West Ham 1, Liverpool 1: First Thoughts

Another disappointing 1-1 draw on a night that, honestly, could have been a lot worse.

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West Ham 1 - 1 Liverpool

Hammers: Antonio 28’
Reds: Mane 22’

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• Pre-match Thought: I’m not typically a “let’s freak-out about the line-up” kind of guy, but tonight’s line-up is a bit disconcerting. Jordan Henderson and Dejan Lovren are out because of slight knocks picked up in training, and Gini Wijnaldum is nursing a sore knee. Of course, James Milner is back from serving his one-match suspension, filling in again for the injured Trent Alexander-Arnold. The upshot of all of this is that the midfield three will be Fabinho (yay), Naby Keita (please come good soon?!), and Adam Lallana (sigh). Anyway, there are three points to be had tonight, so let’s go get them.
• Alisson’s in hot pink, everything is going to be OK. Though, I’m unreasonably upset we didn’t trot out in the grey kits with red socks.
• Lallana wastes no time with his first midfield give-away. And West Ham wastes no time giving Liverpool supporters heart attacks, flashing a shot just wide of the post from a good position inside the box.
• Keita nearly with the assist of the season with a long chip over the top for Salah. However it’s a hair too long, and is cleared by the West Ham keeper.
• It’s early going, but so far Liverpool’s midfield is far too easy to play through, and West Ham have nearly taken advantage several times. Liverpool could already be trailing with better finishing by the home side.
• Firmino creates Liverpool’s first real chance of the night, latching onto a loose ball and driving into the box. However, his weak left-footed effort cannot beat Fabianski.
• GOAL! LALLANA! DID SOMETHING GOOD! It looked like he had Cruyff turned himself into a dead end, but he some how managed to pick out (a VERY offside) Milner, who squared it to Mane in the box, who scored with a signature falling-down-while-shooting left-footed shot.
• Goal. Oof. A smartly taken free kick leaves Liverpool flat-footed. Keita lost his marker, and Alisson could only watch helplessly as Antonio banged his shot in off the post.
• West Ham are killing us with set plays. They nearly scored again, but thankfully Rice’s free header goes just over the cross bar.
• The linesman is having a damned nightmare. Yeah, we benefitted once with the goal, but he also missed a clear corner for us and wrongly called offside on Salah.
• Halftime Thought: It would be really nice if we snapped out of this mid-season malaise. Sure, we’re not helped by approximately 67 injuries in defense and midfield, but we’re not creating much going forward either. Liverpool are lucky to go into the break tied. Hopefully Klopp can sort things out in the second half.
• Giving away a free kick and a corner in the first two minutes was not the way I wanted to open this half.
• An hour gone and Liverpool remain both shaky at the back and completely toothless up top.
• We have a Xherdan Shaqiri sighting! Please do to West Ham United what you did against Manchester United (which just feels weird to write). Lallana makes way.
• West Ham get away with a foul whilst dispossessing Shaq, then nearly score after handling in the box. That would have been just about perfect from this bang-up officiating crew.
• And now Divock Origi is coming on. Please do to West Ham United what you did against Everton. Man this season is weird. Bobby, who has been pretty crap by his lofty standards, makes way.
• As I see Andy Carroll coming on, I take back what I said before about the perfect West Ham winning goal. Surely it has to be on a craptastic day like today.
• Final Whistle Thought: Thank fuck that’s over. This injury crisis has finally gotten to these Reds. Hopefully we can get a few of these players back in the next game or two and kick on.

We’ll be back shortly to take an in-depth look at everything that happened in today’s game with the full recap. Until then, let us know your take on the ups and downs of the match in the comments, and if you haven’t already, join the community on the Liverpool Offside, where we’ll have full coverage and lively in-game discussion for every match this season.

Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com