Five positives for Liverpool to take from West Ham win

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Liverpool produced an encouraging performance to win 3-2 away at West Ham United.

What are the main points they can take from the match?

Recovery

Liverpool went 1-0 up in this game but found themselves 2-1 down which forced them to dig deep and come back for the win. This sort of recovery is something which will be vital over the course of the season and Manchester United have shown how important it is to keep going late into games.

Jonjo Shelvey

Liverpool were playing without a fit high profile striker to lead their attack. Jonjo Shelvey did a magnificent job as the listed striker. He backed into the defence when he needed to, he dropped off to get the ball when he needed to and although he didn’t grab the winner, it was him making a nuisance of himself which forced an own goal from James Collins.

Joe Cole

Cole found himself thrown on after half an hour as he replaced Jose Enrique. He seems to have transformed himself after the recent comments from Brendan Rodgers that he needed to buck up his ideas to be more effective at the club. He pressed, he hurried about the pitch and he generally made a nuisance of himself. His finish for his goal was also superb.

Resilience

Rodgers will be pleased with the resilience his team showed during hard spells of the match. There were times when West Ham looked as though they were never going to retain the ball for more than a minute and there were times when they looked very dangerous on the counter attack. The resilience and concentration they showed throughout the match was great and they were unlucky to concede from a penalty and a Steven Gerrard own goal.

The Stats

The stats suggest Liverpool had a very good day at the office. In terms of possession they matched their opponents with 50% of the ball, they had seven more shots on goal and two more efforts on target. They managed to force three more corners than West Ham and committed fewer fouls. Overall the stats were stacked in favour of Liverpool.

image: © Vincent Teeuwen