View: West Ham United system has worked v Liverpool, but David Moyes needs to hook Ben Johnson after first-half error
West Ham started brightly against Liverpool on Wednesday night, but the Hammers failed to take their chances and entered the break 1-0 down.
David Moyes would’ve been pleased by his side’s start at Anfield, with his team defending well and pressing Liverpool into mistakes.
But it was Hammers defender Ben Johnson – who was shoved in at right-back – whose error proved costly for West Ham, with Darwin Nunez latching onto a cross from the left wing to score the opener.
With Vladimir Coufal out of form, Moyes trusted Johnson to deputies on the right flank – a decision the Scot may look back on bitterly after the match.
The 22-year-old simply couldn’t handle Liverpool’s left flank of Fabio Carvalho and Stefanos Tsitsipas. Johnson should’ve pressed the Greek full-back and stopped the cross for Liverpool’s opener and he was left ruing his mistake.
On top of that, he offered no threat down the right and misplaced a number of passes in a generally sloppy first-half performance.
As Moyes looks to regroup and get West Ham back into it at Anfield, he needs to take the brave decision to hook Johnson.
Thilo Kehrer shined at right-back when deployed there in the past few weeks, and his defensive abilities would better contain Liverpool’s attacking duo.
With Angelo Ogbonna on the bench, Moyes could shift the Italian into centre-back and allow Kehrer to stop the damage being inflicted at right-back.
Other than that, Moyes’ gameplan seemed solid and Liverpool found it difficult to break the Hammers down. With a more solid foundation provided by Kehrer and Ogbonna, the side could commit more players forward on the counterattack.