West Ham 2-2 Liverpool (Bowen 43’, Antonio 77’ | Robertson 48’, Soucek OG 65’)
LONDON STADIUM – “This is not the David Moyes severance fund,” says the charity collector, rattling bucket in hand outside the ground. “Otherwise it would be full.” Whatever you think of the reception one outgoing manager is getting in east London, Liverpool are unmistakably failing to give Jurgen Klopp the send-off he deserves.
As Mohamed Salah bickered with his soon-to-be ex-manager before coming on – dropped to the bench alongside Darwin Nunez – it felt like not just the end days but the blowing up of all that has made this side feel like one of the great dynasties. Klopp, the diplomat, was guarded, insisting the pair spoke in the dressing room afterwards and considered the incident “done”. Salah was anything but: “There’s going to be fire today, if I speak.”
A terse atmosphere was tipped towards breaking point, inevitably, by the late goal. Michail Antonio had been so painfully isolated until his late equaliser that the entirety of the back four appeared to forget he was on the pitch, unmarked for a leaping header past Alisson Becker.
This was supposed to be the return of the “mentality monsters” who never say die, even when they know the Premier League title is now beyond them.
Somehow, even the initial turnaround felt a little flat. The body language of the collective, trudging away from goal after Jarrod Bowen’s opening header, said so much about the crushing disappointment of what this end-of-season run-in might have been. Klopp, head bowed, did not even muster the ironic laughter conjured at Goodison Park as the title dream all but ended.
Andy Robertson could at least manage the requisite roar after his well-placed equaliser into the bottom-left corner. Alphonse Areola should have been stronger to keep it out, but that is an admonition that ought to be met with nothing more than a shrug. There was an unmistakable weariness about two sides who have ultimately fallen short and who know they are nearing the end of a cycle.
Liverpool’s improvement after falling behind was admittedly marked. If you had to pick a goal to sum up Klopp’s time at the club, it would not be the chaotic bundle off Gakpo’s shot which came off Angelo Ogbonna and was eventually registered as a Tomas Soucek own goal – but it might just epitomise the Moyes era here. Moments of optimism, albeit a system that doesn’t quite work.
Klopp’s own exit feels that little bit more real now that Feyenoord have agreed to a compensation package to release Arne Slot – and some of the clouds which gathered over Merseyside on Wednesday are threatening to loom over the final three games of the campaign.
Salah looked decidedly sulky in the warm-up after hearing he would not start, an inevitable if belated consequence of a string of missed chances that ultimately cost Liverpool the league long before the defensive mishaps at Everton. The duo were only introduced at the last knockings after Antonio’s goal.
There was much to dislike on a frustrating afternoon, from Alexis Mac Allister being crunched under the boot of Lucas Paqueta – no yellow card, by the way – and Luiz Diaz’s offside robbing the Reds of a penalty after Cody Gakpo had been brought down by Areola.
Yet these are the dribs and drabs of Liverpool’s complaints, the petering out of their title challenge perhaps the most ill-fitting element of it all.
Klopp needed one last surge, volts coursing through his veins on an electric final day. Anfield in three weeks’ time will be a cauldron of emotion but that will solely be restricted to what happens off the pitch. This somehow feels worse, no car crash, merely a limp stalling of the engine.
That, of course, is the crux of the beef with Moyes too. So much of West Ham’s creativity is dependent on Bowen that it is not hard to see why they capitulated to that abject 5-2 defeat to Crystal Palace last time out without him.
Bowen’s driving runs shone a light on the cavern between Liverpool’s back line and midfield three; this was always the plan, to rely on the low block and utilise Bowen on the counter. The hope is that Ruben Amorim will offer something more – for now he has apologised for travelling to London to hold talks over Moyes’ job while Sporting still have games to play.
Slot will likewise have work to do this summer to revive a side that increasingly looks like it has run out of ideas, for much of the game enjoying over 70 per cent possession but not producing enough to show for it. That is a sure sign that Slot can inject some fresh impetus. When he arrives, the football will be high octane, but to enforce that, difficult decisions await the Dutchman – and they may have to include selling Salah.
