Premier League | Salah Paves The Way For Liverpool To Catch Up

Liverpool FC won late against West Ham United with a 2-1 win. The Reds turned an early deficit and thus took over the leadership of the Premier League for the time being.

Liverpool head coach Jürgen Klopp switched to five positions compared to the 2-0 victory in the Champions League against Midtjylland. In central defense, Phillips replaced the injured Fabinho, while Curtis Jones played for Shaquiri in midfield. In addition, the last offensive war against Salah, Mané and Roberto Firmino was back in the starting line-up and replaced Diego Jota, Minamino and Origi.

After the 1-1 draw against ManCity, West Ham coach David Moyes only let ex-Frankfurt Haller play instead of Michail Antonio in the storm.

The Reds started standing tall and pressed early, so West Ham barely came out of their own half for the first ten minutes. Instead, Pablo Fornals immediately sank the Hammers' first shot on goal for an early lead: The winger used a half-baked clearing action from Liverpool's substitute central defender Gomez and executed flat left (11th).

Liverpool hardly changed their style of play and played the guests largely in their own half. However, the Reds could hardly earn any shots on goal - Salah just missed the box (25th) and had to watch how West Ham got better chances with fewer games. On the occasions of Fornals (23rd, 28th) and Bowen (32nd) the right conclusion was also missing. Only after 40 minutes did Salah equalize with a penalty kick, after having been knocked down by Masuaku himself. With his flat central finish, he sent Fabianski into the wrong corner (42nd).

Even after the break, the game did not really change: Liverpool took over the active part, but could not develop good goal actions. Instead, the first shot on goal belonged to Fornals (51st), who missed a big chance a quarter of an hour later because it took too long in the middle (66th).