West Ham United vs Liverpool Match Report
Liverpool have scored 19 Premier League goals this season; 10 goals have come from one source, that source being Luis Suarez.
With Suarez suspended, Brendan Rodgers has the task of taking his team to Sam Allardyce’s West Ham United without 53% of his fire power.
To replace Suarez, the young Liverpool boss decided to play attacking midfielder Jonjo Shelvey in the “False number 9” position that Suarez usually occupies.
Prior to the game, Rodgers stated: “There's no doubt that if you are missing Luis Suarez, you are missing a world class striker. Any team would miss Luis but we have got Jonjo who can play in that role. He's an attack-minded player and we have worked that way before”.
Jonjo Shelvey was indeed the only change to the side which beat Southampton at Anfield one week earlier, with the Reds lining up in their familiar 4-3-3 formation.
To cover up for the loss of an identified striker, Brendan Rodgers would rely on the quick forward movement into the West Ham penalty area as Sterling and Downing would cut inside while Glen Johnson and Jose Enrique stretching the Hammers through their forward movement down the touch line.
Lucas continues his return from injury with his second consecutive Premier League start as the enforcer in midfield supported by Steven Gerrard while Allen played the advanced role in a three-man midfield.
Westham United, on the other hand, buoyed by their impressive 3-1 win at home to Chelsea, restored the dominant Mohammad Diame to midfield in place of James Tomkins while Matt Taylor also returned to the starting line-up in place of Gary O’Neill with Carlton Cole spearheading their attack.
Liverpool started the game brightly with most of the pressure coming from the right-hand side as Glen Johnson, supported by Downing’s movement, pushed forward to produce a corner in the very first minute of this encounter. The marauding right back continued to be Liverpool’s main outlet and in the 10th minute, Johnson picked up Gerrad’s pass on the right wing before cutting inside past Jarvis and rifled a screamer to the top left corner of Jussi Jaaskelainen’s goal to give Liverpool a deserved early lead.
The Anfield outfit continued to dominate the game until an injury to Jose Enrique in the 27th minute imposed a change on Brendan Rodgers’ team with Joe Cole coming on for the injured Spaniard. Stewart Downing moved from right wing to left back.
West Ham’s marauder woke to life a few minutes later as Diame started to impose his will on Liverpool’s midfield with the Hammers now pushing further forward and in the 35th minute West Ham launched a counter attack which lead to Guy Demel shooting into Joe Allen’s flailing arm inside the penalty area and a penalty was awarded. Mark Noble duly slotting home past Pepe Reina.
The Hammers kicked into higher gear after the goal with the Reds going to sleep. Joe Allen continued his drop in form while Steven Gerrard looks a shadow of his old self. Diame, meanwhile, maintained his domineering presence in midfield.
While Jarvis struggled defensively against Glen Johnson, he improved massively as the Hammers controlled possession and it was through a right footed cross by the Englishman that West Ham took the lead after Steven Gerrard nodded the cross past his own goalkeeper.
2 West Ham goals in 7 minutes. Brendan Rodgers was not best pleased to say the least.
After the introduction of Joe Cole, Liverpool failed to stretch the Hammers’ defense and Rodgers looked to counter that after half-time by switching Sterling and Cole with the 17 year old England international now positioned on the right wing.
Sam Allardyce also had a switch of his own with Guy Demel going off at half time to be replaced by left back George McCartney to enforce West Ham’s left hand side against Glen Johnson’s offensive runs.
West Ham began the second half on the front foot lead by the ever-impressive Mohamad Diame with the Liverpool midfield continuously struggling to deal with the physical presence of the Senegalese international.
Liverpool failed to create much in the second half as Allardyce’s men pressured the Reds high up the pitch thus preventing Rodgers’ boys to build from the back.
Rodgers brought on the improving Jordan Henderson for Lucas. Another 70 minutes now under the belt of the returning Brazilian will go a long way in restoring both confidence and fitness.
Joe Allen was moved to play the holding midfield role while Jordan Henderson pushed forward down the right wing. Joe Cole was again moved to the right hand side with the freedom to roam and support Jonjo Shelvey while Sterling hugged the left wing.
It was a game which was meant to be decided by injuries and substitutions though.
Mohamad Diame, leading another attack down the West Ham right flank, agonizingly pulled his hamstring and was lifted off the pitch on a stretcher. James Tomkins his replacement.
The changes made by Rodgers and the injury to Diame produced an immediate impact as the pendulum swung back in favor of the away side.
Within two minutes, Sterling received the ball on the left wing and cut inside before passing to Shelvey who laid the ball back to Raheem Sterling who in turn spread a perfect through-pass to the mobile Joe Cole and the previous West Ham man made no mistake in placing the a left-footed shot into the net.
Two Liverpool goals by two former West Ham players. Both showed class by not celebrating against their former club.
Energized by the goal, the Reds took control of the game and it was through the right side that Liverpool took the lead yet again. This time, Glen Johnson passed the ball to Henderson who used the space behind McCartney to produce a low cross which Shelvey attacked and produced a touch enough to loop over Jaaskelainen. Turnaround complete!
Sam Allardyce brought on another striker in the shape of Modibo Maiga in place of Mathew Taylor while Liverpool’s boss introduced Sebastian Coates in place of the tiring Joe Allen. Brendan Rodgers now switching the formation to 5-3-2 in order to try and seal the game.
Liverpool successfully held on to score their second away win this season.
This win is a very significant for this young Liverpool team. It is a sign of the progress that they are making under Brendan Rodgers. It is a sign that they can score goals without the influential Luis Suarez. This is a Liverpool team with character and this is the first time they have turned a game around this season.
An ecstatic Rodgers stated: “I think you saw today the quality in the team and equally the fight in the team and that was very pleasing.”
Rodgers added: "We're just trying to build momentum. We had a difficult opening fixture list and when you couple that with trying to play a certain way of football, it was always going to be difficult. But certainly over the last few weeks we have progressed - let's just see how we finish. We're making steady progress in climbing the league and that's important for us. It's a very tight league this season. We've supposedly had an unbelievably bad season up until now, so once we really hit form we'll be alright."
A baffled Sam Allardyce bemoaned this “bizarre” game: "I wouldn't have expected five goals today. Liverpool don't concede many but also, at the other end, they don't score many. And then they've lost Suarez, who has scored more than 50% of their goals. You wouldn't expect us to concede three and you wouldn't expect two old West Ham players to score two goals."
At the end, this game was not about the missing Luis Suarez but was about the Liverpool players who had a history with West Ham United (Jonjo Shelvey trained as a youngster with the Hammers). Liverpool are a mere four points away from the coveted Champions League spots now and with several “winnable” games coming up in December accompanied by their improved form and the returning Lucas Liverpool can look to a positive end of a long 2012.
