On Saturday evening Liverpool were able to beat a distorted West Ham United side to claim their fifth win of the campaign. In his post-match press conference, Jürgen Klopp explained how Liverpool deployed a change in system to help them to a 4-1 victory over West Ham United at the London Stadium on Saturday night. Starting with a 4-4-2 formation, a quick-fire double from Egyptian forward Mohamed Salah and Joel Matip put the Reds into a two-goal lead before the half an hour mark, but Manuel Lanzini gave the Hammers hope just after half-time when he halved the deficit. Nevertheless, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain bagged his first Premier League goal for Liverpool just seconds later and Mo Salah wrapped up the win by driving in a fourth. When a happy Jürgen was questioned on the performance of his Liverpool side he responded with:
“Don’t forget Roberto Firmino on a day like this. He didn’t score and he was really angry he didn’t” I said to him, “What a performance!” and he said, “But I want to score! It was very important to have these players. You can have the best match plan in the world but if the players are not good enough for it then it doesn’t help. Players decide the games on the pitch, especially the good games.” He later added:
“We had a few very difficult things to decide since yesterday. Bringing Sadio Mane in from the beginning after his injury, after one session and then yesterday the second session with the team, I never did it before, to be honest. Obviously it was not the worst idea I’ve ever had! We changed the system and yesterday was the first time we did it, 4-4-2, which looked maybe from the beginning like a very offensive line-up, we had a different idea – we wanted to defend deeper, more compact and using the space which we had for the counter-attacks.”
Belgian Goalkeeper Simon Mignolet captained the reds for the very first time in the 4-1 victory over West Ham. Mignolet said the experience was something he had dreamt of doing since he was a young boy and later stated:
“It’s a big honour. I can’t grasp it as of yet. It’s something I was dreaming about when I was a small kid: to be a captain of a Premier League team. To do that as a Liverpool player is unbelievable. It was a very proud moment and I’m speechless about it actually!”
Boy hood Liverpool fan Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was handed his first premier league start by the gaffer: Jürgen Klopp and he capped off his first league start with a well worked goal that instantly put the reds at ease again after Manuel Lanzini struck just seconds beforehand. In a press conference after the game the Ox said: “We probably could have done it in 10 with Sadio and Mo running!” Oxlade-Chamberlain told reporters he then later added: “That’s the way the manager wants to play, it’s playing into the strengths of our players. That was a great example of how to do it.”
With the international break coming up all eyes turn to the team selection. England handed a first senior team call up to young, promising defender Joe Gomez. As well as Spain selecting Liverpool left-back Alberto Moreno whose performances have been much improved since the turn of the year. However, England internationals and inform Liverpool duo Daniel Sturridge and Oxlade-Chamberlain were left out much to the surprise of manager Jürgen Klopp who said:
“It’s not our decision but if Gareth Southgate saw the last few games I think for sure he could have invited all three of them.”
