LIVERPOOL moved back into second in the 4-1 win over West Ham United at Anfield on Saturday afternoon, in a game which saw Steven Gerrard captain Liverpool for the 300th time in the Premier League, against the Hammers.
Guy Demel turned the ball into his own net to open the scoring just before the break, while it was 2-0 at the start of the second half after Mamadou Sakho turned the ball goalwards from a Steven Gerrard free kick.
A Martin Skrtel own goal gave the Hammers a glimmer of hope, but Luis Suarez restored our two-goal cushion before Kevin Nolan was shown a straight red card for a foul on Jordan Henderson.
Suarez then capped off the scoring with a shot from 25 yards that took a big deflection off Joey O’Brien.
Here is a selection of statistics of the team performance:
Both Coutinho and Gerrard created 5 opportunities against the Hammers and both of them were very influential with their passes in the final third.
As you can see from the diagram below Coutinho made 45 in total, with 36 successful.
Now Sakho was selected in the absence of Daniel Agger and made 13 clearances during the 90 minutes, second only to his centre-back partner Skrtel- with 15 – of all the players on the pitch.
Sakho made 2 successful tackles and won 3 out of 4 of his ground duels. He also won 50% of his aerial duels. Sakho made the most interceptions with 3.
Although he put through his own net in the second half, the Slovakian was a dominant figure for the Reds, winning every single duel he contested against the Hammers. Sakho, meanwhile, recorded the highest passing accuracy for either team at Anfield, registering 97.1 per cent completion from his 35 passes, with 11.4 per cent played long.
To top off a solid defensive performance Sahko is being credited with the second Liverpool goal (hopefully the first of many).
Skrtel was not far behind either, recording 89.7 per cent accuracy with his 39 attempts, and just 5.1 per cent of those were considered long passes.
I also have to mention Joe Allen’s performance in the midfield. He made 72 passes throughout the match with a 92% accuracy – 44% forward, 4% backward. Joe won 63% of his ground duels (5/8 successful).
He won his 2 tackles in the match but interestingly Allen had the most possession wins with 8 and he also had one shot during the game.
Suarez Stats
Now it all depends whether the dubious goals panel award Luis Suarez with the fourth Liverpool goal but this is an interesting stat all the same:
If Suarez has 14 league goals he’s scoring at a rate of 64 minutes per goal.
If Suarez has 15 he’s scoring at 60 minutes per goal.
Suarez – All Competitions Via @DanKennett
First 52 Games: 21 goals
Last 54 Games: 43 goals = sensational
The most goals LFC have scored in a Premier League season is 77. They’ve scored 86 in their last 38 matches.
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