As it happened: LFC 0-0 West Bromwich Albion

Premier League
Wednesday 13 December 2017 - 8:00 pm
Anfield
Liverpool0
0West Brom
Show Match Events
Can68'
71'↔️ Robson-Kanu off, Rodriguez on
Mane off, Solanke on ↔️76'
Wijnaldum off, Oxlade-Chamberlain on ↔️76'
78'↔️ Krychowiak off, Brunt on
Alexander-Arnold off, Gomez on ↔️80'
90' Field
Possession %
7030
Total Shots
146
Shots on Target
51
Shots Blocked
61
Offside
14
Hide Match Events

It's matchday 17 in the Premier League and the reds will be looking to bounce back from the 1-1 Merseyside derby draw at the weekend.

West Brom are still getting to grips with new manager Alan Pardew and will be looking to deliver further Anfield frustration.

The reds managed to get past West Brom twice last season but only with a one goal advantage.

Klopp has rung the changes after Sunday's game - and Coutinho captains the team, whilst both Jordan Henderson and James Milner are named on the bench.

And it's a rare start for the foursome of Salah, Mane, Coutinho and Firmino.

Here's how it unfolded

As it happened...

19:19 UK
Tonight's LFC team

Here's tonight's red men

Karius, Alexander-Arnold, Klavan, Lovren, Robertson, Wijnaldum, Can, Coutinho, Mane, Salah, Firmino.

Subs: Mignolet, Gomez, Milner, Henderson, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ings, Solanke.

19:28 UK
So more changes

That's a total of 6 changes from Sunday's game against Everton.  Klopp had said that a few people were struggling with knocks after the Everton game - and Liverpool do now have a further 2 away games in the next 9 days.

Karius makes only his second Premier League start for the reds this season - he was in goal for the big win over Arsenal.  Coutinho captains the side, as his fellow Brazilian Firmino also returns to the starting XI.

Emre Can and Gini Wijnaldum come in for James Milner and Jordan Henderson and Trent Alexander Arnold comes in as right back - replacing Joe Gomez who is on the bench.

A quick check reveals this is only the 4th time that the 'Fab Four' have started together up front for Liverpool.

19:41 UK
Klopp on goalkeeping switch

As we mentioned earlier Klopp has confirmed that Karius was in because Mignolet received a knock in the game v Everton

“Si got a little knock in the last game, swollen around the ankle.

“If you don’t have another goalkeeper, Si could have played, but there’s Loris. So I think it makes sense that we make the change and hopefully we don’t have to make a change during the game.

“Si did OK today in training, absolutely, but we only had a little session. Yesterday, he couldn’t train. So, that’s the reason for that.”

19:56 UK
Up or down

A Liverpool win tonight would move us back into 4th place, a couple of points behind Chelsea.

Worst case scenario - not winning and Spurs and Arsenal getting their wins elsewhere and the reds could end the night in 7th.

Let's not do that.

20:00 UK
Kick off

Underway at Anfield.  

20:10 UK

8' Not too much excitement just yet at Anfield.  Andy Robertson and Robson-Kanu have just had a little tussle outside West Brom's penalty area which the referee didn't like the look of.

Liverpool looking a little tentative in these opening exchanges.

20:17 UK
Plenty of possession

16' Not a huge amount to show for it yet.

Karius has been distributing the ball from the back with his feet - that should allow the Liverpool players to keep themselves high up the pitch but it's been a fairly sterile start to the game.

Crowd seems a little bit flat and there are a few empty spaces in the West Brom end.

20:19 UK
Well well

17' A bit of excitement.  A wonderful pass from Salah deep towards the touch line - it beats the last defender and Firmino reaches to get the touch but it goes agonisingly wide of the right hand post.

Close.  Best chance so far.

20:23 UK

23' Emre Can caught in possession there.  Turned around to face his own goal with a man closing him down.  Luckily Ragnar Klavan cleared the ball.

Then it's a chance for West Brom, cross from the right hand side and Yacob has space to have a header at goal - it goes over and doesn't trouble Loris Karius.

20:31 UK
Goalless so far

30' We've gone past the half hour mark and so far it has not been electric from Liverpool's talented forward line.  Maybe you can have too many cooks in the kitchen after all.

Klopp has been on his feet urging his players forward.  

20:32 UK
Crossbar!

And not for the reds.  A little purple patch here for West Brom and Hal Robson-Kanu has the time and space to launch a shot which hits the corner of the crossbar.

Danger signs.

20:40 UK
Salah close

38' Trent Alexander Arnold swings in a cross after picking up the ball in defence.  It's gone right into the danger zone but Salah can't quite make up the distance.  If he gets there - that would have been 1-0.

20:42 UK

41' It's a looping ball forward from Robertson - Salah, Mane and Firmino running forwards. 

It's heading towards Mane, but he miscontrols it when Firmino was just to his right.  Chance goes begging as West Brom mop it up.

20:49 UK
Half time

Liverpool 0-0 West Brom

Not a classic.  

The reds have had the better of the chances but although West Brom have been activating Operation Defend they have had a couple of decent opportunities themselves.

A point here isn't going to be a great result so there is much to do in the second half.

Emre Can and Gini Wijnaldum have hardly wrestled midfield dominance away from Jordan Henderson and James Milner.

And there hasn't been a lot of fluidity up front.  Mane looking a litlte low on confidence.

20:54 UK

And this isn't what we want to hear either:

Spurs, Man Utd, Man City and even Everton all leading at half time.  West Ham holding Arsenal to a 0-0 as well.

20:55 UK

21:02 UK
2nd half

We're back at it.  No half time substitutions but hopefully a half time tactical improvement.

21:07 UK
Early WBA Corner

48' Robertson slices the ball out for a corner but when it swings in Wijnaldum gets to it first and heads it away with some power.

21:08 UK
And that's a good free kick

..from West Brom.  Inswinging and puts Karius under pressure - it's dipping under the bar - but the Liverpool number 1 pushes it over for another West Brom corner.

Strong start from the visitors.

21:14 UK
Shot goes wide

56' Liverpool upping the tempo a bit now - couple of good moves involving Mane - this time he plays a one-two with Firmino but drills his shot wide into The Kop.

Better from the reds.  Approaching the final half hour.

21:16 UK
He's waiting for his 20th goal

And Mo Salah should have done better there with another good cross from Trent Alexander Arnold. 

He gets his header all wrong and doesn't cause the keeper any trouble.

21:22 UK
Coutinho free kick

64' It's the same kind of range as he had against Everton at the weekend.  A little bit too far out - but he goes for the shot anyway.  Ben Foster catches it comfortably.

21:26 UK
Yellow card

68' Emre Can picks up a booking - and by the looks of that it might have been for dissent towards the referee after he awarded a free kick.

21:29 UK
Substitution - West Brom

71' Jay Rodriguez comes on for Hal Robson-Kanu in the game's first sub

21:35 UK
Double change for LFC

76' Let's hope this injects some life into proceedings.

Sadio Mane and Gini Wijnaldum head off and on comes Dominic Solanke and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

21:38 UK
Final LFC sub

80' Trent Alexander Arnold goes off and on comes Joe Gomez for the final 10 minutes.

A change for West Brom too.  Grzegorz Krychowiak replaced by Chris Brunt.

Still 0-0 sadly.

21:39 UK
GOAL DISALLOWED

Dominic Solanke puts it in the net - they think that's the opener but the referee has disallowed it for handball.

Ho hum!

21:46 UK
Not looking good

88' Referee now awarding free kicks every time West Brom's players hit by a breeze.  Liverpool just haven't done enough tonight as the clock ticks down.

21:52 UK
FULL TIME

Liverpool 0-0 West Bromwich Albion

Well that album from the Fab Four wasn't a great one.

Hugely disappointing for the reds who have dropped 4 points in 2 Anfield games against, lets be honest here, teams we should be beating.

21:59 UK
Solanke's goal - right to be ruled out?

Big talking point is likely to be whether Dominic Solanke's goal should have been ruled out.  He chested it and it hit his arm - does that warrant a 'deliberate handball'? We'll have to see. 

 

No doubt Klopp will feel aggrieved about the refereeing yet again.

22:28 UK
Thanks for joining us

Two more games until Christmas.  Both away from home - first Bournemouth on Sunday and then a trip to Arsenal on Friday evening!



One comment on
As it happened: LFC 0-0 West Bromwich Albion

  1. Liverpool played the 17th in the league at home and not only could they not beat them, they couldn’t even score a goal. If Klopp has any vestige of shame he would have resigned a long time ago. Clueless team, clueless manager.

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