Reds stroll into last 4 of the Carabao League Cup
Liverpool 5 West Ham United 1, 20th December 2023.
LIVERPOOL 5 (Szoboszlai 28, Jones 56 and 84, Gakpo 71, Salah 82)
WEST HAM UNITED 1 (Bowen 77)
This evening was indeed the easiest of strolls into the Semi-Finals for the season’s first piece of silverware on offer and as the Reds of Liverpool enter the hectic pre and post Christmas and New Year period of non-stop English football, Jürgen Klopp’s ever evolving team in a season of huge transition, will enter the first month of 2024 still in every competition they entered in a long ago August and only Fulham now stand in their way to another Wembley League Cup Final on 25th February.
Whilst it must be borne in mind that the visiting “Hammers” of West Ham United were woeful with a capital W this evening, affording the Reds far too much space all over the pitch in which to play and taking fully 70 minutes to register any sort of attacking shot on or off target, Liverpool were “at it” from the very first minute and a first half dominated by the sublime skills of 20 year old Harvey Elliott. I have a real soft spot for this kid and forever glow whenever he proves the internet age doubters wrong and this evening he was the Reds shining light in a first half of total domination football whereby he was central to their every attacking thrust and closest to scoring before Dominik Szoboszlai’s rasping long range drive hit the back of the Hammers net on 28 minutes. Elliott was mere inches wide of the far post on 9 minutes with a beauty of a left-footed drive before going even closer 5 minutes later and this time an inch or two from the top corner of the West Ham goal defended by Alphonse Areola. The Frenchman in the Hammers goal had very little in the way of a defence in front of him as time and again the Reds carved their way through the centre of midfield and into the attacking third of the pitch. Elliott combined with Wataru Endō and Curtis Jones for his early efforts on goal before finally forcing Areola into a simple save on 20 minutes and then turned provider to Jones on 22 minutes as well as a delicious curling cross on the cusp of half-time that Cody Gakpo headed wide when he should have scored.
The Reds entered half-time 1–0 up but they could and should have been 3 or 4 goals to the good with a quite dreadful West Ham registering zero shots on or off target for the entirety of the half, and a half of supreme football from Liverpool’s number 19. But if it was Harvey Elliott’s first half, it was most certainly Curtis Jones’ second, and a display usurping that of his junior aged partner for a fully deserved “Man of the Match” award and two brilliantly taken goals.
My May 2023 self-published book on Liverpool FC
Jones’ headlining grabbing performance may have been highlighted by his two expertly taken goals, one from an acute angle and through the legs of Hammers goalkeeper Alphonse Areola after a brilliant one-two with Darwin Núñez and his second, and the Reds fifth and final goal of the evening after waltzing through the non-challenges of 4, maybe 5 retreating West Ham defenders, but he dominated possession of the ball in a second half whereby the Reds trebled their half-time advantage to 3–0 with ease and with barely a whimper of protest from their London visitors. When West Ham did finally mount an attack and shot on, or in this instance off target, on 70 minutes, mere seconds later Ibrahima Konaté galloped from defence and through their vacant midfield before releasing Cody Gakpo who with a steadying touch then drilled home the Reds third goal of the evening. Even when West Ham finally had a shot on goal and an albeit brilliant finish from Jarrod Bowen that reduced the score-line to 3–1, seconds later once more Joe Gomez ran from the half-way line and threatened to score the very first goal in his near decade professional career. Mo Salah could even shoulder the embarrassment of missing an open goal as Darwin Núñez’s fizzing long range shot beat Areola but not his far post and although Salah inexplicably missed the open goal rebound, seconds later he raced clear to grab his almost obligatory goal before Curtis Jones danced his way through a shambolic West Ham defence to make it a nap hand for the Reds, and a stroll into the last 4 of the Carabao League Cup.
The post-match draw for the Semi-Finals paired the Reds with Fulham and with Chelsea handed a seeming walkover against Middlesbrough in the other Semi-Final, it’s odds on a repeat of the 2005 and 2022 Finals but time, as ever, will tell. Of far more importance, in a transitional season of much pre-season transfer strife and a team and squad in an evolutionary phase ahead of the assault on the game’s major prizes in the season’s to come, Liverpool are still in every competition they entered in August.
Walk on.
A final word from The Boss
“We had a lot of really good performances tonight, I have to say. Individually the performances were, in general, probably better than in the game on Sunday, where we didn’t play exactly the same football but that’s how it is. Tonight it was one of those nights where you really could enjoy the game from start to finish because it was just a really good performance in all departments. It was difficult for West Ham, obviously, and we won the game. Everything is good”.
“I think in the moment we’re second in the league, which is not that bad, but because we have to talk every day about us, you make stories up and all of a sudden from everything is fine after a 0–0 we start discussing who is not scoring and the front line is not firing and stuff like this. If I would read all these things, I get told sometimes that it’s a story and then I look at the headlines and just think, ‘Oh my God. I really feel for you all that you have to make these stories up.’
“We are just trying to be as good as we can with all our human weaknesses what we have. So far it was not that bad, tonight it was really good, but for Saturday we have to step up another 40, 50, 60 per cent. Arsenal is incredibly strong and a difficult opponent. We just try to make sure we are difficult as well”.
Thanks for reading. Can I persuade you to take a peek at that rather fine self-published book from May 2023 linked in the middle of this article? Go on, be quick and it’ll be a fine present this Christmas for a Liverpool Red in the family!