The chaos Liverpool used to operate
on was completely absent against West Ham and other recent opponents.
In
February 2019, Liverpool assistant manager Pep Lijnders labeled Fabinho
Liverpool's 'lighthouse' inside the 'organized chaos' of the team around him.
Just over a year later at the London Stadium tonight, the Brazilian's absence
from the Reds' lineup made no difference whatsoever, as Liverpool eschewed
their old cavalier attitude and instead crushed West Ham United with the
patient and frankly boring form of football that they have become masters of
throughout January. This month, that 'organized chaos' has simply been left
behind. You can book online Premier League Tickets from our website, around
the world to enjoy its exciting performances.
Fabinho
Fabinho was signed to provide
stability in a side that had previously harnessed a rambunctious and reckless
form of football to finish fourth in the Premier League and reach the Champions
League final in Kyiv, blowing opponents like Arsenal, Manchester City, and AS
Roma away in bombastic fifteen-to-thirty minute spells which were too much for
rivals to recover from. Jürgen Klopp, his coaching staff and data analysts had
decided that, as deliriously fun as that chaos was for supporters during
matches, it was not the platform on which to build a sustainable winning
machine.
In all of their Premier League fixtures this
month, against Sheffield United, Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester United, Wolves,
and now West Ham, the Reds have operated at a pedestrian pace for vast periods
and created extremely few genuine goal-scoring opportunities. But that's not
because they have struggled in any of those games; it's because they have
simply chosen to do so.
During all of those matches, the Reds
did not string together move after a move of sharp passing and quick feet,
instead of being too content work possession in the opposition half and wait
until an opening appeared. Klopp and his players know that matching Liverpool's
intensity and disrupting their skill on the ball for 90 minutes is nigh on impossible
for any opponent in this league, and so patience, and waiting for the perfect
moment to strike, have become the modus operandi.
Virgil van Dijk
Liverpool had to constantly reset their
positions with Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez re-starting play from just inside
their half, unchallenged, as the Hammers refused to break rank to press the
ball high up the pitch.
The easy thing to do in that
situation is to attempt complex passes and try long shots to bypass the claret
wall. Instead, the Reds kept their heads, kept the ball, and maintained the
belief that their technical quality in possession would eventually be enough to
force a chance or an opposition mistake.
At the end that belief led to the
opener, as Issa Diop panicked in the penalty area and Mohamed Salah punished
the error from the penalty, after what in reality was a decent move from
Liverpool that nothing like their attacking play at its best.
The second, though coming at the end
of a faster-attacking move, was still founded in West Ham's ineptitude before
the match's one true moment of quality saw Salah slip Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain
through on goal.
This is not to suggest that Liverpool
are no longer capable of playing stunningly attractive football, of course. The
incredible, pristine performance away at Leicester City at the end of December
was arguably the best of any Reds side in Premier League history.
But across January, a month in which
Liverpool have always struggled to put consistent points on the board under
Klopp, they have mastered the art of being very boring indeed to carry their
momentum through. Your friends, family, and colleagues might be boring you
stiff talking about dry January, but the truth is that Liverpool has had the
driest month of them all.
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