West Ham admit they targeted one Liverpool player all week – it still didn’t work

Liverpool’s set-piece threat was the story West Ham United could not solve at Anfield, and Mateus Fernandes has now admitted the visitors targeted Virgil van Dijk before kick-off but still failed to stop the damage.

Arne Slot’s side beat West Ham 5-2 in the Premier League on Saturday, with three first-half goals giving us control of the match, even if the second half carried an edge at 3-1 and again at 4-2.

Fernandes, speaking to whufc.com after the game, made it clear West Ham felt they were competing in open play but got punished in the moments that decide matches against top sides.

“It’s frustrating, because I thought we played well overall in the first half,” Fernandes said.

“We conceded three goals from set-pieces, and these are the details you need to be on top of.”

The 21-year-old midfielder then confirmed the specific name on West Ham’s tactical checklist.

“We worked on stopping Van Dijk during the week, because we know how good he is in those situations, but we weren’t able to stop them scoring.”

That line tells you everything about the Dutch captain’s current impact, because Virgil van Dijk has become more than a defensive organiser when games turn into dead-ball battles.

His equal blend of dominance and timing showed again against West Ham, as he scored once and posted a strong all-round defensive display.

Virgil van Dijk’s West Ham numbers show why he is such a problem

Here is what SofaScore credited to Virgil van Dijk in the 5-2 win:

Those numbers underline why opponents can plan for Van Dijk and still struggle, because you are not only fighting one header, you are fighting the delivery, the blockers, and the chaos that follows.

Liverpool’s control still has to match our scoring

West Ham did have spells after the break, and Fernandes insisted his side stayed in the game mentally.

“We kept believing though, and we went into the second half knowing that everything can change very quickly,” Fernandes said.

“We scored first which was good, but then they killed the game.”

That “killed the game” line is interesting from our perspective, because it sits alongside the wider post-match theme that Liverpool can still manage moments better even when we are winning.

Don Hutchison and Steve Nicol both referenced Ronnie Moran when criticising how open the match became after it went to 3-1, which is a reminder that the Champions League will punish sloppy sequences even more sharply.

Owen Hargreaves, meanwhile, has backed Liverpool to finish in the top five, pointing to experience as a key difference in the run-in.

For now, though, this was a match where West Ham’s own debrief confirmed the obvious: they tried to take away Van Dijk at set plays, and Liverpool still found a way to land the blows that mattered.

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