Player Ratings: Liverpool vs West Ham – August 12th 2018

9.5. It is hard to describe Naby Keita’s Premier League debut as anything but amazing. He was literally all over the field today, whether it was building the attack or pressuring West Ham attackers into coughing up the ball, Naby was there. You can already see how he will impact this team going forward, and how his dribbling and link up play will only make our attack more threatening. He set up the Salah goal with a nice weighted through ball to Robertson and quarterbacked many of the key chances Liverpool failed to score on. He fought to get the ball back in our defensive third and his work rate was immense, to me, he might be the difference maker this year.. Midfielder. Liverpool. NABY KEITA (MAN OF THE MATCH)

9.5. James Milner had his dose of Ribena for breakfast this morning. The 32 year old looked like he was 20, as he was Liverpool’s force in the middle today. Played a deeper role for Klopp at times getting into more of a defensive midfielder role, switching with Gini, and did a fantastic job controlling the ball. Milner’s passing was near perfect as he assissted on Mane’s first goal and set up Sturridge’s goal near the end of the match. The Mane pass was a perfectly timed ball back across the goal for the Senegal forward to finish while the Sturridge goal was a corner that deflected off a West Ham player, finished by our striker on the other end. You can most definitely make a case for our second captain to be the man of the match as well.. Midfielder. Liverpool. JAMES MILNER

8. Sometimes Gini loves to go missing during a football match, and by the end of it you wonder where he was for the full 90 minutes. That was not the case today. It was a solid shift put in by the Dutch midfielder. He got up and down the field, was involved in some defense as well as a lot of the build up play in our chances. Wijnaldum even had a few chances fall to him where he took a little bit of a heavy touch. That has always been something Liverpool fans have critisized him for, but after picking up two goals in preseason and having some chances today, things our looking up for our often forgotten man in the middle.. Midfielder. Liverpool. GINI WIJNALDUM

N/A. Really want to give Shaqiri a rating today on his debut, but he just came on too late in the game to make a difference. You could tell he was trying and he was an immediate shot of energy into the team when he came in which makes me hopeful of how we can use him going forward in more challenging games. But for today, the Swiss man goes scoreless.. Midfielder. Liverpool. XHERDAN SHAQIRI

JORDAN HENDERSON. N/A. Was Liverpool’s first substitution at around the 70th minute, but that was also the time where the game started to slow down and our skipper did not have the time he needed to really change the game at all. No rating.. Midfielder. Liverpool