Green shoots…

After weeks of diabolical performances, Arne finally made the changes many of us had been calling for, both in terms of system and personnel. It would’ve seemed unthinkable dropping Salah at this time last year but the Egyptian can have no complaints, based on his form this season.

Slot tweaked the system for this game to make us more defensively solid, with Macca and Gravenberch sitting deeper as a midfield shield but the selection of Szoboszlai ahead of Gomez on our right flank, showed Slot’s determination to shore up that area of the pitch and it worked, with Gomez even registering himself a cheeky assist for our second goal.

Suddenly with Salah not on the pitch, Wirtz came alive and Isak managed to get into the game. There may or may not be a direct correlation to Salah with the aforementioned but that’s what we saw today. Everything good we did was going through Wirtz and we saw that slick, precise and incisive passing from him again, that we really need our forwards to be making more of. He should’ve scored when the ball broke kindly to him in the box but other than that, his best LFC performance so far and enough for him to earn his first prestigious 4KK McMOTM award, which I’m sure he’ll place above his Bundesliga winners medal and POTY awards, in his trophy cabinet.

Elsewhere Isak gave us a glimpse into the lethal finishing that we parted with the big bucks for, as he excellently tucked away our opener with an extremely difficult first time finish. That goal should do him the world of good moving forward.

In defence, Konate and Kerkez were much improved and Gomez brought stability at RB, once again demonstrating how criminal it is that he hasn’t had more minutes under Slot.

So, much improved but we have to acknowledge how desperately poor West Ham were and we really couldn’t have asked for a better team to try and arrest our slump against. They’re lightweight, passive and low on quality, meaning Alisson could’ve watched the game from the stands.

You can only beat what’s out in front of you however and that we did. High flying Sunderland midweek will prove a sterner test but green shoots of recovery were definitely visible today. Walk on!