Liverpool’s West Ham scare highlights two more big futures to figure out after Van Dijk and Salah
Well at least they didn’t panic this time. Liverpool spent much of their encounter with West Ham under pressure and just barely reaching ‘alright’ levels after taking the lead on 18 minutes – not even that, for a long, long spell – but did enough to get the job done and bring their long-awaited end-of-season party another step closer, despite a late scare.
It’s no surprise to us that Mohamed Salah suddenly became good again after finally agreeing terms on a new deal. Having shrunk into Little Mo mode for the past month or so, seeking sanctuary and inattention on the touchline far more than his trademark jaunts inside, he brought the Big Mo again in the early goings here.
After threatening with some exquisite touches, Salah finally found his final touch to play a perfect ball across to the far post for Luis Diaz to finish. By the end of the game, though, it was the future of two colleagues at the other end of the pitch that came into focus.
The game dropped to half pace for a spell after that goal, giving big end of season vibes as West Ham looked deeply pedestrian and Liverpool responded by starting to coast.
But Graham Potter’s side seemed to sense that drop-off from the hosts and duly stopped…well, pottering. Mohammed Kudus, in particular, looked a threat, forcing Alisson to tip a shot onto the crossbar and hitting the post behind the goal from outside the box.
Jarrod Bowen then took up those reins after the interval, shooting over the bar after working an opening and then racing through one-v-one with the Reds goalkeeper, who did his best Peter Schmeichel impression as he raced out and starfished down the shot. Another Alisson save to deny Kudus from a narrow angle just a few minutes later capped an excellent performance from the Brazilian that ultimately kept the three points in Liverpool’s hands.
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The news cycle has little time to applaud a job well done, and no sooner have Liverpool sorted out those new deals for Salah and Virgil van Dijk than the talk will shift to their other in-doubt stars.
Trent Alexander-Arnold is one, of course. For entirely opposite reasons, Alisson and Andy Robertson are the others.
That’s in spite of the fact that when fit, Alisson has reiterated his value to Liverpool again and again this season. That Champions League elimination at PSG’s hands never would have made it as far as a penalty shootout without him, while that lead at the top of the table would feel that bit much more surmountable had his absences been more extended.
Liverpool certainly wouldn’t have won it here had it not been for Alisson; West Ham would otherwise have been out of sight well before Robertson’s ridiculous own goal following a mix-up with Van Dijk – the captain seemingly more to blame as he kicked the ball into his teammate and thence the net.
That finally reminded Arne Slot’s side they were still playing a game of football, at which point Diaz swiftly forced a brilliant save out of Alphonse Areola before Van Dijk atoned by heading home the winner from Alexis Mac Allister’s corner.
Yet Alisson’s long-term successor is of course already inbound. Giorgi Mamardashvili’s signature was sorted last summer ready for the Valencia goalkeeper to arrive at the end of this campaign.
Eight years younger, highly rated and well sought-after, it’s hard to imagine he is joining just to be a Georgian Caoimhin Kelleher, endlessly waiting for Alisson’s next injury or a League Cup game while every writer in the country desperate Googles them to check the correct spelling of his name.
Alisson’s fitness record is surely a big factor behind Liverpool making their move early, but he has huge gloves for anyone else to fill.
And at the polar opposite end of the scale, we have their most blundersome player. After years of superb service at left-back – as well as seeming like a thoroughly likeable chap – Robertson’s decline into frequent farce this season has been a sorry sight. That own goal was at least as much Van Dijk’s fault as the Scot’s, probably more so but there have been plenty of other examples to point to; getting ‘og’ next to his name is the last thing Robertson would have wanted.
Unlike Alisson and the the potentially Real Madrid-bound Alexander-Arnold, though, Liverpool do not have a replacement already sorted. There is no Mamardashviliesque signing already done and dusted, nor a left-sided equivalent to Conor Bradley already at the club. Kostas Tsimikas just isn’t it.
One problem that isn’t much of a problem sorted; one problem that has been an obvious weak spot still to solve.
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