West Ham United lost to Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday, losing 3-1 for the second straight Premier League game.
The Hammers were humiliated by Jurgen Klopp’s team, who had previously defeated Manchester City by the same scoreline the previous weekend.
Mo Salah started the scoring from the penalty spot after Nayef Aguerd’s trip gave the referee an easy decision to make to award a spot-kick.
Just before halftime, Jarrod Bowen did a great job of getting in front of Virgil van Dijk to head home a cross from Vladimir Coufal into the bottom corner to make it 1-1.
The host team earned all three points in the second half thanks to goals from Darwin Nunez and Diogo Jota, thus the Hammers were unable to hold on for a point.
Aguerd gave away the penalty for West Ham, and there were other underwhelming performances on the pitch, but Michail Antonio stood out as the player who most disappointed David Moyes.
Due to Van Dijk and Joel Matip’s dominance of him throughout the game, the West Ham UTD forward was unable to give his team an effective focal point through the middle of the pitch.
In his six Premier League matches this year, Antonio has won 42% of his scuffles, but Liverpool prevented him from using his strength to hold the ball up for West Ham.
During his 74 minutes on the pitch, the seasoned marksman lost a remarkable 12 of his 16 duels (75%) and all six of his aerial skirmishes, according to Sofascore. Moyes decided to replace him with Mohammed Kudus, who went on to win two of his three ground clashes.
These numbers demonstrate that the 33-year-old striker was far too simple to beat for the two Liverpool central defenders, which prevented the Hammers from maintaining possession as effectively as they had anticipated.
The fact that Antonio finished the game with just 23 total touches of the ball—far fewer than his custodian, Alphonse Areola—in between the sticks showed how much he struggled in possession—evidences his lack of physicality against Van Dijk and Matip.
The former Sheffield Wednesday star had less impact on his side’s play on the ball than his custodian, instead of being a driving force for his club at the top of the pitch.
The West Ham number nine barely completed five of the seven passes he attempted, and with the touches he did receive, he missed a “big chance,” demonstrating Antonio’s inability to consistently participate in the game and his waste of the lone presentable chance that presented itself in front of goal.
Moyes will now be hoping that the Jamaican international can swiftly put this performance behind him before the next Premier League match against Sheffield United next weekend. Unfortunately, the striker definitely let his boss down at Anfield on Sunday.
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