Jamie Redknapp suggests Liverpool’s life after Virgil van Dijk is not looking good despite West Ham thrashing

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Liverpool put in a convincing display to dump West Ham out of the Carabao Cup on Wednesday.

The Reds fell behind early on, but soon rallied and eventually fired five unanswered goals past the Hammers.

The win was especially pleasing given that Arne Slot made nine changes to the team that beat Bournemouth on Saturday.

With rotation very much needed, the Liverpool head coach handed six players their first starts of the campaign. There was some rustiness, but in the end Liverpool blew the visitors away.

Perhaps the biggest signs of a lack of match practice came in the defence, with Joe Gomez and Jarell Quansah starting together at centre-back.

Quansah was unfortunate to put West Ham ahead with an own goal in the first-half, but former Reds captain Jamie Redknapp suggested that the 21-year-old’s wider performance was not especially convincing.

Liverpool missing Virgil van Dijk

It was about time that Quansah and Gomez got some game time for Liverpool. Both have had to wait patiently up until now.

Quansah has not played a minute since being hauled off in the opening game of the season against Ipswich, while Gomez has been restricted to an 11-minute cameo at AC Milan.

Throwing them both in there against Premier League opposition at Anfield was always likely to cause a little bit of disruption.

In fairness to Quansah and Gomez, they came through the rest of the game without any problems at all.

READ MORE: What’s going on with Joe Gomez in the transfer market after summer interest

But with Gomez wearing the captain’s armband, Redknapp claimed on Sky Sports via BBC Sport that the 27-year-old and Quansah showed why Liverpool are so dependent on full-time skipper Virgil van Dijk.

“You could see a little bit of what life is like when Virgil Van Dijk’s not there as well,” said the pundit.

“Gomez and Quansah probably haven’t played a lot of football together, it was a bit chaotic at times.

“They were managing to keep the ball out the goal, Antonio was making a bit of a difference, making a handful of himself,” Redknapp added. “Once the sending off comes, it just changes everything.”

Will Virgil van Dijk be back against Wolves?

We think this is perhaps slightly on the harsh side from Redknapp. Yes, it was not perfect from Liverpool’s new centre-back pairing, but they did okay.

Quansah deserves credit for bouncing back from what might have been a slightly humiliating episode for him against Ipswich.

Having conceded an early own goal, the Liverpool academy graduate could have let his head go down.

But Quansah is made of sterner stuff than that and he simply got on with things, helping his team to keep the door shut. Gomez, too, did fine for a first start of the season.

Nevertheless, it’s always good to get the big man back. And having rested up on the bench for the full 90 minutes on Wednesday, Van Dijk will take his place in the back line for Saturday’s trip to Wolves.