Liverpool v West Ham

Liverpool v West Ham; Saturday 20 November 2010

The crowd were in a pensive mood before the match. Would Hodgson instil some pace and width in the side with Gerrard now missing for a month and with Lucas serving a one game suspension would Meireles finally get a chance in his more accustomed position in the centre? We got one wish at least.

Meireles moved to the centre to play alongside the much maligned Poulsen, with Kuyt and Rodriguez providing the width and Ngog the support for Torres.  Glen Johnson in his first game back since the very vocal and public criticism from Roy Hodgson slotted back into the right-back position with Skertel, Carragher and Konchesky making up the back-line in front of Reina.

Liverpool started the game in high tempo, with Meireles and Poulsen controlling the midfield and in the absence of West Ham’s midfield general Scott Parker, West Ham did not pose any significant problems in squeezing the midfield areas.  Glen Johnson, was involved in most of Liverpool’s best moves, being prominent, probing intelligently and it was he who scored the first goal, driving home a ball which broke to him in the area.  Poulsen had his best game since his arrival, constantly using the time given to him by the West Ham midfield to keep the game flowing and often stepping in with well time interceptions.

Dirk Kuyt, Liverpool’s trusty deputy penalty-taker was on hand to slot home the penalty after Gabbidon had handled.  This was followed by a gloriously taken glancing header by Maxi Rodriguez, after Paul Konchesky got down the line to deliver a superb whipped in cross to take Liverpool in the break three-nil up.

West Ham enjoyed far more possession in the second-half, partly because Liverpool sat back on their laurels and partly because Avram Grant may have given them the kind of half-time salvo which stoked them into putting some pride into their performance, not that they were a lot better quality wise.

Disappointingly, Hodgson didn’t try to stop the Liverpool malaise in the second-half as a bigger score was there for taking, especially as another two goals would have taken us above Stoke with West Ham not providing an attempt of any note on Reina’s goal.  With this in mind an earlier introduction of Ryan Babel may have been the order of the day.

Liverpool have delivered some pretty tepid performances this season, but they will have to go some to match that delivered by West Ham, who were by far the worst team to have visited Anfield this season.

But three points gained after disappointing performances against Wigan and Stoke, with crucial games against Spurs and Aston Villa approaching will at least instil confidence, especially in Poulsen, Meireles and Johnson (man of the match) and a Liverpool side showing that they can score goals without assists from the dynamic duo of Gerrard and Torres.

KP,  20 November 2010