An hour before kickoff, I half-heartedly checked Twitter for our starting eleven. I was disappointed to see Noble in there, shocked to see Nordtveit, and shrugged my shoulders at the children on the bench. No, I was not looking forward to the match today at all. It’s a feeling I’ve had often over the years. But the premise of the upset this time is different. I’ve never gone into a season with belief that we are over the hump of relegation battles. I was reasonably sure that hopes of another European run were a stretch, fueled by the assumption that last season was simply a pleasant surprise that might be repeated down the road. But I was equally sure that we were solid mid table, and that no run of form could be bad enough with our squad and our intelligent manager to drag us into the mire. And as the icing on the cake, I thought our shiny new home would attract even better players and create an even stronger fortress than Upton Park.
I have felt wrong on all counts, and I expected today to just be an extension of that.
Slaven made some pretty remarkable accusations about his players after the Arsenal massacre. Considering how many West Ham players decided to watch Mane and Lallana combine for Liverpool’s opening goal in the fifth minute instead of….oh, I don’t know…..maybe defend, it’s hard to argue with the man. How much of it comes down to coaching is obviously debatable, but the end result was absurdly predictable.
Liverpool 1
West Ham 0
A few minutes later, West Ham did create a chance when Reid sent a well timed and weighted long pass for Antonio to run on to. If his first touch had been better, getting the ball in front of him as opposed to making him stop his run to control it, he might have leveled the proceedings. Instead his challenged shot was deflected over the bar for a corner.
Speaking of long balls, it wasn’t long ago that the very words “long ball” were treated as if they were a hate crime among Hammers. Yet nobody can deny we have reverted to that recently. I am not saying that to re-write history in order to defend a style of play and a certain manager, but it is interesting that we have failed this season at playing a style we wanted to see and are now dealing with the repercussions.
Last year, when West Ham won a free kick in a dangerous position, we all felt giddy. In the 25th minute, Obiang won a free kick 30 yards out. Jon Champion, who is actually my favorite announcer, likened what has happened to Payet this season with a kind of Harry Potter metaphor. He said our talisman was like a wizard who had lost his powers, but at some point they would return. At least for now, they did, as Payet curled his effort over the wall and into the bottom right hand corner. There’s no question that Karius set himself up too much to his left, giving Payet an ocean of space to aim at. But the ball had so much spin even if Karius had gotten there it might have rolled over his hands and into the net.
Liverpool 1
West Ham 1
A minute later, Liverpool turned on the afterburners in the West Ham penalty area with a series of passes that were too many to follow, and involved too many players with too many touches to count that a second Liverpool goal looked a certainty. But Reid, Cresswell, and even Noble got in the way and cleared the ball from danger.
In the 37th minute, Mane created mayhem in the West Ham box with a bursting run but Reid got in front of his shot. The ball found its way to Firmino, but his low attempt rolled wide.
If bad luck were a skill that could be taught, West Ham would be the poster child for the school that taught it. So when Nordtveit sent his long, hopeful ball into the Liverpool area and it took a deflection off of a Liverpool player, I didn’t flinch. When Matip failed to deal with it and it bounced over his head to Antonio, I didn’t flinch. Even when Antonio flicked it over Karius and towards the goal, I figured it would be cleared off the line. Antonio only scores with his head, right? When it rolled in, I actually pulled my reading glasses down a bit and peered at the TV over the top of them. Silently. Like the shocked aging man I was. It was a picture out of a sitcom.
Liverpool 1
West Ham 2
In the final moments of the first half, West Ham were lucky not once but twice to go into the changing room with the slimmest lead. First, Lallana raced down the right side of the West Ham penalty area and was challenged by Payet. Lallana went down, and to the naked eye it looked like Payet played a pretty large role in that. But Clattenburg did nothing but point to the flag for a corner kick. Henderson found Matip, and his header found the width of the West Ham cross bar and bounced out.
Halftime:
Liverpool 1
West Ham 2
Adrian lost his starting position ostensibly for making too many mistakes. In the opening moments of the second half Randolph showed that West Ham were more than willing to play their part in the battle of mistakes between the woodwork when he simply dropped a cross by Mane and Origi was there to poke it into the open net.
Liverpool 2
West Ham 2
Minutes later, Wijnaldum was given far too much space and far too much time inside the West Ham box to line up a shot, and Randolph and company were lucky it rolled just wide.
In the 62nd minute, I think we saw the most telling reason why Nordtveit was and still is a mistake. Wijnaldum raced down the left flank. You know, the space that Nordtveit was supposed to occupy as a defender. His job. Instead, he was closer to midfield trotting back. Reid did his best to cover, and Wijnaldum put his low shot wide. Reid clearly asked Nordtveit where on earth he was and what on earth he was thinking. I’d ask Slaven the same thing about his choice to pick him.
In the 70th minute, Randolph made up for his calamity at the start of the half with a moment of true brilliance when Henderson launched a missile from 35 yards out that was absolutely heading into the top corner. Randolph dove to his left and quite literally got a fingertip or two on the ball to send it over the bar.
Suffice it to say, the rest of the match was easy to describe. West Ham couldn’t retain possession for more than a few seconds at a time, and Liverpool swarmed forward. The defense did their job, and that ultimately is what secured the valuable and unexpected point. The idea of having Carroll in there to get on the end of crosses to ask questions of a young, anxious keeper was great in theory. In practice, however, that didn’t pan out. In fact, the one time Carroll attacked a ball near the keeper he took a right cross to the head that opened a decent sized gash. If Carroll played ice hockey, he would have gone to the bench and got bandaged up while somebody else hit the ice. Would anything have been more West Ham than giving up the winning goal while down a man who was punched in the head?
Final Score.
Liverpool 2
West Ham 2
After the final whistle, the camera showed Randolph covering his face with his shirt in “shame”. You don’t have to be a Rhodes Scholar to figure out he felt responsible for the second goal and was extending that to not winning the game. As depressive and curmudgeonly as I can be, that’s a bit of self loathing I won’t accept. His save on Henderson was more impressive than the drop was bad. If the drop had happened in the 87th minute, OK. I lay the blame on him and Nordtveit for the disaster at Spurs. But in the 47th minute? Not a chance. There is no way anyone will convince me that we would have definitely won the match had Randolph held onto that cross. So at the end of the day, this was a point we didn’t expect, and one we certainly needed. More importantly, the effort and performance was diametrically opposed to the garbage we saw against Arsenal.
We can enjoy the rest of our day.