Even Jurgen Klopp criticised the performance of one West Ham star who was savaged by pundits after the Liverpool defeat.
West Ham missed a penalty, a sitter and – like against Southampton – wasted a host of other presentable chances in the hugely frustrating loss to Liverpool at Anfield on Wednesday night.
The Reds scored in the first half when Konstantinos Tsimikas was given the freedom of Merseyside by Ben Johnson to cross for former West Ham target Darwin Nunez.
The Uruguayan got inbetween Kurt Zouma and Thilo Kehrer to guide a header bouncing past Hammers ‘keeper Lukasz Fabianski.
Nunez has been mocked by pundits and fans and was yet to score at Anfield, so of course he broke that duck and registered the winning goal when West Ham came to town.
It was the defending on the cross and overall performance of right-back Johnson which stood out for the wrong reasons, though.
Even Jurgen Klopp criticised the performance of the West Ham star who was savaged by pundits after the Liverpool defeat.
Former players Ally McCoist, Steve McManaman and Eni Aluko were all highly critical of Johnson who bizarrely stood some six or seven yards off Tsimikas allowing him time and space to cross.
Johnson showed a complete lack of awareness and urgency getting out to the Liverpool left-back and West Ham paid the price.
McCoist on commentary said Johnson – who gave the ball away all first half – ‘simply must do better’.
McManaman described it as terrible defending and questioned what Johnson was thinking.
And Aluko said ‘he might as well not be there’ for the move which resulted in the deciding goal.
And even Klopp was critical. When asked about Nunez’s goal after the game on Amazon, Klopp said: “People will look at it and say may Thilo must do better but it’s not easy (when you face a striker like Nunez).
“Of course the defender must do better to stop the cross and people will say that.
“But for us we scored a wonderful goal and with a bit more (luck) Darwin could have had a hat-trick.”
Johnson gave the ball away or aimlessly pumped it up field almost every time he had it in a seriously poor first half display.
But to his credit he improved in the second half, as did West Ham.
It must also be taken into account that he has only recently returned from three weeks out with injury and was playing in his natural position for the first time in a while.
Hopefully this game teaches Johnson a big lesson about the levels required if he really wants to be starting for West Ham long term.
Because many West Ham fans wanted to see the club sign a new right-back in the summer. And Johnson must prove they don’t need to.
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