Monday 9 December 2013

Liverpool 4 - 1 West Ham United

07/12/2013
15:00
Anfield

Liverpool vs West Ham United
 Goalscorers: 
1-0 Guy Demel OG 42'
2-0 Mamadou Sakho 47'
2-1 Martin Skrtel OG 66'
3-1 Luis Suarez 81'
4-1 Joey O'Brien OG 84'

 Analysis 
Maybe next year?

On the day when Newcastle United managed to end a 40 year plus barren run at Old Trafford, West Ham managed to extend our winless run in the North West to 51 years.

The loss isn't the worst part though, the frustrating thing is that the result was never really in doubt. We seem to go to places like Anfield or Old Trafford expecting to be beaten, and then we just get beaten, rather than having a real fist at it.

I'm not going to write as much as I usually do, because there isn't much to say. 

We defended pretty well for 40 minutes, then an unfortunate own goal undid us. But the reality is that it was just a matter of time before Liverpool broke us down, because we showed them far too much respect on the ball.

Liverpool had so much time on the ball to create.

In fact, all 10 of their starting outfield players managed to create chances. In total, they created 31 - Jordan Henderson, Steven Gerrard and Philippe Coutinho created 15 between them.

The image below shows the chances they created from open play (that's right, there were more from set pieces!). There were plenty of chances created from in and around the box, but the circle I've highlighted below is the real concern. There were 7 chances created from the edge of the penalty area, where the Liverpool attackers should've been under the most pressure from our midfield and defence.

If you give a team of that quality the time and opportunity to create multiple chances, you will concede, and you will lose.


The other thing I wanted to highlight, was our defensive struggle.

One of our real strengths under Sam Allardyce has been our dogged, gritty determination, and ability to make life difficult for the opposition. But we did the opposite on Saturday.

Not only did we continually give the ball away (we had a pass completion rate of just 69% throughout the game), but we struggled to win it back.

The image below shows our attempted tackles.

We managed a success rate of just 52%, with 13 attempted tackles resulting in failure. And if you look at the map, you'll see that a large amount of these were in our defensive third.


All in all, a pretty poor performance, perfectly summed up by our captain and leader's decision to clatter into Jordan Henderson to earn a three match suspension.

Frustrating doesn't do it justice.

 General Play 
4-2-3-1 Formation 4-2-3-1
(35) Simon Mignolet - Jussi Jääskeläinen (-13)
(25) Glen Johnson - Guy Demel (-7)
(40) Martin Skrtel - James Collins (-3)
(97) Mamadou Sakho - James Tomkins (9)
(13) Jon Flanagan - George McCartney (-15)
(56) Steven Gerrard - Mark Noble (-3)
(31) Joe Allen - Mohamed Diamé (22)
(32) Jordan Henderson - Stewart Downing (6)
(39) Philippe Coutinho - Kevin Nolan (-59)
(10) Raheem Sterling - Matt Jarvis (0)
(76) Luis Suarez - Modibo Maïga (-10)

(27) Lucas Leiva - Joe Cole (-15)
(10) Victor Moses - Joey O'Brien (-13)
(6) Martin Kelly - Matthew Taylor (-3)

Best Performance
(97) Mamadou Sakho - Mohamed Diamé (22)

Worst Performance
(6) Martin Kelly - Kevin Nolan (-59)

62% Possession 38%

528 Passes Attempted 279
Joe Allen 72 Most Attempted 44 Mark Noble

86% Passing Accuracy 69%
81% In Opp. Half 56%
Mamadou Sakho 97% Best Accuracy (min. 15 passes) 81% Kevin Nolan

51 Long Balls 62
Steven Gerrard 7 Most Long Balls (excl. GK) 8 James Collins

Most Frequent Pass Combination
Allen to Coutinho 14 - 7 McCartney to Noble

 19 Aerial Duels Won 26 
 42% Success 58% 
Martin Skrtel 11 Most Won 8 Modibo Maïga

Philippe Coutinho 95 Most Touches 57 Mark Noble

 Offensive Play 
32 Attempts on Goal 8
8 On Target 1
11 Off Target 2
13 Blocked 5
14 From Outside the Box 3
Luis Suarez 9 Most Shots 3 Modibo Maïga

31 Key Passes 5
Steven Gerrard 5 Most Key Passes 2 Mohamed Diamé

28 Crosses 18
Raheem Sterling 6 Most Attempted 6 Stewart Downing

6 Successful Crosses 5
21% Success 28%
Steven Gerrard 2 Most Successful 2 Stewart Downing

 Defensive Play 
18 Tackles Attempted 27
14 Successful Tackles 14
78% Success 52%
Philippe Coutinho 3 Most Tackles 5 James Collins

40 Clearances 38
Martin Skrtel 16 Most Clearances 8 James Collins

14 Interceptions 12
Mamdou Sakho 3 Most Interceptions 3 Mohamed Diamé

5 Shot Blocks 13
Mamadou Sakho 2 Most Shot Blocks 5 James Collins

 Discipline 
 9 Fouls 12 
4 Most Fouls 4

0 Yellow Cards 3
Liverpool:  n/a   
West Ham United:  Joe Cole,  Guy Demel,  James Collins 

0 Red Cards 1
Liverpool:  n/a   
West Ham United:  Kevin Nolan   

 Head to Heads 
Simon Mignolet vs Jussi Jääskeläinen
1 Goals Conceded 4
1 Saves 6
  
2 Claims 1
2 Successful Claims 1
100% Success 100%

24 Total Passes 18
17 Accurate Passes 5
71% Success 28%

13 Long Balls 17
54% % 94%

4 Throw Outs 6
2 Kick from Hand 6

0 Errors Leading to Shot 0
0 Errors Leading to Goal 0

Martin Skrtel 6 Most Passed To 5 Modibo Maïga
Martin Skrtel 5 Most Passes From 1 James Tomkins

Martin Skrtel vs James Collins
12 Aerial Duels 1
6 Duels Won 1
50% Success 100%
  
3 Tackles Attempted 5
2 Tackles Completed 2
67% Success 40%
  
13 Clearances 8
3 Interceptions 1
2 Blocks 5
0 6yrd Blocks 0
  
0 Errors Leading to Shot 0
0 Errors Leading to Goal 0
  
38 Passes Attempted 19
34 Successful 14
89% Success 74%
  
0 Crosses Attempted 1
0 Successful 0
0% Success 0%
  
1 Chances Created 0
  
0 Attempts on Goal 1
0 On Target 0
0 Goals 0
  
Joe Allen 8 Most Passed To 4 Guy Demel
Simon Mignolet 6 Most Passes From 4 James Tomkins

Steven Gerrard vs Kevin Nolan
44 Passes Attempted 27
37 Successful 22
84% Success 81%
  
5 Key Passes 0
1 Assists 0
  
2 Attempts on Goal 0
0 On Target 0
0 Goals 0
  
1 Tackles Attempted 3
1 Tackles Completed 1
100% Success 33%
  
3 Clearances 3
1 Interceptions 2
0 Blocks 1
0 6yrd Blocks 0
  
0 Errors Leading to Shot 0
0 Errors Leading to Goal 0
  
Luis Suarez 7 Most Passed To 6 Mohamed Diamé
Joe Allen 7 Most Passes From 5 Modibo Maïga

Luis Suarez vs Modibo Maïga
9 Attempts on Goal 3
4 On Target 1
1 Goals 0
  
3 Key Passes 0
0 Assists 0
  
39 Passes Attempted 19
29 Successful 13
74% Success 68%
  
0 Aerial Duels 26
0 Duels Won 8
0% Success 31%
  
7 Philippe Coutinho Most Passed To 5 Kevin Nolan
13 Philippe Coutinho Most Passes From 5 Jussi Jääskeläinen

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