How West Brom’s toothless tackling let Liverpool run riot

West Bromwich Albion have had a steady start to the new season including beating Manchester United at Old Trafford, but were destroyed by a buoyant Liverpool and a sublime Luis Suarez.

The Uruguayan scored a hat-trick to send the Baggies home with their tail between their legs having been on the wrong end of a 4-1 result. The defeat meant that Steve Clarke’s men haven’t won a match since their 2-1 win at Old Trafford on 28 September and have scored just two goals since.

Clarke started with Nicolas Anelka up front on his own against Liverpool’s back three of Mamadou Sakho,Kolo Toure and Martin Skrtel. That was a mistake straight away. Anelka hasn’t performed well enough this season and isn’t physically strong enough to challenge that back three. He was absent throughout apart from one chance that he spawned when through on goal following a long ball forward by Youssuf Mulumbu. Anelka is still searching for his first league goal this season.

Liverpool completed 485 passes compared to West Brom’s 363. In fact, the Reds completed more passes than the Baggies attempted (469). Brendan Rodgers has his Liverpool side playing good, passing football and were at home so it was always a formality that West Brom would not see much of the ball. However, to attempt less passes than Liverpool completed is a poor showing and suggests that when they gained possession, they struggled to keep it long enough to trouble the home side. Thus, inviting more pressure on their back line which contributed to the four goals conceded.

The Baggies’ Action Areas Map is a sight for sore eyes, too. Most of their time on the ball was inside their own half – 17.4% of their time was just outside of their own penalty area – and rarely was there an occasion when they entered Liverpool’s penalty area.

In total, West Brom had 16 shots with just four on target. Their goal came from a dubious penalty, too, so there wasn’t much of a threat on Simon Mignolet‘s goal.

Crossing was also a problem for West Brom as they only managed to complete six of the 20 they attempted – and they were from corners. With the height and power of Liverpool’s back four (including Mignolet) it was evident that West Brom would struggle from crossing. Set-pieces found their way successfully but that is purely down to the fact that the Reds are shaky when defending from those situations. From open play, there was practically no point in West Brom attempting a cross.

The Baggies came out on top in the tackling duels, but the ones they lost were in dangerous areas, putting themselves under more and more pressure.

Steve Clarke will be disappointed by how easily Liverpool attacked and put pressure on his defence. Liverpool’s 15 out of 25 record in successful take ons will have annoyed him. Not just because of the number but the position on the pitch. Most of the successful take ons Liverpool attempted were near West Brom’s penalty area. The high number of take can be attributed almost entirely to Luis Suarez‘s audacity and confidence in his dribbling. This was illustrated in the first goal where he ran at the West Brom defence, beating Claudio Yacob, nutmegging Jonas Olsson and drilled the ball low past Boaz Myhill.

West Brom offered no sort of resistance to Liverpool’s onslaught. The Reds were on fire and were pushing the Baggies back all afternoon, piling pressure on and scoring wonderful goals, too. Boaz Myhill scored the lowest number of points in Squawka’s Performance Score this weekend after conceding four goals. The last of which was embarrassing for the Welshman who was caught off his line by Daniel Sturridge who, delightfully, chipped the ball over Myhill to round of a sad afternoon for the Midlanders.

A run of poor games could come to a conclusion next weekend as the Baggies welcome managerless, bottom-of-the-league Crystal Palace to the Hawthorns. Steve Clarke will be hoping for a much better performance than the one he witnessed at Anfield.