West Ham United striker Michail Antonio has shared how difficult he found playing against Liverpool last weekend.
Speaking on The Footballer’s Football Podcast (1min 58secs) with Callum Wilson, Antonio praised Liverpool’s performance on the night.
“They were quality. Had a lot of possession. They had a chance in the first 30 seconds of the game,” said the 31-year-old, who had a great battle with Liverpool’s Ibrahima Konate on the night.
“We knew there is certain things they do and they do it very well. They had a lot of possession, but they also can put the ball in behind you, so they were absolutely quality.”
As Antonio says, Liverpool should have gone ahead less than a minute into the game. Mohamed Salah raced onto a quick free-kick from Trent Alexander-Arnold but couldn’t beat Lukasz Fabianski one-on-one.
From that point onwards West Ham grew into the game. They matched Liverpool for large stretches and Antonio says he feels they could have taken points off The Reds.
“We’re very disappointed because we had opportunities, we had quite a few chances were we could have got something form the game.”
As it was, Alisson made a finger-tip save from Pablo Fornals and Manuel Lanzini blasted a sitter over the bar. If you don’t take your chances at Anfield, you’re going to leave with nothing.
No off-days for Liverpool
Liverpool actually weren’t at their best against West Ham last week. But Antonio’s comments prove that even when not playing at full-speed, Jurgen Klopp’s team are one of the best around.
Against Inter Milan in the Champions League on Tuesday night, Liverpool were once again in second gear. Although they lost the game that night, their progress to the next round of the competition never really looked in doubt.
Even during a supposedly second-rate performance, Liverpool managed to hit the woodwork three times, have twice as many shots as their opponents and dominate the ball with 62% possession.
So much for an off-day!
It isn’t the first time Antonio has praised Liverpool. Speaking on the same podcast last month both he and Wilson claimed that Anfield has the best atmosphere in the country.
When you couple the atmosphere together with the on-pitch quality, it must make Liverpool a nightmare to play against.
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