West Ham taught Jürgen Klopp an important lesson about Liverpool which changed them massively
The Reds had a night to forget in London last year, but it gave them a lesson they have learned from since.
The journey Liverpool are currently on under Jürgen Klopp has had many bumps along the way.
Who can forget losing 4-3 to Bournemouth, 5-0 to Manchester City or 4-1 to Tottenham Hotspur. That is the nature of this particular beast which now leads the Premier League table by a landslide and remains on course for its third Champions League final in three years.
As the team evolved, lessons became less impactive but no more profound in the fact Liverpool learned from them and became even better. They are now hard to find, hidden in the trenches of their charge to a first league title in 30 years. As the team continually seeks perfection on all fronts tomorrow against West Ham United, they can maybe look at a ground where they last encountered such an overt lesson in how to improve.
It occurred in last season's 1-1 draw, when on 28' minutes when Michail Antonio was rolled in on goal down Liverpool's left channel as they were setting up their defensive shape for a free-kick everyone expected to be crossed into the box. As it was, Liverpool were caught napping and Antonio set in motion a run of frustrating draws around the time which eventually had an impact on their title hopes.
Following the mistake, the Reds returned to their tight defensive record, only conceding seven league goals for the duration of the 2018-19 campaign. Of those, two were from set-pieces, at home to Burnley and away to Newcastle United. So far this term, for the 15 goals conceded, only two have directly come from a set-piece, being Trézéguet's at Aston Villa and Lewis Dunk's at home to Brighton and Hove Albion.
Source.liverpoolfc.com
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