Liverpool vs West Ham match report: Hammers still have hope after drab stalemate at Anfield

Fifty-two years have passed since Liverpool recovered from the jolt of West Ham United completing the double over them in the league by securing the First Division championship under Bill Shankly. It was a season, indeed, which culminated with Bobby Moore as an FA Cup winning captain.

While Liverpool are in no position to repeat the feat in 2016, hope remains for West Ham, who will have another stab at progression a week on Tuesday, despite missing an opportunity presented to them here by Jürgen Klopp, who has not afforded the FA Cup a priority status.

As the hailstones battered Merseyside and the gale force winds roared in from the Irish Sea, Slaven Bilić started the evening in his technical area without a coat, his beanie hat being the only sign of the adverse conditions in front of him. His appearance suggested he was ready to meet the challenge. In performance, his team proved they were not.

That Klopp did not know the date of the replay afterwards partly explained his severely weakened selection. This was Liverpool’s ninth game in 29 days and having reached the League Cup final but only after 120 minutes against Stoke City on Tuesday night, he deemed it necessary to change all of his starting outfield players.

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“Maybe we will play again in the morning or the afternoon, I don’t know when we’ll fit it in,” he joked.

Klopp had revealed before there would be some rotation and perhaps Bilić took encouragement, deciding to go a lot stronger than previously suggested. Had captain Mark Noble not succumbed to flu, the only person rested here would have been goalkeeper, Adrián, who had been given paternity leave and was allowed to fly back to Seville on Friday.

The prospect of another game was met as enthusiastically by Bilić as it was by Klopp. “Nobody is crazy about the replay at this stage of the season but we can live with it,” he said.

Bilić was honest too about Liverpool’s dominance in the second half when their energy in pressing led to a series of potentially match-winning opportunities, though he reasoned injuries sustained before the break disrupted West Ham’s rhythm.

Cheikhou Kouyaté did not finish the half – and neither did James Tomkins: Kouyaté’s exit, later explained by Bilić as a groin strain, initially seeming more mysterious than the one made by Tomkins, who bloodied his head in colliding with Kevin Stewart.

That Tomkins needed 13 stitches reflected the enthusiasm of Stewart, who began the month on the substitutes’ bench at Swindon Town in League One before he was summoned back to Melwood as Liverpool’s injury problems mounted.

Stewart, indeed, clattered into each of his midfield opponents in quick succession at the very beginning and Klopp commended him for his level of concentration, operating in an area flooded with seasoned internationals.

The former Tottenham Hotspur trainee played in the same youth sides as Harry Kane before making the journey north as Liverpool’s academy director Alex Inglethorpe after both were released from White Hart Lane.

Yet with his contract set to expire in the summer, Stewart, at 22, will appreciate there will be not third chance at another Premier League club. “He did very, very well,” Klopp admitted.

In being named as captain, Joe Allen became the seventh player to lead Liverpool in the 24 games since Klopp’s appointment. He and Cameron Brannagan acted as bloodhounds, closing down the space where Dimitri Payet has been so dangerous since his arrival at West Ham. The French winger’s involvement was minimal. In the first half, he nearly caught Simon Mignolet through deception, shaping to cross from a free-kick only to shoot.

In the second half, another dead ball nearly resulted in the visitors’ opener; Nikica Jelavić– on as Kouyaté’s replacement – flicking on the delivery, which Mignolet somehow saved.

That Steven Caulker’s handball in the subsequent scrimmage was missed by referee Martin Atkinson clearly irritated Bilić and his mood visibly worsened when Dejan Lovren escaped a red card after lunging with two-feet at Victor Moses while already on a booking.

Diplomatically perhaps, Bilić claimed ignorance in relation to the first incident. “The benches here are close like in British parliament so I could not see,” he insisted.

Liverpool: (4-3-3) Mignolet; Clyne, Caulker, Lovren, Smith; Brannagan (Sinclair, 85), Stewart, Allen; Ibe (Ojo, 79), Benteke, Teixera (Enrique, 89).

West Ham: (4-3-3) Randolph; Tomkins (O’Brien, 34), Reid, Ogbonna, Cresswell; Kouyaté (Jelavic, 36), Song, Obiang; Moses (Antonio, 69), Valencia, Payet.

Referee: Martin Atkinson

Man of the match: Stewart (Liverpool)

Match rating: 5/10