West Ham United didn’t get the start they were looking for in the Premier League as they suffered a 4-0 defeat at Anfield. Liverpool got two in each half as the Hammers played five new signings who need a bit more time to play as a unit under Manuel Pellegrini.
Here are the West Ham player ratings:
Lukasz Fabianski: 6.5/10
The new summer signing was confident while claiming crosses and produced a terrific save in the first half to deny Alexander-Arnold a goal via a free kick. He should have been more imposing while dealing with the high defensive line, but otherwise, it was a decent outing where the custodian could not have done anything significant for any of the three goals.
Ryan Fredericks: 4/10
Fredericks provided little going forward, as most of his runs were tentative and failed to churn out any sort of productivity. He was unable to cope with the high line and often left space behind for Andy Robertson to exploit in.
Fabian Balbuena: 4/10
The centre-half endured a difficult match as his inability to deal with the pace and creativity demonstrated by Liverpool’s forward line meant that he did not hold on to the appropriate positions and was definitely overawed by the situations.
Angelo Ogbonna: 5/10
Ogbonna was composed yet he found it difficult to adjust to the opposition’s playing style. He played a perfectly timed long pass for Marko Arnautovic in the first half but was suspect to an occasional positional error owing to the fluidity in Liverpool’s attacking moves.
Arthur Masuaku: 3/10
Maybe, Masuaku had the most difficult job in the field today as he was tasked with dealing with Mohamed Salah from the opposite end. The Egyptian’s change of pace and trickery troubled Masuaku, who struggled to anticipate his adversary’s moves and eventually succumbed to the waves of pressure exerted by Salah.
Mark Noble: 5/10
The veteran midfielder was quite simply too slow against the energetic midfield personnel of Liverpool. Noble always looked for a forward pass when in possession, but he was mostly left recovering the ball in central areas.
Jack Wilshere: 6/10
Wilshere looked to play between the lines and was the only one who looked like delivering the final pass into the attacking areas. A more energetic and creative partner with him, and we could have witnessed a better performance from the Hammers today.
Declan Rice: 3/10
Rice endured a very difficult 45 minutes as his ineffectiveness against Liverpool’s high press meant that he was quite a liability in possession and often surrendered the ball in certain advanced positions. He needs some polishing in the defensive aspect of his game, but today’s performance was majorly disappointing.
Michail Antonio: 5/10
Antonio provided minimal attacking output but played some good inward passes to continue the attacking momentum. He was tenacious enough to drop back and clear out certain dangers inside the box, but there should be more improvement in the attacking front from his side.
Felipe Anderson: 6/10
Anderson was a livewire down the left wing whenever he was presented with a decent opportunity on the ball. He looked to create something notable, but West Ham did not enjoy any long spell in possession for Anderson to create a continuous impact.
Marko Arnautovic: 5/10
Arnautovic looked up for the physical battle and his deft touch helped him to string some promising attacking one-twos. However, he shot wide the most prolific chance created by a long pass from Ogbonna and was hauled off midway through the second half.
Substitutes
Robert Snodgrass: 5/10
Snodgrass looked to add a tad bit of creativity but was quite insignificant once West Ham lost the possession.
Javier Hernandez: 4/10
Hernandez lacked any service, and hence his introduction had minimal effect on the overall outcome.
Andriy Yarmolenko: NA
Yarmolenko injected some much-needed energy and edge to the team, but it was too late into the game.
