Liverpool 4, West Ham 1: When You Know You’re Good

Dominant, yet un-bothered, a Liverpool full confidence strolled into second place.

There’s a fine line between lackadaisical and confident. On the flip side is anxiety and neurosis. As people who, of their free will have chosen to support Liverpool FC, it is the latter two mental states that have been the most familiar in the years since the solidity of the Rafa Benitez era came to a close. Woy, the aging King, the Outstanding Brendan Rodgers, the turbulent times since the 2008-9 title challenge have been typified by the unease that creeps into the mind of every Red fan whenever things are going too well.

The atmosphere in the squad and throughout the grounds as Liverpool welcomed David Moyes’ West Ham to Anfield was hard to describe. Laidback but not casual; relaxed but not careless. Indeed, the crowd seemed to be more interested in Patrice Evra’s return to the stadium as a starter for the Hammers, impressively booing the ex-Man United full back for the full 90 minutes (although a brief cameo of the Luis Suarez song insinuated slightly more resentful reasons for the persistence).

The actual game was the football equivalent of the ballyhooed, made for TV matchup between Floyd Mayweather and Connor McGregor last year in which the undefeated boxing champ gamely traded blows with the fish-out-of-water MMA star for entertainment purposes, knowing all the while that the result was his to decide.

Out of the gate, a slide rule pass from James Milner to Roberto Firmino found Mohamed Salah inside the box, with the on-fire winger finding the wrong side of the post inside three minutes. The crowd moaned but there weren’t any exasperated throwing up of the hands from the Egyptian. He, as everyone else in the stadium there knew that would only be the first of many, many such chances.

Languid is great word to describe it. Displaying a Messi-like economy of movement, Salah was decidedly, almost purposefully invisible except for the occasions he popped up to scare the living daylights out of the West Ham defense and fire on goal.

That it was Emre Can who opened the scoring on a corner, rising above Evra to head home the opener on 29 minutes, was the only surprise. Salah with his own header and Can again on the break had solid chances to add to the 1-0 lead before half time but came up just short. Even so, a few body blows were absorbed as the excellent Marko Arnautović gave Loris Karius a workout with several class efforts on goal and Moyes would’ve gone into the break feeling confident there was something to be had from the game.

Unfortunately for the ex-Everton/ex-United manager, Jürgen Klopp’s squad came back out of the tunnel weary of the games. The front three of Salah, Firmino and Sadio Mané, in that order, each took turns punching in their perfunctory goals. First, Salah was the beneficiary of a mazy run by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain that had the combination of persistence, scrappiness, bull-headed dribbling and luck that typifies much of the Englishman’s game. Then Firmino got on the end of one of Can’s long balls over the top the German had been trying all match to make it 3-0. At this point we’re twelve minutes into the second half.

The Ox, along with Can and Milner absolutely bossed the game during this period, and in truth, the whole match as each played to their strengths. The Arsenal castoff came alive engineered chance after chance, particularly in the second half, taking the advanced engine room role to hear. Utility man Milner was all over the park, touching the ball more than anyone in the side, completing 89% of his passes, popping up at the right moment to make the timely intervention, always playing the right ball at the right time, making himself available when his team was caught in possession and generally making a case to be named in the first choice midfield. Can’s goal and assist to go along with a combative showing had a good shout for the man of the match award. The front three may have gotten the plaudits as the tip of the spear, but it was complete performance by the midfield that provided the thrust.

Nevertheless, the Londoners still gave it a go, rallied on by Arnautovic (what a player), and briefly clawed their way back into the match. Probably the only player in the park capable of out-muscling Can in Cheikhou Kouyaté, brushed the German off the ball before finding sub Mikhail Antonio on the break to make it 3-1 and hope briefly returned for the visitors, since, as the cliché goes, “the next goal was crucial.” Encouraged, Arnautovic was the one to lead the press, urging his teammates to push up on the Liverpool back line (as an aside, the mobile ex-Stoke City center forward has seven goals and three assists for West Ham in 20 league matches. He’s very good. And probably available. #jussayin).

However, the Reds mercifully killed off that hope on 77 minutes, playing out from the high press in as casual of a lightning quick attack as you can muster, covering the length of the pitch in seconds and capped off by a Mané tap-in at the end of an Andy Robertson cross.

And that was that. 100 goals for the season, 2^nd in the table, unbeaten in 23 of the last 25 matches and on the verge of the Champions League quarterfinals. Languid, not lax.

Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com