Liverpool’s 5-2 win over West Ham United should have been a straightforward story, but two former Reds used the second-half wobble to highlight a familiar concern about our game management.The criticism came from ex-Liverpool midfielder Don Hutchison and former Liverpool full-back Steve Nicol, speaking on ESPN, and both men pointed to the same old-school standard-setter when describing how the match could have been controlled more calmly.“My biggest worry watching the game was the management of the game when the score hit 3-1,” Hutchison explained.“It was almost like Liverpool’s process in their mentality was: ‘We’re really not comfortable with the 3-1 so we’re going to go out and try to get the 4-1’.”Hutchison then name-checked the former Liverpool player and long-serving coach Ronnie Moran, insisting a figure like that would have demanded calmer choices and punished sloppy moments.“Just keep the ball lads,” Hutchison added.“In a day in which it is Ronnie Moran’s birthday, I could hear him being on comms today shouting and Stevie would as well: ‘Find a red shirt, keep the ball, if you don’t you’re going to get dragged off’.”That theme of standards and concentration fits the feel of the contest, because Liverpool were 3-0 up at half-time, yet the second half still carried an edge once West Ham made it 3-1 and later 4-2.Nicol agreed with Hutchison and said Ronnie Moran’s voice would have been ringing in his ears during the spell where Liverpool committed too many bodies forward and then lost the ball cheaply.“I had Ronnie in my head as well. Don is 100% right,” Nicol said.“They had players streaming forward and had so many men ahead of the ball and then the pass would be a poor one and they’d all be out of the game,” he added.“No game-management. The game management was really poor and if they keep doing that, I’m thinking the Champions League, we could get some barmy results.”Why Ronnie Moran is the reference point for Liverpool standardsHutchison and Nicol’s point lands because Ronnie Moran was effectively Liverpool’s internal enforcer for decades, first as a player and then as a coach who demanded focus and discipline every day.Moran, born in 1934, joined Liverpool as a teenager in 1949, made 379 appearances in all competitions, before becoming a coach and part of the famous boot room until retiring in 1998 after 49 years at the club.That is why his name still gets used as a barometer of standards, especially after a game like West Ham where we were brilliant at times, clinical at others, and still made the closing stages more uncomfortable than they needed to be.Liverpool’s win still matters, but the warning is clear(Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)The result is still hugely important because it moved us onto 48 points after 28 games and kept us level with fourth-placed Manchester United.Moments of brilliance from players like Ryan Gravenberch helped us build up a lead, with Cody Gakpo missing a big chance to extend it, but it should have been more comfortable.Hutchison and Nicol’s critique is a useful reminder that the margin for error tightens in big knockout nights, particularly with the schedule accelerating and Liverpool needing to be sharper with the ball when we are ahead.DOWNLOAD THE OFFICIAL EMPIRE OF THE KOP APP FOR ALL THE LATEST & BREAKING UPDATES – STRAIGHT TO YOUR PHONE! ON APPLE & GOOGLE PLAYThe post Liverpool missed former coach vs West Ham: Hutchison and Nicol appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.