James Pearce is confident that Liverpool can hurt West Ham on the counterattack in tonight’s Premier League clash at London Stadium.
The Reds are in the capital hoping to make it three wins in a row and close to within six points of Manchester United in fourth.
However, their uptick in form this month is replicated by the Irons, who are unbeaten in five matches and have picked up 10 points from the last 15 available in the league to ease their relegation worries.
Also, David Moyes’ side won this fixture last season, but Pearce has explained one way as to how Liverpool could punish the home side tonight.
In a matchday Q&A for The Athletic, he wrote: “I’m not sure what to expect tonight! On the one hand I’m confident because our attackers have found some form of late and I fancy Liverpool to do some damage on the counter, Salah especially.”
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The journalist is quite right to highlight the counterattacking threat the Reds can pose, with several of their previous visits to the London Stadium seeing that in evidence.
In the 4-1 win in November 2017, a West Ham corner was headed clear, with Sadio Mane and Mo Salah breaking swiftly in a move which saw the Egyptian calmly roll the ball to the net (Liverpool FC on Facebook).
When Klopp’s team won 2-0 away to the Hammers in January 2020, one of their goals stemmed from an Irons corner again, with Virgil van Dijk winning the initial header and our number 11 this time turning provider for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to finish (Sky Sports Premier League).
An astonishing counterattack hat-trick in this fixture was completed a year later, when Andy Robertson’s header to clear from a corner begun a move which saw Trent Alexander-Arnold play the most sublime diagonal pass to Xherdan Shaqiri.
The Swiss winger put in an equally brilliant first-time lofted ball to Salah, who coolly dinked it into the far corner of the net on an evening when Liverpool triumphed 3-1 (Sky Sports Premier League).
Of course, what happens in games from two or more years ago isn’t a guaranteed indicator of what’ll transpire tonight, but given the Reds’ happy habit of punishing West Ham on the counter, it’s no wonder Pearce has highlighted that as a possible weapon to unleash once again on the east Londoners.
Not with the love child (Jones) in we won’t how he’s better than Elliott or or Millie or even worse alcantara I don’t sodding know.