It was a disappointing afternoon all round for Liverpool as we were outplayed all over the pitch by West Ham, who comfortably condemned us to our first defeat of the season.
Manuel Lanzini, Mark Noble and Diafra Sakho scored the goals, while Philippe Coutinho was sent off for two yellow cards – the second of which all but ended our chances of coming back into the game.
The result leaves manager Brendan Rodgers with a lot to think about heading into the international break, with our next game not until September 12. Let’s hope we play a lot better at Old Trafford next time out!
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Here are five things we learned from today’s game:
5) We must give Benteke more support
Two goals from four games. Our lack of proficiency in front of goal has gone relatively unnoticed thus far, mainly due to the fact that the results have still been strong, but after today’s showing we can’t wait until Daniel Sturridge is fit and firing. When he is, he needs to be up alongside Benteke, who has been far too isolated thus far. He’s worked hard in that lone striker role and his movement is decent but he just isn’t going to win games by himself. Sturridge needs to be there to feed off his knock downs, something the midfield players just didn’t do today.
4) Joe Gomez is not a natural left-back
Gomez is a centre-back by trade. He’s even been employed as a right-back in the past. But he’s not a left-back. He’s certainly not an attacking full-back who’s going to fly up and down the line in the same way that Clyne does. So far, the youngster’s excellence has hidden our need for a natural left-back, a position which we have struggled to fill since the departure of John Arne Riise! Rodgers doesn’t trust Alberto Moreno or Jose Enirque and that has plunged the teenager into the firing line. He’s done wonderfully well so far but today his weaknesses were exposed.
3) Coutinho and Firmino are not wide players
The 4-3-3 formation was all wrong today. Philippe Coutinho and Roberto Firmino are not wide players, they both want to be in that number ten role, and that had them falling over each other more than anything today as they continually drifted inside. We relied on our full-backs for the width and that’s something Gomez really struggled with. There’s a worrying lack of natural wide players in our squad, with Jordon Ibe arguably our only real option in that position. The 4-2-3-1 would have been a better formation to use today in a game we should have dominated.
2) Centre-backs still a big issue
It was the stuff of nightmares from Lovren and Skrtel today, evoking memories of the very worst performances we put in last season. The Croatian in particular was all over the place at times. Twice he bizarrely wandered out of defender with the ball at his feet and tried to take on his man. Twice he lost the ball and on the second such occasion it cost us a goal, with Noble’s strike mid-way through the first-half giving us a mountain to climb. The third goal was equally comedic, albeit while we were chasing the game, as we allowed Sakho to breeze through.
1) We have a real problem chasing games
How many times have Liverpool come from behind to win under Brendan Rodgers? It’s a question that made us think today when we saw it being banded about on Twitter. It’s a fair point. Today, we got it all wrong after falling behind early. Our play became too frantic and there was a lack of clear direction as we regularly tried launching long balls up to Benteke, who had no one around him to pick up the ball even if he did win it. The passing in midfield was far too slow, with only James Milner looking to make something happen, and the formation change – introducing a back three – was a bizarre idea which made the players look even more confused.
