Eye-opener for lethargic Pool

Liverpool’s long-awaited and emotional return to the Champions League is providing manager Brendan Rodgers with a Premier League hangover – and a steep learning curve — after he was outwitted by wily Sam Allardyce and left mulling a difficult conundrum that appears to have no simple answers ahead to the Merseyside derby.

West Ham’s 3-1 victory at Upton Park was well deserved and leaves Liverpool slumped in mid-table with only six points from five games and struggling to rediscover the glittering form of last season that made them surprise title contenders.

Part of the problem of course is the departure of Luis Suarez and injuries to key players such as Daniel Sturridge; but the significance of balancing Premier League and Champions League football, and the complications of using a larger squad to accommodate it, were the defining factor on Saturday as Liverpool produced a performance that was woefully short on energy and belief.

Perhaps a hard-fought and dramatic victory over Ludogorets in the club’s return to Europe a few days earlier, secured with a last-minute penalty from Steven Gerrard, took more out of the team than Rodgers expected. It was little wonder Allardyce was delighted when he discovered the majority of that team were also selected to face his West Ham side at Upton Park.

“For me it was good to see that,” he said. “That was our plan. We did a high press based on the fact it’s the first time Liverpool have been in the Champions League for four years and that was such a big game for Liverpool — to be back there, the atmosphere at Anfield.

“It’s not only physically, but emotionally that it affects you and I think that most the team that played in that game played here today. So we thought they would want to control the tempo and get it quite slow to begin with and feel their way into the game. We wanted to counteract that.”

West Ham certainly achieved that, rattling Liverpool with their high-energy, high-pressing game and marauding into a 2-0 lead within seven minutes. The first, from a set piece, underlined the away team’s Achilles heel as James Tomkins headed Stewart Downing’s free-kick back across goal for Winston Reid to force home. The second was more spectacular as the impressive Diafra Sakho cleverly floated a chip over Simon Mignolet’s head and into the far corner of the net .

Raheem Sterling, the one shining light in a poor Liverpool display, did make it 2-1 with an unerring shot after an effort from Mario Balotelli had been blocked; but in truth West Ham should have been further ahead at half-time, and dealt comfortably with Rodgers’ side in the second half despite dropping deeper and deeper into their own penalty area as Liverpool dominated possession. The game was sealed late on when Mamadou Sakho gave the ball away and Downing pounced to set up Morgan Amalfitano for a clever finish.

Rodgers, at 41, is still finding his way. He talks so eloquently, so enthusiastically and so convincingly in media interviews that it masks the fact he has only three years of Premier League experience and minimal exposure to European football. Listening to Allardyce then, who experienced European football during his time at Bolton and had an excellent record in domestic matches immediately after big European nights, should be an education.

Recalling his tactics during those days at the Reebok, Allardyce said: “For away games we noticed that everyone flew back straight after the game and our idea was not to fly back until the day after.

“In the home games it was about making sure we had enough players in the squad and being brave enough to change them. We wouldn’t play the same player on a Thursday night as we did on a Sunday.”

That’s certainly something for Rodgers to mull over, especially as Liverpool’s forthcoming Champions League games include much bigger and more glamorous ties than the Bulgarian Champions. Real Madrid are due at Anfield in October, for instance, with Hull arriving three days later – a juxtaposition that may need careful handling.

“I don’t want to criticise the players,” said Rodgers, who admits his first experience of a Champions League week has been an eye-opener. “This has been a great group to work with, we’ve added a number of players to that this season and we’ll be better as the season goes on. We have no excuses today, we just weren’t at our level.”

WEST HAM: Adrian 7, Demel 6 (Jenkinson 61, 6), Tomkins 7, Reid 8, Cresswell 7, Noble 8, Kouyate 8, Song 8 (Amalfitano 69, 7), Sakho 7, Downing 8, Valencia 7 (Collins 76).

LIVERPOOL: Mignolet 5, Manquillo 4 (Sakho 22, 5), Skrtel 5, Lovren 5, Moreno 6, Gerrard 5, Lucas 5 (Lallana 46, 6), Henderson 6, Sterling 8, Borini 6 (Lambert 75, 5), Balotelli 6.

Att: 34, 977

Referee: Craig Pawson (South Yorkshire).