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Match Day

L4L Match Report: West Ham 2 v 3 LIVERPOOL

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LIVERPOOL FC have at best ticked over this season. The club’s followers have shown a form of patience that belies modern football and many other sets of supporters would have been calling for the manager’s head.

That patience hadn’t been quite rewarded before today’s game. Paul Tomkins wrote recently that Liverpool hadn’t quite recorded a big win that felt like things were back on track.

Today, that big win has arrived.

Numerous times over the last 18 months, Liverpool haven’t got the results that their performances have deserved. Ironically, they have played much better this season and came away with zero points.

This time, they snatched victory, and after a difficult two years in the Premier League, Liverpool fans should milk that for everything it’s worth.

Although the away side started brightly, West Ham recorded the first big opportunity on goal. On 7 minutes, Mohamed Diame’s curled shot took a deflection off Carlton Cole which flashed just wide of the left-hand post.

Glen Johnson meanwhile had made a magnificent contribution to the early stages of the game – against his old club – and his enterprising start was rewarded on 11 minutes. The so far vastly underrated Liverpool full-back cut inside from a wide area and fired in a blockbusting shot into the top right-hand corner.

A few minutes later, Liverpool came agonisingly close to doubling their lead. Johnson again was the orchestrator, crossing in to Raheem Sterling who curled in a right-footed shot from 12 yards that flew just wide of the post.

The game was playing out just how Liverpool would have wanted, but suddenly they lost control and West Ham quickly began to impose their Sam Allardyce-style tactics (the arch nemesis of Rodgers’ philosophy) on proceedings and their physical presence gave them a route back into the game.

After 36 minutes, West Ham notched what was probably a deserved equaliser, but it came from a completely undeserved penalty.

‘Ball to hand’ has become a thing of the past, even before today’s game. But Lee Probert consigned it to the history books forever more after giving a handball against Joe Allen.

Diame’s volley was blocked by the Welshman’s arm, but it was there for the purposes of human biology i.e. balance. The ball nearly took his arm off, but the referee gave a penalty, taken very well by Mark Noble, who gave Reina no chance by slotting it perfectly into the bottom left-hand corner.

West Ham were clearly on top and Liverpool were being bullied. The second goal looked inevitable.
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It duly arrived on 44 minutes. Matt Jarvis’ cross from the left was met by Steven Gerrard, who inadvertently directed a defensive header into the bottom left-hand corner.

Conceding just before half-time is always a problem, especially when a team is trying to ride things out and stay in the game, and West Ham carried their momentum into the first 15 minutes of the second half and looked like increasing their lead.

But Liverpool – willed on by a superb away following (as usual) – rolled their sleeves up and grew back into the game around about the hour mark.

On 67 minutes, Raheem Sterling had a deflected shot tipped over by Jussi Jaaskelainen and that save seemed to be the turning point, from that moment, it was one long spell after another of Liverpool possession.

Jonjo Shelvey – deputising for Luis Suarez in attack – headed wide from Stewart Downing’s cross a few minutes later. He should have done better.

Despite their territorial dominance, it looked to be a disappointing day, especially when Liverpool had failed to properly breach West Ham’s defensive line, but somewhat out of the blue, an unlikely player fired the Reds level on 76 minutes.

A neat one-two between Shelvey and Sterling culminated in the latter sliding an expertly weighted through-ball to Joe Cole (an early substitute for an injured Jose Enrique), who cut inside and slotted a left-footed shot across Jaaskelainen and into the bottom right-hand corner.

The away end went into raptures, and to reiterate, the travelling Koppites’ support was incredible in the second half. Liverpool are a fearsome commodity when players and fans unite in such a manner, and the goal instantly sparked hope of an unlikely winner.

A few minutes later, that winner came.

Jordan Henderson – a replacement for the excellent but tiring Lucas on 71 minutes – fired in a dangerous low cross from the right, straight down the corridor of uncertainty, and James Collins’ attempted interception looped over Jaaskelainen and into the net.

A tense finish ensued, with West Ham continuing to bombard Liverpool with long balls, but the visitors held on bravely for a precious victory.

As already stated above, there is always something extremely gratifying about snatching a win in these circumstances. Those feelings are heightened in the knowledge that Liverpool have been on the receiving end of such results when their displays have deserved much more.

But the timing of this win is the factor which could prove extremely important. We have felt for a while now that Liverpool are hitting some kind of form, but before this victory, things were on a knife-edge.

Lose and it’s back to square one, win and things are back on track. Thankfully, the latter scenario has transpired and with two winnable home games on the horizon, Liverpool could find themselves extremely close to fourth place within a fortnight.

All of this is before the club have the opportunity to strengthen their ranks in the January transfer window, and even more significantly, it came without the services of Liverpool’s star player.

A massive poke in the eye for those who have accused Liverpool of being a one-man team.

L4L Man of the Match: Glen Johnson. He struggled to contain Matt Jarvis at times but his attacking play is incredibly effective, whilst his calmness and maturity are starting to have a growing influence at the club. We argued on here previously that Johnson is one of the most underrated full-backs in world football. Forget that, he is actually one of the best.

Follow me on Twitter: @antonyjlfc
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27 comments

  • Matt says:

    Well done lads great win although I think we were 2nd best on the field but a win is a win, a very important moral boosting victory. Keep going BR, I’ve always believed in ur philosophy unlike some of the plastic supporters on this website enough of ur negative comments.

  • segun says:

    Well done boys,a great win deserved for a great performance.what we need now is to try and win our two home gÀmes and i know by december ending we will be in first four.well done boys.

  • Grey Wolf says:

    Yes we were 2nd best but its the result that matters . If Rodgers can get more results people might give him more leeway , but his style of football needs to more attacking .

    Many people have said its more important to be a lucky manager than a good one , maybe Rodgers luck turned yesterday

  • fotheringham says:

    Credit where credit is due , many times this season ive been critical because Rodgers has claimed ‘good performances’ but not got results .I certainly think his ‘philosopy’ is a load of bull , but if he gets more results then , so what ?

    Results are all thats important . That we were out played and a bit lucky doesnt matter, I see this as a step in the right direction ,winning is what is important to LFC not possesion or other silly stats

    • Matt says:

      I agree, winning us always most important than stats I just don’t like reading the negative critical comments when he is only trying his best with what he’s got. If he had spent a mass amount of money on players and got the start like he did then I would be very critical.

      • fotheringham says:

        He has wasted 28m in my eyes . And of course the man is trying his best but …. there are still a lot of great great players to work with , that team should not be 10th

        • Matt says:

          Very true we should be higher I won’t argue with that but if he had last years spendings I think we would be higher on the table, but ur point is well spoken.

        • Tim Williams says:

          league standing is irrelevant after 16 games no? in 3 games time we could be 3rd

  • Dave Richards says:

    bloody nora !
    Going by some of the comments you would think we had won 9-0 with a fantastic display , get real people

    We weren’t great , we were lucky , we did win . but isn’t that what man ure do most games

    • shibashis says:

      precisely.

    • ozred says:

      I can’t see one comment that points to people thinking we’re world beaters.

      If you can’t enjoy taking three wins in a row during a building phase then there’s not much point following the team.

  • Nicky Cuzin says:

    Greetings to everyone!

    Yesterday was a day of mixed emotions for me as I obviously was happy with the result and disgusted with everything else. But, for starters, result will do.
    Liverpool were outplayed, outmuscled and absolutely hammered by a side who came from Championship. I think Glen Johnson was the only class act in Reds’ play, everyone else apart from first fifteen minutes not worthy of a red shirt. And it took an injury to two Hammers’ players for Liverpool to show signs of fight.
    If I were a West Ham fan I’d feel gutted and robbed. But football is results’ business so at the end of the day happiness was prevailing emotion.
    And let’s not get carried away with two unconvincing wins over promoted clubs, please. Let’s not start talking about top 4 until we get there, and give the boys our full support v Villa and Fulham in the coming weeks!

    P.S. It was a stonewalled penalty, guys. Leave moaning to BR, he is paid to do it.

    • Peter V says:

      at last , an honest unbiased assessment of the game . well said nicky .
      we are all liverpool fans and love to see us be good , but there is no need to be extremely biased about it , its just lying to yourself and others

    • Peter says:

      at last, an honest unbiased assessment of the game

    • Jimmy Areabi (Editor) says:

      and the stone-wall penalty on Jonjo?

    • Tommo says:

      Fair play , u tell it like it is Nicky . Im sick of Rodgers bull every week too .
      I have to say though 2 things –
      How good has Glenn Johnson been this season , best full back in PL by far ?
      + How bad is Joe Allen every week ? embarrassing for 15m

    • Ritchie says:

      All true – well said

  • Matt IOM says:

    I would hate to have this fella in the trenches with me!
    This West ham team beat Chelsea last week and we are only 4 points off forth and we’ve had a bad season so far!
    Lets get behind BR and the term and give them a chance.

  • Peter says:

    whoever the idiot who said the league table doesn’t matter is a twit

    • Tim Williams says:

      That would be me Peter, dont be afraid to reply! So looking at the table now we are 10th. That is not good at all, but in 3 games time we could be third, which would be considerably better. As something like this could fluctuate so much at the moment just how relevant is it?

      • Peter says:

        we could be in relegation zone too, either way we are 10th – that is the only certainty ,and 10th is not good enough .
        if and buts and we coulds are just being silly

        • Tim Williams says:

          That is exactly the point, we are at the stage of a season where a run of 2 or 3 games could see a significant change in the table, so is this right to judge the team based purely on this? its not as if we finished last season strongly and should have been pushing the top 2. Is 10th good enough? of course not, but to judge based purely on a league standing when not even halfway through the season is ridiculous!

          its akin to saying against southampton we only scored 1 with Suarez but against west ham we scored 3 without him. bench for next game! the knee jerk reactions are incredible at times

        • ozred says:

          Of course 10th isn’t good enough. But I think if we sat down at the start of the year and said at this point of the season we were 4 points outside the top 4, that would’ve been about where most punters would have had us.

          Particularly given what went out over summer – Kuyt, Bellamy, Maxi all nothing to do with BR.

          I’m seeing more of a purpose with our play and certainly seeing more signs of attacking threat as the season progresses.

          I’ll be happy for the wins and hoping for the best but anyone who rights off or hails as the saviour a new manager implementing a new approach 3 months into his reign is kidding themselves.

        • Tim Williams says:

          Exactly right ozred, the jury must remain out on Rodgers. to slam or hail a guy after 16 league games is a poor show

  • Ozred says:

    I don’t think anybody is pretending that we were great on Sunday. We probably played some of our poorer football of the year in the middle of the game. But just because we didn’t play great doesn’t mean we didn’t deserve the win. We still had more of the ball, created more chances, were in their third more than they in ours, didn’t receive a stone cold penalty and scored more goals than them. We deserved the win and that makes 3 in a row. Ynwa

  • klaxton says:

    didnt deserve to win but that dont matter
    why so many biased pillocks on here ? , thought pool fans were smarter !

  • NJRedsFan says:

    Because some people will never be truly happy until all of their very particular…demands are met damn all else.

Comments are closed.