Five Goals, Still No Easy Answers

Liverpool 5-2 West Ham United | Premier League

I knew the half-time score before I saw a kick in this one. FotMob flashing on my phone while I wrestled with a punctured tyre, Liverpool three up before I’d even washed the grease off my hands. By the time I watched it back this morning, fortified by coffee and surviving dinner with the in-laws and the Brit Awards, what I experienced was effectively a 2-2 from watching only the second half live.

And that, in many ways, that felt about right.

Of course, we should be pleased. Five goals at Anfield. Six wins in seven. Back in the top five and breathing up at Villa in third place. There is no sense in sneering at that. Liverpool were ruthless from set pieces, aggressive, clever, purposeful. The inswingers were venomous, Van Dijk imperious, Ekitike sharp and alive to every loose ball. If you want a way to win tight games, then this is the way.

But it wasn’t control. It wasn’t command. West Ham played through Liverpool too easily, too often. The spaces were there, the press bypassed with uncomfortable ease. The numbers suggest it was closer than the scoreboard admits. At 3-0 it didn’t feel safe. At 4-2 it didn’t feel secure.

Frimpong’s return changed the tempo. Suddenly there was pace, intent, incision. Ekitike carried the attack with personality. Around them, though, there remains a sense of a side searching for its true shape.

Liverpool are winning. That matters most. Yet they are also perplexing, productive without being persuasive, efficient without being dominant. A team that can score five and still leave you wondering what exactly you have watched.