Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah must take responsibility. Nunez is the definition of wasteful and Salah just clearly isn’t fully fit. Combined, they have passed up 4.47 worth of non-penalty expected goals between them – that’s 36 per cent of the total outlay. And, of course, they both failed to score from open play during that run with Salah’s two goals in that period coming from the penalty spot.
Against Fulham when Nunez and Salah were both dropped, Liverpool scored three times from an expected goals tally of just 1.04. Jurgen Klopp’s persistence with the pair has probably cost Liverpool a shot at the title. I wouldn’t be going anywhere near the 1/2 with Sky Bet for the away win if both Nunez and Salah start that’s for sure.
With West Ham’s current malaise and David Moyes seemingly set for the boot, added to Liverpool’s season being all but done with, this game might drift into a low-key spectacle.
This means the under cards line is a runner. Past meetings point to that anyway with just seven yellow cards being shown in the last five Premier League games between the two – it’s officially the tamest fixtures of all Premier League fixtures to have been played at least five times since the start of the 21/22 season.
