WHZ View: Why West Ham have nothing to fear when they travel to Liverpool
West Ham travel to Anfield on Saturday afternoon looking to continue their recent form as they take on reigning Premier League champions Liverpool.
The Hammers will take confidence into the game after their recent run of good results, going unbeaten against three of last season’s top six in their last three outings.
The win against Leicester and draws against Tottenham and Man City have shown that this West Ham team can go toe-to-toe with some of the best in this division and we could see a similar positive showing on Saturday evening.
Liverpool may be last season’s champions but they are heavily depleted. The Reds will be without Virgil van Dijk and Fabinho due to injury which means a centre-back pairing of Joe Gomez and youngster Rhys Williams could start.
Gomez looked lost without van Dijk in the few games the Reds have played without their star defender and Williams will be getting his first taste of Premier League football. The Hammers can have some success if they drive at the heart of the Liverpool defence. That is where they’ll be weakest.
Of course, West Ham still have the front three of Mohammed Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino to deal with but the Hammers defence has shown it can hold up to great attacks, as they only conceded one against an attack of Raheem Sterling, Sergio Aguero and Riyad Mahrez last week.
Liverpool have also looked far from convincing without van Dijk. In midweek against Danish champions FC Midtjylland they looked off the pace and on another night they could’ve easily lost to a far inferior side.
Midtjylland’s performance showed that if you turn up at Anfield and have a go at Liverpool you can cause them problems. It was also shown by Leeds United in the first game of the Premier League season as they scored three and were unlucky to miss out on a point.
Yes, Antonio will be missing which robs the Hammers of a fair amount of attacking threat but there are plenty of other attacking options who can have a go at the Liverpool defence. Said Benrahma could get his first run out and he will have a point to prove. He’ll want to show he can cut it against the best and he could give his new side every chance of getting something against the champions.
In other West Ham news, we ranked the Hammers’ top 3 Premier League managers in the first of a new series looking at the best and worst of West Ham’s history.