Mohamed Salah’s second goal in the 3-1 win at West Ham United demonstrated a long-running Liverpool tactic that continues to strike fear into opposition managers.
The lightning fast counter-attack from a Hammers corner kick saw the reigning Premier League champions transition from a defensive position down at the other end of the pitch in a matter of seconds.
It’s a ploy that continues to leave rival bosses wary as former Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe, who came up against Jurgen Klopp’s sides for five years between 2015-20, explains.
Analysing Liverpool’s game on Match of the Day 2 , Howe said: “You can see from this corner that West Ham are in a good position, they’ve got two back and two on the edge. But this goal is absolutely brilliant from Liverpool.
“ Trent (Alexander-Arnold) switches it and it enables (Xherdan) Shaqiri not to check his stride and hit it first time.
“What a touch a finish from (Mohamed) Salah, so West Ham will be kicking themselves because for that goal, they haven’t done a lot wrong, and they’ve ended up conceding.”
The 43-year-old added: “Liverpool and Man City were the two teams that defended zonally against us and I always feared counter attack situations, just because of the players they had in their team.
“We would often leave three on the edge, which we would never normally do, we always see a corner as our best chance to score.
“You end up sacrificing an attack to give yourself a bit more protection.”
