Uncanny (Diary Entry)
This performance feels uncanny even though it was a worthy victory. We did it, Liverpool win their third Premier League game in a row, savour this one for the set-piece enthusiasts because as it turns out, 4 out of 7 goals were set-piece goals! Scoring 3 goals in 45 minutes sealed the game from a Liverpool perspective, even though West Ham made a fair share of forays into the Liverpool box, they ultimately did not do enough to really hijack the momentum of game from Liverpool’s grasp, Liverpool five, West Ham, 2. As expertly noted by Opta, though the game was one-sided on the scoresheet, it was anything but when we take a look at the underlying numbers. Set-pieces, set-pieces, set-pieces.
Set-pieces and their importance of them are worthy topic in the football sphere at this moment in time, with teams becoming more adept at deploying defensive set-ups that eliminate any attacking advantages — set-plays are helping teams on both sides of the table to score goals during this famine. Liverpool scored 3 goals from set-players in the first 45 minutes, eliminating the necessity of open play chance creation we saw a much more open game, West Ham were forced into exerting themselves on the ball, stealing ball-possession for themselves to score a goal for themselves, this gave the feel of open transition-based spectacle in which both teams afforded the other lots of space to get themselves into the others penalty box. West Ham utilised the pace and guile of Summerville to swoop through the pitch on various occasions, with Malick Diouf making sure he was arriving into crossing positions to make sure he could to his assist tally.
Liverpool touched the ball 19 times in West Ham’s penalty box, whilst conceding 16 touches to West Ham in their own box, looking at ball-possession findings, this trend is more apparent. Liverpool only enjoyed only 51% of the ball, leaving the remaining 49% to the Hammers. The explanation for these findings are obvious, the game-context dramatically shifted with the 3 set-piece goals, Nuno Espírito Santo’s men were forced to take the initiative abruptly, Liverpool though looked open in certain instances, defended in their mid-block diligently.
Compared to previous games, Liverpool have had to work much harder to secure a result than they did in this game. Though there was a consistent stream of attacking threat, they have looked far more threatening in games they’ve dropped points. Take for instance the Burnley game at Anfield, Liverpool performed much more convincingly, offensively and defensively but only left with a draw? Oh yeah, we didn’t score from set-plays back then and that meant Burnley could sit on top of their box and focus on defending and counterattacking. That game left a sour taste in my mouth because that was the game I felt we turned a corner, we have 13 shots in Burnley’s box that day, we only had 7 of those against West Ham, yet we scored 5.
Get Samuel AP’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
Our beloved Mohammed Salah’s goal draught goes on, and whilst his influence has waned, the extent to which it has and to what degree it’s his fault is still a point of contention. On the weekend he initiated quite a few promising situations from the touchline. Upon receiving on his favoured foot far wide, he would almost always make a play infield to access any players who would be within the diagonal/horizontal axis. There was a continuous attempt to play off local combinations to get himself closer to the goal or release a teammate in-behind to attack the space behind the last line. In the situations Salah found himself closer to the West Ham goal he looked to get his trademark shots off, his intent and football brain is still reigns supreme, we’re in the middle of finding to what extent has his physical and technical execution has deteriorated.
The loss of Florian Wirtz cuts deep for Mohammed Salah more than anyone else. I think the ability to release Mohammed Salah in-behind the opposition’s backline has vanished since the departure of Trent Alexander Arnold, who else can find the spaces behind the oppositions with direct passes in the German’s absence? Hugo Ekitike prefers close quarter combinations with the view of running in-behind, whilst Cody Gakpo is better placed finishing moves rather than starting them, viewed through a complimentary lens it becomes easy to see what Mohammed Salah has had to become, a water carrier in many respects — especially in the absence of Florian Wirtz.
This has been a weird diary entry, but that’s now 4 wins in a row across all competitions for Arne Slot’s reds, bar the Nottingham Forest game, the Reds have deserved their fortunes. The follow-up questions from this scenario are obvious, have we finally consolidated our performances? Will we finish strong? I think we will. We’ve suddenly starting scoring set-pieces (everyone blame Aaron Briggs), and the opposition aren’t scoring nearly as many game-state changing goals, the game-state are more favourable from a Liverpool perspective. Sunderland away, Burnley and Leeds at home are games where we’ve looked more convincing in our chance creation methods, the link between combination game (Wirtz, Ekitike) and direct game (Salah, Gakpo, Frimpong) has been found.
What’s good is that, my worries have evolved throughout the reason, I used to be worried about how many transitions we would concede, then I started to worry about if we could create high quality chances, then it was about the amount set-pieces our opponents would score, now it seems that my worries have orientated towards making sure we take advantage of the spells of dominance we’re enjoying in games. I will say though, I don’t anymore uncanny victories like this one, any skin-of-the-teeth games like Nottingham Forest. I want a convincing end to the season and third place.
