Any chance we could just play Tottenham every week? Or better yet, those Arsenal losers? I’m not sure how much more of these difficult ones I can take to be honest, this was absolutely torturous at times. Well it was for those of us watching, I don’t think it was actually too bad for the players as once they’d re-established the lead they looked to be in complete control, but it only takes a second to score a goal and when the stakes are this high… well it’s almost impossible to watch isn’t it?
Much like the Sunderland game, the closing stages of this one were completely nerve shredding, I was sending a text and noticed my hands were shaking uncontrollably and I could feel my heart rate had increased as it thumped in my chest. Every time the ball was launched towards our box I could barely watch, but looking back on it now that it’s over I’d have to say that it was as comfortable as you’re ever going to get when protecting just a solitary goal lead. It doesn’t feel like it at the time, obviously, but in the cold light of day - with the result in the bag - you have to say that West Ham didn’t ever look like they would force an equaliser as we defended resolutely and showed great composure.
This was a great win, a real show of mental strength and bottle. I know it’s a cliché but a year ago or two we wouldn’t have got the result in a game like this; the unjust setback on the stroke of half time would have killed us and we wouldn’t have recovered from it. That was our excuse for not winning it right there, and previously we’d have clung to that excuse like some kind of comfort blanket. “oh how can we expect to win when we hit the bar twice and have a decision like that go against us’. We had so many of those hard luck stories, but we’re made of much sterner stuff these days. Rodgers has done an incredible job on that side of things (as well as everything else of course) and the players simply put that awful decision behind them and just went out and completely bossed the second half and picked up the win they needed.
It wasn’t a day when our free flowing football ever really clicked and in a way it’s encouraging that we were able to still win the game in spite of that. Our much maligned defence stepped up when they were needed and it’s good to see that we can win however necessary. We had our moments in attack of course, but for once it wasn’t the flair players who caught the eye for us, it was the defenders and those charged with protecting them. Steven Gerrard was simply imperious, an absolutely majestic performance from him. He was clearly the stand out performer, but both Martin Skrtel and the recalled Mamadou Sakho were fantastic too, and dealt with the threat of Andy Carroll about as well as you can expect anyone to.
Carroll was fired up for this one, he may have said plenty of kind things before and afterwards but there was no question he wanted to prove a point and he was all over the field putting himself about. He played quite well in terms of winning his flick ons and holding the ball up, yet he only had one real threatening moment all day, when for once he was allowed an unimpeded run at a cross and soared above Glen Johnson at the back post to thump a header against the bar. That was the only time he was able to escape the shackles put on him by Skrtel and Sakho, and I think that only happened because the cross took them by surprise and Carroll was able to find space as a result.
If that had gone in then who knows what may have happened. It was 1-1 at that stage and we may have found it very difficult to win from there given how tough the Hammers were proving to break down. Any side that wins a trophy can point to pivotal moments along the way, the last time we were in a title race United had several of them - Howard Webb’s assist against Spurs and that late goal by that fucking nomark Federico Macheda immediately spring to mind - and if we win the title this year there’ll be several moments that I’ll think back to. Mignolet’s penalty save on opening day, O’Shea’s late miss at Anfield, the stoppage time pen against Fulham etc The Carroll one may not be as dramatic as those as there was still plenty of time to play, but it was a hugely significant moment in this game.
We were well on top at the time and we were well on top afterwards, but if that goes an inch or two lower… well I don’t even want to think about it. Thankfully I don’t need to now because we got the three points and can move on to the next one. Besides, if Anthony Taylor had done his job properly just before half time then we’d have gone into the break with the lead and may well have steamrollered West Ham in the second half, we’ll never know.
It was a real arm wrestle this one as West Ham are horrible to play against. They’re like Stoke used to be under Tony Pulis, it’s very difficult to look good against them because of how they set up and how they break the game up all the time with set-pieces. We found it tough in the first half, mainly because our front three weren’t at it. Suarez was giving the ball away a lot and spent a lot of time berating himself or complaining to team-mates about various things. Even on those days though he still produces moments of breathtaking quality, such as the ridiculous chip that hit the bar and the bit of skill that won the penalty.
Sturridge and Sterling, however, were not having the best of days at all. For the first time so far I thought I could detect traces of nerves and hesitancy in some of the players, notably those two. Sterling had been electric last week against Spurs, he was on the front foot from the opening whistle and was direct and positive. In the first half against the Hammers he looked more like the timid, safety first kid who had lost his way in the early part of this season. The tactical switch at half time changed that, I thought he was brilliant in the second half but Sturridge continued to look a little out of sorts, especially in front of goal.
He was snatching at shots all day, a sure sign that he wasn’t playing with the usual confidence we see from him. He blasted a couple over the bar, he sliced one wildly wide and even on the second pen he somehow managed to put the ball wide from a couple of yards out. Fortunately the ref bailed him out by awarding the spot kick for the challenge on Flanagan, but this was not a good day for Sturridge. It was summed up for me by a chance he had shortly before he was subbed. Sterling picked him out with a great ball and any other time he would have brought the ball down, gone at the defender and got his shot in. This time he took the shot first time and seemed more concerned about hitting the target than anything else. He’s earned the odd off day though and I expect him to be flying against City next week.
Rodgers had said prior to kick off that Joe Allen would have started this one but picked up a knock and was only fit for the bench. Given how the second half played out with the diamond formation, you can see why he was thinking that way. Recently Rodgers has often changed the system depending on the opposition and he’s usually been spot on. Allen’s absence forced him into a rethink and he stuck with the 4-3-3 that had torn Spurs apart last week.
It didn’t work, I couldn’t tell you why as I’m not that knowledgable about all that stuff, all I know is that the first half performance was nowhere near as good as the second half one, and - for whatever reason - the diamond worked better than 4-3-3 in this game. It was also apparent that in the first half neither full back could get forward much yet after the break they were more or less camped out in the West Ham half. Neil Lennon highlighted this on MOTD2 and pointed out the things that untrained eyes like mine could see, but crucially he explained why it was happening and it was very interesting I thought. It just made me appreciate Rodgers even more, the fucking clever bastard. He knows his shit does Brendan.
The first half wasn’t terrible by any means, but it didn’t really look like a Brendan Rodgers team out there. It was a scrappy game but we did have several good opportunities to counter attack but unusually for us we didn’t make them count. There were only two real moments of stand out quality in the half: the Suarez shot against the bar and the move that led to the penalty. Gerrard’s pass for that was just incredible, and moving him back into that deep lying playmaker role allows him to do that more than he could when he was playing further forward.
It’s sometimes referred to as ‘the quarterback role’, and Gerrard has been playing it like Peyton fucking Manning this season. Lots of short and intermediate passes, then all of a sudden BOOM he’s going deep to his wide receiv… erm I mean striker. Suarez got himself isolated on the centre back and poor old James Tomkins found himself instinctively handling the ball as it was dinked past him. Yellow card for the defender (you could possibly argue it should even have been a red) and another penalty for Stevie who buried it with customary aplomb.
That should have been the breakthrough that set us on the way to a comfortable win. If West Ham had to come out and chase the game that would play right into our hands. The only real concern was going to be set-pieces, and so it proved as they equalised from a corner kick. And even then we dealt with it perfectly, it’s just a pity the officials can’t say the same. Mignolet caught the ball and was then struck in the head by Carroll, who also managed to then drag the keeper’s arm free of the ball which dropped at the feet of Demel who tapped it in.
Our players immediately appealed for the foul, the linesman was flagging but the ref had given a goal. That’s ok though, he wasn’t in a position to see a foul and can only call what he sees. Not a problem as the liner had seen it and brought it to the ref’s attention. Taylor did the right thing by going to consult his linesman, and whilst initially I was blaming him for over-ruling his assistant, the more I think about it the more I’m sure it was the assistant shitting out and saying he wasn’t sure. I mean, if he says to the ref “it was a clear foul, I had a better view of it than you and I’m telling you that goal shouldn’t count”, there’s no way Taylor is going to over-rule him. So I’m willing to bet that the liner got cold feet and said “I think I saw a foul but I’m not sure, he may have just dropped it” so the ref went with his initial decision.
What made it all the more farcical was that, bizarrely, the incident was being shown on the big screen behind the officials and all of our players were pointing to it and telling them to look. There’s no way they could do that, imagine if they’d looked at the big screen and then disallowed the goal? There’d have been all kinds of repercussions there. So yeah, I blame the linesman for not sticking to his guns and telling the ref he saw a clear foul. Of course, I may have been influenced somewhat by the questionable penalty Taylor gave us in the second half! I’ll get to that shortly.
I’ve got to be honest, at half time I was feeling pretty damn sorry for myself, thinking ‘here we go again, another ref screwing us over in a hugely important game’. I was even wondering whether that decision would cost us the title, and when I saw the half time substitution by Rodgers I wasn’t feeling too much better either. Coutinho had not gotten into the game (a recurring theme away from Anfield) but we needed goals and we were taking off one of our most creative players and replacing him with Lucas. How was that going help? Fair to say my arse had completely gone at that point.
It proved to be an inspired change by Rodgers though as West Ham couldn’t get the ball off us in that second half. We enjoyed so much possession and pinned them back that it allowed the full backs to get forward and we looked much more threatening, even if we were still lacking a cutting edge for once.
We did create chances but they weren’t gilt edged ones until Taylor pointed to the penalty spot as Flanagan was brought down by Adrian. I’ve changed my mind a little on this one too. I didn’t think it was a penalty on first viewing, and I still don’t think it was after seeing various replays. I do now think you can make a case for it though, because although the keeper did get the ball he didn’t push it away from Flanagan and if he hadn’t brought Flano down then he was going to reach that ball before it went out and may have scored. It was probably 60-40 against being a pen, but having made the earlier mistake Taylor was intent on evening things up.
Two wrongs never make a right, but Taylor redeemed himself a little and by ‘evening it up’ he ensured that all the headlines today were about Liverpool’s continued title charge rather than the referee who screwed them out of it with his incompetence. Basically he got one decision horribly wrong, and another one arguably wrong. Fat Sam was obviously beside himself with rage afterwards, coming out with all kinds of bollocks about Flanagan looking for it and being on his way down before the keeper reached him.
Not true at all, Flano’s touch said it all for me, most players in that position don’t care about where the ball goes, they just want to get there before the keeper and then wait for contact, and even in that situation it’s still a penalty. Usually the ball goes flying out of play, but when you look at this one Flano’s touch is perfect, he wasn’t looking for a pen he was trying to knock it past the keeper and retrieve it himself, and he only went down when the keeper grabbed his ankle and hauled him over. You can argue it wasn’t a pen, but don’t be casting aspersions on Flanagan, you fat, mashed potato faced, long ball merchant twat.
There’s a lot of bollocks written about things evening themselves out over a season, even Stevie was spinning that line afterwards, but it’s horseshit. A steaming, rancid pile of Zlatan if you will. They don’t even themselves out at all, but at least they did in this game and for that I’m grateful. Gerrard once again buried the pen, shrugging off the attempted mind games of the keeper who pointed to the corner where he wanted Stevie to put it. The skipper just stepped up and duly obliged, he went where the keeper wanted him to but made sure it was out of his reach. Balls of steel that fella.
We should have killed West Ham off with a third goal as we were utterly dominant now, but unfortunately it wouldn’t come. Suarez hit the bar again with another ridiculous chip and also mis-kicked after a brilliant passing move ended with Lucas putting one on a plate for him. Sturridge was wasteful too and it eventually became clear that to see this one out was going to require defensive concentration and resilience as well as composure in possession, because we were not going to get the safety net of a third goal.
With a few minutes to go I seriously considered the option of just going outside to get away from it all, such was the tension I was feeling. When I look back on it now it seems silly, as we were under no pressure at all and defended everything they threw at us with relative ease. When you’re watching it live though you always feel that a goal for the opposition is just around the corner, and it was only until about a minute left and we had the ball by their corner flag that I was finally able to relax.
Watching the game back, it actually looked extremely comfortable for us. West Ham couldn’t get the ball off us and by the end they had stopped trying, instead opting to let us pass it around and only trying to win it when we got anywhere near their goal. When they did get it, it was all about trying to get it in our half and win some sort of set-piece so they could launch it into the box. Fat Sam threw on Carlton Cole to go up top with Big Andy as they went full alehouse, and Brendan sent on Toure to try to combat it. The only anxious moment I had was when for a split second it looked like Kolo had headed one into his own net, but that was more a trick of the camera than anything as it had actually looped straight up in the air and Mignolet had an easy catch. For a brief second though it looked to be headed for the top corner!
I have to say our back four were brilliant and Mignolet did everything he needed to do too. He didn’t have any shots to save, but he dealt with crosses well considering the pressure he was under and he was secure in his kicking too. We passed the ball around at the back very well and moved Carroll around a lot as he had to chase lost causes while we passed it around him, and he received little back up from his midfield which made it easy for the centre backs and keeper to play keepball.
Special mentions for Lucas and Sakho too. Both have had to sit and watch recently whilst the team has been on this great run, but Rodgers always says that players need to train as though they are going to play because you never know when they’ll be needed, and these two are a case in point. Sakho’s performance was close to being perfect, I can’t remember a misplaced pass all day and his defending was assured and strong.
The injury that ruled Agger out may have been a blessing in disguise really. I like Agger and wouldn’t have dropped him, but coming up against Carroll would have been a tough match up for him and Sakho coming in probably helped us. He should stay in too after this performance, tactical changes aside, the man in possession of the shirt should keep it until he plays his way out with poor performances or until he gets injured. The shirt is Sakho’s now and he should play against City next week for me.
As for Lucas, I thought he was fantastic and gave us a real lift when we needed it. West Ham couldn’t get the ball off us as having that extra man in midfield made all the difference and seeing him play so well of the right of the midfield diamond provides food for thought moving forward. His pass won the penalty and he also laid that one on for Suarez too. Like many of you I expect, I thought the only route back into the side for Lucas was an injury or suspension for Gerrard, but now we know he can play that role in the diamond too if required. Really pleased to see him getting on and doing so well in front of the Brazil coach, as hopefully this will help to cement his place in their World Cup squad.
It’s hard to put into words how all this is feeling and it’s going to get a lot more difficult to describe over the coming weeks. I don’t even think a word has been invented that would describe the feeling we’ll all have if we win the thing, but I’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, there’s still plenty of work to be done before that happens.
For now we need to just keep churning them out. We’ve done brilliantly to get ourselves to where we are and nine wins on the bounce is a great achievement. It’s all been building up to our next game though; all of these wins are just setting us up for this huge showdown with City. It’s the biggest domestic game at Anfield I can remember, there’s so much riding on this one that Anfield is going to be bouncing next week. It’s not officially a title decider as such, but it kind of is. If we lose, I don’t see any way we’ll be able to come back from that. If we win, it doesn’t mean it’s in the bag but we will definitely have one hand on it and it will probably all come down to whether we can beat Chelsea or not.
I’m not sure how much more of this I can take though, this West Ham game was nerve wracking enough, but I can’t shake the feeling that it’s nothing compared to what we have in store over the next few weeks. Remember what we had to go through before winning number 5? Olympiacos, that Juventus away game, both legs against Chelsea, the first half in Istabul, extra time and finally the penalty shoot out. So far this has been a walk in the park compared to that. We’re not going to win every game comfortably, there’s going to be one or two at least that will be dogfights, with twists and turns and moments of complete anguish and total jubilation. I don’t know if my heart will be up to it, but it’s great to be in a position to find out isn’t it?
Roll on next week.
Team: Mignolet; Johnson, Skrtel, Sakho, Flanagan; Gerrard, Henderson, Coutinho (Lucas); Sterling, Suarez, Sturridge (Toure):
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