The chances of the Champions League are disappearing in the distance. In the expected Saturday duel on the field of the favored Liverpool, West Ham lost after the only goal of Sadia Mané, and in the table he mainly misses the run Arsenal. Nevertheless, coach David Moyes was satisfied with the sympathetic performance of the team weakened by captain Declan Rice.
“We played better than in previous matches, we showed a lot of good things. Against opponents like Liverpool, but we have to be clinically accurate in the end,” said the Scottish coach after the match.
The Hammers played a level game on Anfield Road and had several huge chances. The biggest midfielder for Manuel Lanzini was prepared by the Czech midfielder Tomáš Souček with an excellent center.
A question mark hung over his start. On Wednesday, he did not finish the match of the eighth finals of the English Cup with a laceration over his eye. But Souček had himself sewn together and quickly confirmed his reputation as a tough warrior. He played the whole match against Liverpool with a protective bandage on his head.
And he was seen in front of both goals, although in the end he had to do without his usual colleague Declan Rice, whose disease was ruled out of the match.
In the 18th minute, Čech fired from behind the penalty area and the goalkeeper Reds Alisson had to intervene. He stopped the penetrating Mane immediately. Before half-time, Luis Diáza extinguished the fire after a chance and kicked the ball out of his own lime with scissors.
A few moments later, he was able to strike with a goal, but he placed the head after a corner kick over the goal.
The cabins went 1: 0 for the home team, Senegalese Mané scored the twelfth goal of the season after a pass from the best Premier League player. Trent Alexander-Arnold scored the right goal for the teammates.
Jürgen Klopp’s charges kept the goal close, but Anfield took a deep breath in the 70th minute. The tireless Souček found himself on the right wing, sending the ideal ball to Lanzini’s leg, which he overshot in a clear position.
“We should have changed at least one of the three good chances. A draw would probably be fairer,” Moyese said sadly.
Like Souček, who expressed himself on networks. “We played to the maximum. I’m very sorry that we lost. We had a lot of chances and we fought well in defense,” he wrote.
Souček defends Luis Díaz. | Photo: Reuters
The Czech national team was largely praised in the English media. But it has been confirmed again that he is not as untouchable and uncritically adored as in the previous season. There was also criticism, especially from the Hammers camp.
“Souček had a huge defensive responsibility due to Rice’s absence. And he worked like a horse. He should have assisted after a fantastic pass to Lanzini,” Football.London rated the Czech football player with an above-average mark of 7.
They saw it in a similar way in the London Evening Standard. “In the middle of the field, without Declan, he worked tirelessly and contributed a number of impressive things forward.”
On the other hand, the fan blog Claret and Hugh gave Souček a low mark of 4, only the Croatian Nikola Vlašič was scored worse.
“Lanzini was better from the middle pair, Součka often missed the game,” the rating said, and some criticism was also seen on Twitter, where West Ham fans pondered some minor ball losses when the number 28 player was under pressure.
After the match, David Moyes himself clarified the contrasting assessment of Souček’s performance in a certain sense. The Hammer coach said that the absence of Declan Rice was not dramatically known.
“Manuel Lanzini played very well and I would say that Tomáš played one of his better matches,” said the manager, who, in addition to the closest defeat, also regretted the injury of the most productive player, Jarrod Bowen.
Hitchhiker Kurt Zouma may have had a crush on Liverpool. Reds fans reminded him in several ways of a scandalous offense from the beginning of last month, when a video appeared in public in which a French football player tortures his cats.
Banner s nápisem Cats Lives Matter nad Anfieldem. | Foto: Reuters
Before the match, a plane with a fluttering banner and the words “Cats Lives Matter” flew over Anfield. Zouma was uprooted, chanting in support of the cats and one of the creative spectators brought a giant cat balloon with the words “kick me”.
West Ham won’t get much rest again after another English week. Already on Thursday, the opening duel of the eighth finals of the European League on the field of Seville, Spain awaits him.
Three days later, the home league duel against Aston Ville. The six Hammers will need to win in it. He is already losing three points to the fourth Arsenal, while the Gunners have three more matches to their advantage. Manchester United is two points ahead of West Ham and Tottenham, who has three less duels, can overtake the East London club.
