A big component of yesterday’s plan to thwart Liverpool failed – big time – as the wheels came off and Liverpool scored three times against West Ham’s ragged defence in the first half.

The Hammers ‘set piece hoodoo’ came back to haunt them as the defence failed to gather two second balls with depressing results: The Irons were three behind at half time and never really looked like getting back in the game.

It wasn’t for lack of trying. The Hammers’ defence had apparently been working on one key component of Liverpool’s set piece offensive arsenal – stopping defender Virgil Van Dijk. Which didn’t work out too well.

Mateus Fernandes, reported by Liverpool fan site empireofthekop.com, admitted that West Ham’s plan to stop the goals going in from set pieces was focussed on their captain:

“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.

West Ham United’s epic ‘fail’ -stopping Virgil Van Dijk

“We worked on stopping Van Dijk...