As Pat Nevin enthused on Monday night, Naby Keita had an outstanding game at the heart of the Liverpool midfield in Sunday's 4-0 thrashing of West Ham.
Conversely, the Hammers midfield were ineffective with the trio of Mark Noble, Jack Wilshere and Ireland youngster Declan Rice struggling.
The latter was discussed by Keith Andrews on our Keith Andrews Show on Thursday and he feels Rice was "hung out to dry".
"I felt the West Ham midfield for the majority of the game, never mind the majority of the 45 minutes, were in no man's land," he said.
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"They were neither stopping balls through to Keita, Firmino dropping as a 10 because that's where he likes to play but when I'm looking at the game, I'm seeing Declan Rice as the one who's wanting to go and press and on a couple of occasions he did try to instigate that press.
"But as he's gone, he's looking around: 'Who's with me? Nobody's with me.'"
Rice was hauled off at half time by West Ham's new manager and ex-Manchester City Premier League-winning boss Manuel Pellegrini and replaced by Robert Snodgrass.
"He was hung out to dry being taken off because will look at that and think, 'taken off after 45 minutes, Declan Rice clearly hasn't played well,'" said Keith.
"Nonsense, absolute nonsense. So defensively, he knows exactly where he should be. Zonally marking, trying to cut those balls. It's very difficult when you're playing with Mark Noble, who is a solid citizen, and Jack Wilshere - don't get me started on him - [who as] an absolute luxury and don't know what he did on Sunday."
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