice in the space of as many seconds from just a couple of yards out. Even then, the rebound looked like it would fall to a Hammers player until Migs showed good agility and awareness to dive on the loose ball.
You get a let off like that and you think it’s probably going to be your day. Presumably Klopp read them the riot act at half time because the lads started the second half like a runaway train and West Ham struggled to cope with it. Origi burst into life and brought a great save from Adrian. Sturridge should then have converted the follow up cross by Lallana and then seconds later Lallana himself was denied by the keeper.
We were all over them now and there was none of the carelessness that was on show at times in the first half. Wijnaldum almost found the net with a brilliant dipping 30 yard volley but the ball smashed against the crossbar, which was still rattling when seconds later Coutinho waltzed through and made it 2-0. Brilliant goal.
The third goal was going to be the crucial one as I didn’t feel safe at 2-0 because I don’t trust this team to not let a stupid one in, and once you’ve conceded one it can then become panic stations. A third goal would settle it so I was happy to see that the players were pushing forward looking to kill the game rather than sitting on what they had. I was dreading the idea of Klopp hooking Sturridge for Ragnar fucking Klavan, but thankfully that didn't happen.
Origi went close with a brilliant dig from long range that hit the bar, and soon after came a 10 second period that proved to be pivotal. West Ham thought they should have had a penalty when Wijnaldum challenged Reid and the ball dropped onto his arm. The ref was having none of it and we broke down the other end and Coutinho waltzed through again to score.
We dodged a bullet there. I wouldn’t say it was a stonewall pen but it was probably 70-30. Gini led with his arm and caught Reid in the face. Outside the box that would definitely have been a foul, but even if you disregard that then the ball has hit his arm and most refs would have given a pen for that.
Despite being by far the better team, there's no denying that we caught a couple of lucky breaks in this game. What I would say is that although Ayew obviously should have scored and you can make the case that would have completely changed the game, I didn't see anything to make me think we wouldn't have just gone out and scored again anyway.
That third goal was much more of a crucial moment as it was a massive psychological blow to West Ham. After that it was a case of how many we’d get as the Hammers quit.
Sturridge created the fourth with a great run and pull back to Lallana, whose first touch for once let him down and allowed Adrian to block, but Wijnaldum’s off target shot fell perfectly for Origi to tap in for a well deserved goal.
I was impressed with Origi’s second half display, but then he went and spoiled it by being a greedy bastard and going for goal himself when a simple square ball to Sturridge would have been a certain goal. No need for that at all, I don’t care if it’s 4-0 that just isn’t on.
Still, at least we were creating chances which isn’t something that has come easy to us lately. I’m not sure why Klopp left Sturridge on for as long as he did though, as once it went to 4-0 he should have dragged him off and wrapped him in bubblewrap until next weekend.
Kopp left him on until five minutes to go when he was replaced by Lucas, and then Coutinho and Lallana were brought off too as Grujic and Woodburn were given a run out. I’d have brought both of them on sooner as it was an ideal chance to give them some minutes and to rest our key men.
That’s a minor gripe though as Klopp did everything right this week. Some of his selections recently have done my head in but this was the team I wanted to see in the system I wanted to see. I liked his comments this week too about playing Coutinho deeper in the future. If this is a taste of what we can look forward to with him arriving in the box from deeper then roll on next season.
West Ham can fuck off though. Their fans singing about us claiming benefits while they're playing in a fucking government paid for stadium. Cheeky bastards. They must be ruining the day they left Upton Park as they've now lost the home advantage they used to have. There's no advantage to playing in this stadium. No-one dreads going to play there like they did with Upton Park and I can see them struggling to stay up next season.
So here we are then, needing only to beat Boro at home to secure a place in the Champions League. Well, the Champions League qualifiers, as 4th place doesn’t get us straight in and it’s difficult to envisage City blowing third now.
It doesn’t matter about whether we have to play a qualifier or not as even if we were to get knocked out we’d have already done our summer business by then anyway and tricked our targets into thinking we could offer Champions League football. So just get that fourth place and worry about the qualifier later.
I’ve been saying for weeks that the doomsday scenario is us needing to beat Boro to get in and us then blowing it in typical modern Liverpool fashion, so I can’t pretend that I’m not worried about it. But at the same time, you have to say that if we can’t beat fucking Middlesbrough after they’ve already been relegated and have nothing to play for, then we don’t deserve to have nice things anyway.
A top four finish is the absolute minimum we should have expected at the turn of the year, but based on expectations going into the season it would represent progress and give the club a big lift. Therefore any win will do, but wouldn’t it be nice if for once we actually made it easy for ourselves and didn’t have to go through the ringer?
Star man is obviously Coutinho, but Sturridge wasn’t too far behind him and those two represent our best hope of breaking down what will no doubt be a ten man defence next week.
Team: Mignolet; Clyne, Matip, Lovren, Milner; Can, Wijnaldum, Coutinho (Grujic), Lallana (Woodburn); Sturridge (Lucas), Origi:
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