Liverpool went to the second position of the table with a convincing 2-1 win over West Bromwich Albion. They are now leveled with Arsenal after both Gunners and the Spurs dropped points previously.
The Adam Lallana effect
Given Daniel Sturridge’s good enough record against West Bromwich Albion, when Jurgen Klopp decided to drop the Englishman in favour of another, Adam Lallana, who had recently returned from injury, eyebrows were sure to be raised. However, since the kick-off, Lallana has been mesmerising to watch.
Since his first one-two with Coutinho, which exposed the weakness of the Albion side as early as in the 4th minute, hints were given that Liverpool were sure to find the back of the net this time.
And the exact thing happened. The first goal came when Coutinho’s dummy set the ball in motion only for Adam Lallana to release it down the left for Roberto Firmino, who found a pretty easy cross for Mane to tap in. The attack looked much more coordinated with Lallana in the middle. The player provided a superb 18 passes to the attacking third most of which simply ripped apart Albion’s defence.
West Bromwich Albion’s horrendous defending
They were shambles to say the least. Being the fifth best defensive team in the Premier League, Liverpool must have expected a more solid display from Tony Pulis’ back line. And they crumbled like a house of cards. Since the beginning, they looked shaky when Liverpool forced a save from Foster.
They made innumerable mistakes running out of options. Pulis had rightly kept Olsson at the back to prevent the threat of Coutinho with the high balls. But it seems, he kept Adam Lallana out of his equation.
The horrendous miss pass that Fletcher fed to Foster which led to the second goal for Liverpool further diminished Baggies’ confidence. The goalkeeper Foster often had to come to the flanks to clear the ball as they were caught on the loose.
Liverpool’s’ unpredictable defence
While most of the match at Anfield was one-sided with Liverpool simply running rout on their opponents giving them little to negligible chances of creating any real threat, one thing was also quite clear that Liverpool don’t have the best of defence in the Premier League.
Pulis failed miserably to capitalise on it. When Liverpool’s attack cooled down during the late second half and the Baggies started to put some pressure, it was evident that the Kops would need to improve on their backline. The one goal, Albion scored proved that Liverpool’s defence can concede out of nowhere.
The other fact that Albion’s goalie Foster could successfully give 8 attacking third passes right from the back also strengthens this fact.
