West Ham faced Liverpool on Wednesday night in the League Cup, and they were promptly given a beating by the Arne Slot-coached side. The Hammers didn’t even look like they belonged in the same league as the Reds, embarrassing themselves in a 5-1 defeat wherein the Liverpool attack ran rampant.
So far, the early returns on a summer of heavy investment from West Ham under new manager Julen Lopetegui haven’t exactly been promising. West Ham sit 14th in the Premier League and now have this humbling defeat to Liverpool to chew on.
There are three players who were profoundly disappointing for West Ham in this one. The first is Lukasz Fabianski, who surrendered five goals for the Hammers and genuinely looked past it as a professional footballer.
Fabianski has been one of the better Premier League goalkeepers over the past decade, once saving over 70 percent of the shots he faced in six consecutive seasons.
Now, Fabianski is looking at a second straight season with a 66 percent save percentage, and he hit a new low on Wednesday night against Liverpool, moving around like exactly you’d picture a washed-up, 39-year-old goalkeeper would.
For anyone out there who still tried to argue that Fabianski is better or anywhere near as good as Alphonse Areola, this display in the League Cup had to have been the final nail in the coffin.
Jean-Clair Todibo is on the opposite end of the spectrum career-wise, as he is a young, up-and-coming center back with a Barcelona pedigree who was one of the best defenders in Ligue 1 over the past couple of seasons.
He even snubbed Juventus to join West Ham from Nice, and he is basically auditioning for a permanent job as a Premier League starter. With more performances like this one, though, Todibo could be out of even this loan job at West Ham.
Todibo was putrid against Liverpool. He looked completely lost defensively and nothing like the player we have seen blossom into a top-class center back for Nice.
He was wasteful in possession and overrun defensively in a completely uncharacteristic performance. The 24-year-old will have better days, and, hopefully for West Ham, those better days come very soon.
Finally, another real talent, midfielder Edson Alvarez, played well below his standard against Liverpool, and although he’s never been known as a ball-playing midfielder, he really outdid himself against the Reds.
Alvarez was a human hot potato, completing fewer than 80 percent of his passes and frequently gifted the ball right to Liverpool. If Alvarez wants to keep starting every week for West Ham, then he really has to get better at holding onto the ball and actually creating more threatening outcomes for opponents after he makes a pass.
Compounding matters, Alvarez was sent off for picking up two yellow cards, so if there were any positives to take away from the game in terms of his defensive screening, then those went out the window with the sort of mindless late challenge you’d expect only the most immature of youth players to make on a yellow card – not a 26-year-old starting games for West Ham.
The managing editor of The Trivela Effect, Kevin has 15 years of experience in digital media. He covered Real Madrid from 2019-2022 for The Real Champs as a site manager. You can contact him at the site’s official Twitter handle @TrivelaEffect or via the site’s official email thetrivelaeffect@gmail.com.