Klopp and his Heavy Metal 2018/19

The Stage

Klopp and his heavy metal are back for another season at the Premier League, the reds still have the bitterness in their mouth from losing the Champions League final and with the inclusion of Alisson and Shaqiri they are an even stronger side that will fight for redemption by trying to win the Premier League for the first time in 28 years.

On the other side, West Ham went thru a full transformation with the appointment of Pellegrini as their new manager and the signing of 9 players, with names like Wilshere and Anderson, because they seek to finish in the top six of the league at least to gain a spot to play next season in Europe.

Lineups

                                                    Liverpool

                                                                          4-3-3

                                             West Ham United

                                                                          4-2-3-1

Game analysis

Liverpool lined up with its classic 4-3-3 that suits perfectly Klop’s fast-paced playing style while Westham opted for a 4-2-3-1 seeking to have more balance in the midfield by having two midfielders in front of the defense in order to have more defensive power when Liverpool attacks and at the same time being capable of switching fast to offense in the counterattacks.

The game started and from the beginning, Liverpool had most of the possession of the ball and transformed it into a goal in the first minutes, Salah managed to score the first goal of the season in 19’ by forcing the ball after an incredible center from Robertson. At the moment of the goal, Liverpool had 60% of the possession of the ball, a hint of what was coming to the hammers.

Liverpool kept the ball most of the time for the remaining of the first time but it was until the last minute that Mane could score his first goal of the 18/19 season, Robertson give the ball to Milner who centers it for Mane. Fabiansky Is clearly upset for this Goal as it was partly the fault of the poor defense the Hammers were displaying on the pitch. End of the first half.

At the start of the second half, the hammers tried to even the score, Anderson centered the ball for Antonio but hi missed it as Van Dijk clears it. Pellegrini’s team was putting a fight trying to equalize the game, but Mane had different plans, he scored the third goal of the game thanks to a wonderful assist from Firmino that slipped the ball to Kante into an offside position but the ref missed that call. The score is 3-0 and all hope seems lost for the hammers.

After this Klopp substituted his three frontmen, Henderson for Firmino, Shaqiri for Mane and Sturridge for Salah, that led to the fourth goal of the game in a corner play at the 88’ where Milner centered the ball and Sturridge hit the ball to push it to the back of the net to put the score to its final number 4-0.

Conclusions

The game ended as expected, Liverpool side was stronger on the paper before the game as the team managed to retain their better players and sign new strong ones for the season to come, giving Klop’s team more depth and variants, also Shaqiri in the 15 minutes that played gave the impression that will be of much help for the team in the long season to come. The Hammers need to accommodate to the new style of Pellegrini and integrate the new players to the team very fast, as the Premier League it is a competition where the majority of the teams are very competitive and will put a fight against them every weekend.