It’s one thing for a team to lose two first-choice centre-backs to injury, but another to lose their replacements as well. With Joe Gomez and Virgil van Dijk still out for the foreseeable, Liverpool had to make do without Fabinho in the midweek thanks to a “minor muscle issue”.
Despite ending a five-match winless run in the league against Tottenham on Thursday evening, the sense of relief was tempered by Joel Matip’s forced withdrawal at half time with an ankle problem.
Jurgen Klopp described Liverpool’s defensive injury crisis as “incredible” after that match, admitting his side would make a last-minute push to bring in defensive cover.
The absence of Fabinho and Matip left him with little choice but to pair Jordan Henderson and Nathaniel Phillips in the centre of defence for Sunday’s trip to the London Stadium to face an in-form West Ham, with 19-year-old Rhys Williams as the only recognised centre-back on the bench.
While Henderson and Phillips had 45 minutes to develop their nascent defensive partnership against Spurs, this was their first time starting together at the back.
Klopp praised Henderson for being “football smart” before the 3-1 win over the Hammers, suggesting that his leadership skills have made him uniquely adaptable to his new position. The fact remains that Henderson is a midfielder and marshalling the defence alongside a relatively inexperienced academy graduate is no easy task.
That made Sunday’s performance even more impressive, though Liverpool ceded their clean sheet to a late consolation from Craig Dawson.
The pair looked steady in the first half, Henderson taking on the role of distributor as Phillips did much of the legwork. One of the advantages of playing a midfielder at centre-back is that they can produce killer passes seemingly from nowhere, as Henderson showed with the floated ball up to Sadio Mane which instigated Liverpool’s opener against Spurs.
He almost repeated the trick here, stroking a long ball to Mohamed Salah as he made a storming run through the middle of West Ham’s defence. Salah laid it off to Xherdan Shaqiri in a menacing position, but his fierce drive was blocked.
While Henderson was reinventing himself as a defensive playmaker, Phillips opted for short, simple passes and made sure to do the basics. He was strong in the air, read West Ham’s long balls proactively and, despite an anxious moment when Michail Antonio almost peeled away from him to go one-on-one, he recovered well from his mistakes.
With a front three of Antonio, Jarrod Bowen and Pablo Fornals plus Said Benrahma sitting in behind them, West Ham had no shortage of pace or trickery in attack. Barring a couple of hiccups – Antonio fired narrowly wide soon after the restart when a quick counter-attack left them scrambling to get back into position – Henderson and Phillips did an admirable job of containing them.
With Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold both putting in huge shifts in support, Liverpool didn’t look like a team suffering from an improvised defence. Henderson and Phillips were even more assured in the second half, though that may have been down to the game swinging decisively in Liverpool’s favour.
Henderson found more and more space to maraud forwards, earning a clattering from Declan Rice for his troubles, while Phillips continued to win his duels and clearances. Henderson threatened to set up a goal with a spectacular long ball on a few occasions, though Liverpool ultimately won thanks to moments of genius elsewhere.
Dawson’s goal to make it 3-1 was something of a reality check, Liverpool’s defence caught cold at a corner to gift him a simple finish. Still, while instinct suggests that Liverpool cannot continue to field such a makeshift back four and maintain their title defence, Henderson and Phillips showed that they have it in them to rise to the occasion.
Fans are understandably desperate for the club to make a signing before the window closes and late reports on Sunday suggested Preston’s Ben Davies could be drafted in. But this performance should give Klopp some confidence that he has a short-term solution to his centre-back problem.
It might not be ideal but, for the moment at least, Henderson and Phillips are capable of holding Liverpool’s back line together.
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