Liverpool v West Ham: Reds to respond to rare defeat in style

RUNAWAY leaders Liverpool host West Ham on Monday night. We asked Tom Love (@TomLove_18) to source the best bets from the Premier League encounter.

Liverpool v West Ham | Monday 24th February 2020, 20:00 | Sky Sports

Liverpool are having to do something they aren’t used to on Monday night and that’s respond to a defeat.

Jurgen Klopp was rather spiky in his post-match press conference after that 1-0 loss in Madrid and understandably so. He did mention that they need to take their frustration out on their next opponents and couple that with their formidable home record and, well, good luck West Ham.

The Hammers have been wholly underwhelming this season and fans aren’t fully taken back by the idea of David Moyes as manager and the toxicity between the fans and the board make it difficult to see any positives at the club in its current guise.

The summer transfer business looked good on paper at West Ham but the lack of joined up thinking in terms of playing style and managerial appointments and dearth of long term strategy has meant real underachievement.

Moyes fielded five defenders, two holding midfielders and no recognised striker in their game against Manchester City last week and it would not surprise me if he goes with something similar here. It’s going to be some effort to get anything here even if they’re ultra defensive. Liverpool are kings of playing against all styles and it should be a case of damage limitation for the London side.

Trying to get value out of these kind of games can prove a difficult task and you do have to be creative in eeking out a backable price. I was initially looking at Liverpool -2 on the Asian Handicap but it’s a bit too short to put up. I’ll therefore head to the BetBuilder market and combine Liverpool half-time/Liverpool full-time with Under 6 Goals in the game which pays 5/6.

So much success for Liverpool has come from coming out the blocks quickly and I expect them to go hammer and tongues from the get-go. The Reds have gone into the break winning and go onto win the game in five of their last six meetings with West Ham. They’ve also kept clean sheets in 10 of their last 11 so it would be a surprise if the visitors got on the scoresheet, especially given their poor away record.