Liverpool 4-0 West Ham: Match Review

It was an eye-opening day at Anfield for a hopeful West Ham side as the Hammers start their season with a disastrous 4-0 loss to Liverpool. Despite new players and a new manager, the storyline seemed to mirror that of last season’s West Ham team.

A performance that quickly is deflating the elation following West Ham’s tremendous offseason, this opening day 4-0 loss at Liverpool is concerning for West Ham’s start of the 2018/19 season. Something visible from the start was the lack of midfield presence in the formation selected by Pellegrini.

The engineer Pellegrini, set up in a 4-1-4-1 formation, one he hadn’t used in any preseason competitions. As well, and predictably so, West Ham had five team debuts for their new recruits:

The players selected mirrored preseason lineups where West Ham played with a 4-2-3-1 formation, sitting two holding midfielders in front of the back four with three attacking midfielders. Instead, the four wide midfielders saw Antonio and Anderson stymied as they were clearly not forward enough throughout the match.

The decision to play with this formation was a tactical move by Pellegrini that was supposed to link up with his defensive backline offside trapping the front three of Liverpool. West Ham did catch Liverpool offside five times in this match, however, the lack of comfort  West Ham had in using defensive tactics was apparent – let me explain.

For the last three seasons, West Ham has not had direction on their defensive backline. Slaven Bilic, a former defender himself seemed to have one game plan per match and stuck to it religiously in victory or defeat. Bilic relied on his players to simply play their positions and believed the result would reflect this.

David Moyes focused on fitness, drilling the players in training however when it came to match performances Moyes simply put out five defenders with 1-2 holding midfielders in front of them. He narrowed his team and clogged up the defensive zone in hopes of a draw.

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Pellegrini, who notably plays attacking football, has implemented offside trapping as was evident in today’s game. This was a tactic that would allow West Ham to not commit as many players back while holding up the Liverpool attack. On the first three goals, West Ham tried to keep their line tight but got caught ball watching when secondary play developed and eventually failed in this new (to them) tactic.

There wasn’t much positive for West Ham in today’s match, but a few debutants did have promising performances. Keeper Lukasz Fabianski made four saves, some world-class, in his first game for West Ham. While “the General” Fabian Balbuena looked solid at centreback, and even put one of two shots on target for West Ham in the match.

Liverpool thrived in the middle of the pitch today, exposing Mark Noble and Declan Rice at will while isolating Jack Wilshere who looked fine when he had the ball. Naby Keita, the new central midfielder for Liverpool, was next level in his Liverpool debut as he bossed the midfield all match long.

As well, Liverpool has such a potent attack that the pressure they put on West Ham’s back line was so unrelenting that it eventually forced errors through. Daniel Sturridge scored the fourth and final goal for Liverpool immediately after getting subbed on for his first touch of the season. With Mane picking up two and Salah one, Liverpool showed off why they are a legitimate threat to Manchester City’s title defense this season.

With playing such an elite team it is hard to judge West Ham on this performance alone. For the next match at home with Bournemouth visiting there should be a clearer image of what this team truly is. The Irons go again next week, looking to get their season appropriately underway.