A policy of shooting on sight can work after all. After Liverpool spent Sunday accumulating shots without scoring, the floodgates opened in the Anfield rain. Their 34 efforts brought no goals against Manchester United. Three days later, they tried and tried and tried again and 29 attempts yielded five goals, each courtesy of a fine finish. Persistent, determined, enterprising and excellent, they demolished West Ham, exorcising some of their frustration from Sunday’s stalemate. They surged into a semi-final as the favourites to win a second Carabao Cup in three years.
They performed with the momentum of a team who can sense glory, West Ham with the ineptitude of one whose manager has never won at Anfield. David Moyes’ streak stretches back more than two decades and 21 matches, but this was his heaviest defeat to Liverpool. On a near-perfect night for Jurgen Klopp, Curtis Jones struck twice with Dominik Szoboszlai, Cody Gakpo and Mohamed Salah also scoring high-class goals for a team who were dominant and ambitious from the off. But an eventual shot count of 29-2 was an indictment of the Hammers.
