West Ham 2 Liverpool 0: West Ham damage Liverpool's European dreams

In the cold light of day and after 3 months in charge Jurgen Klopp if he didn’t already realise it now knows the challenge ahead of him.

Whereas as at Dortmond he built a side of work class talent this side possesses only two individuals who could be described as such.  Coutinho is Liverpool’s spark of creativity who is experiencing a down turn and the other Sturridge, the chronically injured striker, who in his absence holds Liverpool’s destiny in his delicate hamstrings.

Liverpool struggled against a team with electric pace and power on the break.  Crystal Palace, Watford, to a lesser extent Newcastle and certainly today at West Ham we could not live with the pace and power of Valencia and Antonia and the brilliance of Lanzini.

West Ham showed Benteke, Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp just how to service a big striker.

Yes we dominated possession as we so often do, but apart from Lucas header which was kicked of the line we very rarely threatened.

West Ham were streets ahead, potent where it mattered and that the first goal was controversial from the point of Antonia’s foul on Moreno, the fact that the same player nodded the ball in the net almost in our 6 yard box speaks volumes with the lack of cover for Moreno and the poor defending against the goal scorer as he towered over Clyne.

The time given to West Ham’s front players was insane.

Lazini rasping drive swerved away from Mignolet and against the post with very little pressure on the Argentinian.  Henderson’s running power was missed as we lacked support upfront attack and cover in front of defence.  As conscientious a holding midfielder as Lucas is he lacks  dynamism and without a powerhouse midfielder ahead of him he becomes a sitting duck on the counter-attack.

Make no mistake Benteke was poor, very poor.  But the service to him was bordering on the criminal.   The Belgian striker doesn’t have the brilliance of Sturridge of the movement of Origi or even Ings, but of his type he’s as good as it gets and unless we realise that soon without Origi for the next few weeks and Ings for the rest of the season, either Klopp will grasp the nettle and change things or risk Daniel Sturridge which no one wants.

The brilliance of Andy Carroll’s goal was reminiscent of his first goal for Liverpool at Anfield against Man City.  It was the type of goal we wanted down the other end and was nothing more than West Ham deserved.

Emre Can clipped the bar with a quality strike and often appeared the only Liverpool midfielder capable of putting up a physical barrier against the surging West Ham wave on the break.

A few weeks ago Troy Deeney and Odion Ighalo brutalised the Liverpool defence and this was no different.  Sakho was literally mown down by Carroll and Clyne with very little protection in the absence of Henderson and Milner had his worst game in a Liverpool shirt, also provided very little in attack.

Firmino, Ibe and Coutinho were time and again crowded out and given almost no time on the ball.

It was disappointing that there appeared to be no back-up plan and as such West Ham were the only team who looked capable of scoring and Liverpool had Mignolet to thank for keeping the score respectable.

But, to be fair to Jurgen this is not his team and he needs to work his magic.

Man of the match:  Emre Can – Needs help in the engine room as without Henderson we lack the legs in the midfield and he is often covering with Lucas playing in his own zone.

Critical eye: Disappointing that either Teixiera or Sinclair was not on the bench as Liverpool were poor in the extreme with no striking option to turn too.

Having two or three no 10s on the pitch is questionable if we are suddenly expecting Benkeke to suddenly morph into Sergio Aguero.

It’s worrying that we are losing continually to counter-attacking sides and have been doing since last season.  Unable to cope with pace and power this cannot be allowed to continue and must be remedied soon.

The lack of goals from the team is highlighted even more so when Benteke fails to score and Joe Allen’s headed miss in the closing stages only emphasised his lack of prowess in front of goal.

Teams:

West Ham: 13 Adrian, 5 James Tomkins, 19 James Collins, 21 Angelo Ogbonna, 3 Aaron Cresswell, 30. Michail Antonio (85 mins – Jenkinson), 8 Cheikhou Kouyate, 16 Mark Noble, 28. Manuel Lanzini (38 mins – Obiang), 9 Andy Carroll, 11. Enner Valencia (63 mins – Payet)

Subs: 1 Darren Randolph, 4 Alex Song, 10 Mauro Zarate, 12 Carl Jenkinson, 14 Pedro Obiang, 26 Nikica Jelavic, 27 Dimitri Payet

Liverpool: 22 Simon Mignolet, 2 Nathanial Clyne, 6 Dejan Lovren, 17 Mamadou Sakho (81 mins Joe Allen), 18 Alberto Moreno (60 mins – Brad Smith), 23 Emre Can, 21 Lucas Leiva, 33 Jordon Ibe, 11 Roberto Firmino ( 60 mins – Adam Lallana), 10 Philippe Coutinho, 9 Christian Benteke

Subs: 4 Kolo Toure, 20 Adam Lallana, 24 Joe Allen, 32. Cameron Brannagan, 34 Adam Bogdan, 44 Brad Smith, 56 Conor Randall

Referee: Robert Madley

Attendance: 34,977