In an action-packed day of Premier League fixtures, two red
cards and a 3-0 away defeat for a side that had previously conceded no goals
this season was fairly run of the mill. Certainly there was nothing more than
average about the Liverpool performance; impotence going forward coupled with
defensive ineptitude, the now familiar recipe seen for much of last season,
once again served up a hugely disappointing result. An admittedly well-drilled
West Ham side took full advantage of our mediocre (at best) play, choosing
their moments to get forward and punish our vulnerable back line.
The only real positive to be taken from the defeat is that
it clearly demonstrated the two areas of weakness that need addressing.
Unfortunately these two areas happen to be the two fundamental parts of
football: defence and attack! However, neither our front nor back lines looked
beyond repair. The defence would be improved immediately by the removal of
Lovren and installation of Sakho – the Croatian did us a favour by making his
error for the second goal glaringly obvious, meaning even Rodgers must surely
realise it’s time to give Sakho a chance. Seeing as the main (largely
misdirected) criticism of the Frenchman is that he’s clumsy on the ball, it’s impossible
to justify playing Lovren ahead of him: he’s hardly Maradona himself. Skrtel,
too, looked pretty woeful; while he made no errors leading directly to goals,
his half-hearted headed clearance certainly didn’t help matters for the
visitors’ opener. Sadly, though, he appears to be pretty much an ever-present
in the team, and unless Rodgers goes it seems unlikely that Gomez or perhaps
Ilori will be given a chance in Skrtel’s stead. In terms of the attack, the
problem is the same as it was last season – we simply aren’t creating enough
chances. If anything the arrival of Benteke has exacerbated that problem; when
short of ideas and options we are now simply hoofing it up to the Belgian, whose
knock-downs are not being picked up by anyone in a red shirt. At least last
season we would persist with passes on the edge of the opponent’s box and
occasionally manage to carve an opening – unless Rodgers changes the way his
team are trying to utilise Benteke, it’s hard to see where any chances will
come from against deep-sitting teams this campaign.
Hopefully Brendan either addresses this issue or gets
replaced, but in the short term the only goals we look like getting are from
pieces of individual inspiration. Coutinho scored a screamer against Stoke in
the first game and, promisingly, Firmino came extremely close against the
Hammers. He jinked past two with a lovely piece of skill before firing towards
It must also be remembered that, prior to this game, no
damage had really been done. We took maximum points from the first two and
managed to leave the Emirates with a draw – by any standards, this was a solid
start. Of course performance is important, but the fact that we picked up
points despite poor play in the first three games means that we have a degree
of leeway. We remain three points clear of the champions and level on points
with Arsenal, so it’s hardly like we’re being left behind. If it takes a few
more games to get into our stride then so be it – it’s only if we’re still
putting in performances like this come November sort of time when we’ve really
got a problem.
On the whole, then, this match should not necessarily be
taken as disastrous. Ignoring the worrying signs from the match would be
ridiculous, but equally there is simply nothing to be gained from reading too
much into one game. There are definitely things to work on and lessons that
Rodgers needs to learn quickly, both for the sake of the club and his job, but
until we see clear signs that this performance and result was the rule rather
than the exception then there is no need to panic. Let’s all just calm down!
-James Martin
Follow me on Twitter @JamesMartin013
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