West Ham United forward Michail Antonio believes Liverpool will be tired for tonight’s clash between the teams at Anfield.
Antonio was speaking on The Footballer’s Football Podcast, which he hosts with Newcastle United’s Callum Wilson. And the West Ham man suggested that his team will be looking to profit from the intensity of Liverpool’s win over Manchester City on Sunday.
“They’re going to be shattered. They ran themselves into the ground at the weekend. Hopefully we can use that against them!” predicted the 32-year-old.
“We play well against you guys [Liverpool]. We’ve had a couple of results. It’s one of those games where we are just going to go for it. [But] away from home it’s never going to be easy with the Kop.”
With the momentum of a huge win behind them, and the home crowd baying for another three points, I wouldn’t be so sure about that.
Liverpool looking to momentum to take them through
Antonio is right about one thing – West Ham do have the capability to make life tough for Liverpool.
One of the Reds two defeats last Premier League season came against the Hammers, while Liverpool squeezed past them with a 1-0 win at home.
So, compared to a lot of teams in the division, yes, West Ham do play well against Liverpool.
David Moyes has never brought a team to Anfield and won, though. Some would say that that kind of record is bound to end at some point, but the Reds are unbeaten in their stadium domestically since March 2021.
All signs would point towards a positive result for Liverpool.
This group of players are well used to playing big games every two or three days. They’re well-versed in getting to the final stages of the Champions League and surely won’t have a problem going again.
The only slight issue from a Reds perspective is that they’re short of a few bodies due to injuries. It makes it harder to constantly go again and again when you’re picking from a smaller group of players.
Hopefully the desire to properly kick-start their season will be enough to give the Liverpool players that extra little boost. If they don’t expect £7m Antonio and his teammates to make life difficult for the Reds.
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