‘The real truth is…’ – Steve Nicol sounds warning note for Liverpool despite ‘deserved’ win | OneFootball

Steve Nicol was pleased with Liverpool’s ‘deserved’ victory over West Ham on Sunday but has advised Reds supporters not to get carried away with the result.

The Premier League champions travelled to the London Stadium off the back of nine defeats in 12 games and with some pundits warning that Arne Slot’s job could soon become ‘untenable’ if our struggles continued throughout December.

Thankfully, the Merseysiders came away with a 2-0 win thanks to goals from Alexander Isak and Cody Gakpo, with the Irons rarely threatening apart from a brief spell early in the second half and a late chance for Jarrod Bowen.

Nicol pleased with Liverpool but not getting carried away

As he digested what he watched on Sunday, Nicol said that Liverpool ‘100% deserved to win the game’ and was pleased with the lack of ‘drama’ in east London, but he added the caveat that the Reds will face much tougher opposition in forthcoming fixtures.

The ex-LFC defender said on ESPN FC: “This was the perfect game for Liverpool away from home against a West Ham side who, in terms of going forward, it’s Jarrod Bowen and nothing else. It was the perfect game for Liverpool.

“The fact that Alisson didn’t have any saves to make, the fact that it was a clean sheet – every stat you want to listen to was there that, if you look at it on paper from a defensive point of view, it was fantastic. No chances, no drama…Liverpool really were in control of this game and it was a case of when would they score.

“It’s a good result, all the things you want, but the real truth is that they ain’t playing West Ham every week.”

(Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

A good starting point for Liverpool, but tougher tests await

It’d be safe to say that no Liverpool supporter will be losing the run of themselves just because of yesterday’s result. The Reds were vastly improved and were good value for their win, but as Nicol said, there are much tougher tests to come this month.

We only had two more shots than West Ham overall, but that the home side failed to get any on target is a credit to LFC’s defensive work and also an indictment of how little threat the Irons posed in attack, aside from Bowen. That’s not to mention Lucas Paqueta’s self-destructive meltdown.

It felt as though we had turned a corner after beating Aston Villa and Real Madrid in quick succession a month ago, but then came three harrowing defeats which plunged the Merseysiders into crisis territory before the cathartic victory at the London Stadium.

Sunderland will almost certainly ask many more questions of Liverpool on Wednesday than Nuno Espirito Santo’s team did yesterday, while forthcoming opponents Leeds belied their lowly Premier League position with a valiant performance away to Manchester City at the weekend.

Nicol is right – the result on Sunday should be a starting point for a revival rather than a major triumph in itself, but at least the Reds played with much more control than in recent weeks and there’s now a solid platform from which to build in our upcoming fixtures.

You can watch Slot’s full post-West Ham press conference via Empire of the Kop on YouTube: