Opinion – FootballFanatic

Sloppy, Poor: Liverpool end unbeaten streak at London Stadium

Disclaimer: I support Liverpool so my takes could be too reactionary or not make sense to neutrals/rival fans.

Liverpool travelled to the London Stadium as they were to play in-form West Ham, who were sitting fourth in the table. In an end-to-end game, West Ham emerged as 3-2 winners in what was a lackluster display from Jurgen Klopp’s men as it ended a 25-game unbeaten streak in all competitions. Here are some talking points from the match:

Category	West Ham	Liverpool
Goals	3	2
Shots (on target)	7 (3)	16 (5)
Possession	30%	70%
Scorers	Alisson 4′ (OG) Fornals 67′ Zouma 74′	Alexander Arnold 41′ Origi 83′

Statistics in the match. Looked like Liverpool dominated but WHU executed their gameplan perfectly

Where was the midfield?

This has been a problem for Liverpool all season. With Klopp tweaking the system, the Right Centre Mid contributes to the attack as Trent and Salah form a triangle with Jordan Henderson in this case. However, with Henderson contributing to the attack, he is unable to track back to support a free right-flank when teams hit Liverpool on the counter attack, with Matip having to deal in 2 vs 1 situations as van Dijk is occupied with the left hand side. It felt like there was a midfield hole in defensive terms as Fabinho was the only player who could provide midfield stability. This wasn’t in just the West Ham game. Brentford and Brighton were able to break down Liverpool’s midfield with little difficulty. Something Klopp has to work on in the international break, and FSG are also partly to blame in not replace Wijnaldum who provided defensive stability.

Set-pieces, Lack of heart and the Left-Back debate

2 of West Ham’s goals were from corners.

The first goal was debatable, as it was given as an Alisson Own Goal despite elbowing on the hand from Ogbonna, who eventually went out injured.

However, Zouma is unmarked on the second goal, and Alisson is once again pre-occupied with three burly players surrounding him, and the centre-backs don’t do much of it. Corners were exposed and West Ham took the best opportunities from them.

Zouma heads in West Ham’s third

From what I saw of the match, West Ham in the second half had so much more spirit, energy, and passion compared to Liverpool. One West Ham player could outmuscle three Liverpool Players.

Lastly, the curious case of Andrew Robertson and the calls for him to be dropped to the bench as a starting Left-Back. It is interesting, as in the past few games Robertson has only made overlapping runs and his crosses, at times, were unable to beat the first man.

Kostas Tsimikas is breathing down his neck and considering Liverpool have a clean sheet in all the games he’s played in, I’m not saying Liverpool will have clean sheets in every game he plays, but he is better offensively and on-par with Robertson defensively.

With Robertson playing all 38 games last season, as well as international breaks and the EUROs, he’s been run into the ground with all that sprinting and needs a 4 to 5 game rest at minimum until he feels energetic again.

The Issue with Liverpool and Adrian

Picture the scenes. Aston Villa score 7 against the reigning Champions, Liverpool. Salah might have scored a brace but that won’t stop the banter Liverpool fans and Liverpool players are getting.

Jack Grealish and His teammates celebrate as Liverpool get spanked by Villa.

The thing that makes this result more humiliating is that just minutes before the game, Man United were humiliated by Jose Mourinho’s Tottenham 6-1, including braces by Kane and Son, and a red card for leading striker Anthony Martial.

Yet, Liverpool caught all the headlines while the United game remained a sub-topic and faded into darkness as Pundits and Football Fans alike mocked and criticized Liverpool’s notorious performance as reigning Champions.

In all of this chaos, where Liverpool fans were heartbroken, three players were made scapegoats- Roberto Firmino (For his sudden drop in form over the past two seasons), Joe Gomez (For Horrendous Defending), but the man who took the limelight was 2nd choice goalkeeper Adrian.

Overrated When Signed

Simon Mingolet was definitely not the best goalkeeper, conceding many goals before he was dropped to the bench after Loris Karius earned Jurgen Klopp’s trust as the number 1 choice.

Karius went on Loan to Besiktas and is now on loan at Union Berlin after having a calamitous game in the UCL Final against Real Madrid where he made 2 mistakes.

Mingolet stayed on the bench and barely played a game for Liverpool as Alisson proved to be worth his 75 million pound price tag, helping Liverpool to win the Champions League.

He left for Club Brugge and Adrian was signed. He immediately had his debut in Matchday 1 against Norwich when Alisson had a calf injury after 39 minutes of play.

He had a fairly decent game, and Teemu Pukki scored a consolation but Liverpool fans were worried for his risky passing and being poor at keeping the ball at his feet, unlike Alisson, who was top-notch at his feet.

Fears were highlighted when he lost the ball at his feet just the following week, at Southampton.

He did save Tammy Abraham’s penalty improving his reputation as that save allowed Liverpool the win the Super Cup.

It went downhill since. A mistake against Atletico led to Liverpool’s Champions League exit, and he had made a mistake the previous week after their 2-0 loss to Chelsea in the FA Cup.

He now conceded 7 to a high-flying Villa side. Having the worst passing of any goalkeeper in the league at 64%, it summarizes the issue of Liverpool’s second shot-stopper.