If Sunday’s win over Manchester City is to be the springboard that Liverpool’s stuttering season required, then perhaps this narrow and nervy victory over West Ham United can provide the same for their marquee summer signing. The hope will be that Darwin Nunez’s first Anfield goal is a catalyst for a career that is beginning to show shoots of potential, if this match-winning display is anything to go by.
He was not the only match-winner, though. Nunez’s first-half header was the only goal of the game but Alisson prevented at least two others, saving Jarrod Bowen’s penalty on the cusp of half time and denying Tomas Soucek what seemed certain to be a late equaliser. West Ham were the better side in the second half and not for the first time this season, David Moyes was left to rue misfortune and missed chances.
Liverpool’s task for the evening was to ensure Sunday was not another false dawn in the manner that the wins over Newcastle United and Ajax proved to be. Klopp kept faith in the shape that inflicted Manchester City’s first defeat of the season but switched personnel. Trent Alexander-Arnold was one of five changes, making his first start since recovering from injury, while Diogo Jota’s calf problem brought Nunez into the line-up.
The Uruguayan’s chaotic late cameo against City went largely unremarked upon in all the bad blood post-match, though enough of the away end here saw it judging by their early suggestion that he is an inferior version of Andy Carroll. West Ham provided Carroll with an escape route out of Anfield after the failure of his £35million move, of course, but Nunez quickly made his case that he will be following the same path.
Having already come close to finding the breakthrough with a menacing half-volley, Nunez’s first Liverpool goal on home soil was a downward header, powered into that same soil after connecting with a superb Kostas Tsimikas cross. Kurt Zouma, rushed back from an illness into West Ham’s starting line-up amid a shortage of centre-halves, missed his header to intercept while his defensive partner, Thilo Kehrer, had not handled Nunez’s psychicality.
The Liverpool striker is more than just a 6ft2in man bun, though. Amid the misfires and miscontrols, there are plenty of moments where he looks as electrifying as his €75m price tag suggested. A minute after the goal, he was through again, only to shoot straight at Lukasz Fabianski. Another half-volley towards the end of the half beat the West Ham goalkeeper, yet cannoned back off the post.
If there is a theme to Liverpool’s so far though, it is that they will always give their opponents a chance. Joe Gomez, hoping to impress a watching Gareth Southgate, did not need to clatter into the back of another potential member of England’s World Cup squad in Bowen inside his own penalty area without much danger brewing. He clearly had, though, and upon review of his pitchside monitor, referee Stuart Attwell agreed.
But if penalty-taking is one of Southgate’s criteria, Bowen’s kick will count against him. Alisson dived to his right, guessing correctly, and beat a tame attempt away. Taken in the 44th minute, the penalty was West Ham’s first sight of goal. Another two would follow before the interval - Flynn Downes forcing a corner that Kehrer turned over Liverpool’s crossbar at close range - but even then, it seemed their best chance of an equaliser had been and gone.
After the break, Nunez was still Liverpool’s greatest goal threat - the gravitational force to which all their attacks fell - which was perhaps why Klopp saw fit to substitute him before the hour mark. Liverpool’s turnaround between this week’s trio of league games is the tightest in the top flight, with an early kick-off at Nottingham Forest to follow on Saturday, and his withdrawal was a mark of his importance amid the injuries to Jota and Luis Diaz.
And on evidence of the second half, Klopp is still calibrating this reformulated attack. Mohamed Salah suffered a frustrating night in front of goal, even when he moved centrally after Nunez’s substitution. Liverpool did not, in truth, create the slew of scoring opportunities that could have put this game beyond doubt. And given the well-publicised problems at the other end, as long as they only remained one up, West Ham were in the game.
There was a reminder of that fact at the start of a gruelling 20-minute period for Liverpool, when Declan Rice’s cross caught the Anfield wind and landed kindly for an unmarked Said Benrahma at the far post, though he could only shoot straight at Alisson. Better opportunities would come. Just after Zouma had turned the ball onto the top of his own crossbar, West Ham wasted a rapid counter-attack through Gianluca Scamacca.
Yet the best of all would fall to Soucek, who with two minutes of time remaining, at point-blank range from a Bowen cut-back, somehow hit Alisson’s underside and only won a corner. Liverpool were living dangerously, defending on the tightrope which they have walked for much of this season. This time, though, they just about kept their balance and will hope that they and their match-winning striker can build from here.
