‘Gets it so wrong’ – Stephen Warnock laments Liverpool man’s horror moment against West Ham
Stephen Warnock was left lamenting a horrendous moment for one Liverpool player in the second half against West Ham this afternoon.
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The Reds went in at half-time with a resounding 3-0 lead, with Hugo Ekitike opening the scoring inside the first five minutes before Virgil van Dijk and Alexis Mac Allister extended the advantage.
To the visitors’ credit, they came out with renewed purpose after the interval and pulled a goal back through Tomas Soucek just four minutes after the restart, although the home side should’ve swiftly restored the three-goal gap.
Warnock laments horrendous ‘shank’ fom Gakpo
After a Joe Gomez throw-in cleared a glut of players in the penalty area, the ball fell to Cody Gakpo in space at the back post, but the Dutchman dragged his shot wide from close range despite not being under any pressure from West Ham.
Warnock could hardly believe what he’d witnessed from Liverpool’s number 18 as he said on BBC Radio 5 Live: “That is a shank. Cody Gakpo shins it and he gets it so wrong. That was a simple chance for him.”
Gakpo later put things right with neat finish
Having come into the game with just one goal in the Premier League since netting against the Irons in November, the 26-year-old could’ve done with setting that right amid strong online criticism of his performances (with Ian Doyle condemning some of the more severe abuse of the forward).
He could hardly have asked for a better chance than the one which fell his way in the 53rd minute, and an attacker of his capabilities ought to have buried it past Mads Hermansen, or at the very least forced a strong save from the goalkeeper.
It was an ideal opportunity to quickly answer Soucek’s goal and effectively put the game to bed, but at 3-1 it meant that West Ham continued to hold out hope throughout a second half which became nervy at times for Liverpool.
However, when Gakpo found himself in a similar position just before the 70th minute, he curled a shot past Hermansen and into the Irons’ net – perhaps with the aid of a deflection off Aaron Wan-Bissaka, but it’ll absolutely go down as the Dutchman’s eighth goal of the season.
As horrific as the earlier miss had been, it was the perfect way for the 26-year-old to bounce back from that unenviable moment and realistically kill off the game as a contest.
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