Liverpool 0-0 West Bromwich Albion

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said his side could not complain after failing to unpick a stubborn West Brom's defence in a frustrating stalemate at Anfield.

"We didn't use them and we have to accept the result."

Roberto Firmino screwed a side-foot finish narrowly wide before Trent Alexander-Arnold's cross eluded Mohamed Salah in the first half.

The Baggies came just as close before the interval, however, with Hal Robson-Kanu's measured curling shot from distance flicking the bar.

Liverpool pressed further forward in the second with Salah mis-timing a header with the net gaping.

Substitute Dominic Solanke, who added another attacking focal point off the bench for the hosts, had a goal disallowed for handball and a shot cleared off the line in the final 10 minutes as West Brom's defence remained unbreached.

• Reaction from Wednesday's Premier League games

It was a worryingly familiar feeling at the full-time whistle for the Reds after Everton's rearguard action earned a point on Sunday, and Manchester United and Burnley deployed similar tactics with similar success earlier this season.

The Reds are behind Tottenham and outside the top four on goal difference. At the opposite end of the table, a hard-earned point takes Alan Pardew's side out of the bottom three.

'Fab Four' reunion falls flat

Jurgen Klopp refused to entertain what-might-have-beens in the wake of the derby but his team selection was telling.

By picking Salah, Firmino, Sadio Mane and Philippe Coutinho from the start he trained Liverpool's four biggest attacking threats - a prospect the Toffees had been spared - on the West Brom defence.

The full weight of the hosts' attacking quality stressed and strained the West Brom rearguard but ultimately could not force a breakthrough.

Frustratingly for a team that had 71% of possession, the Reds often posed most threat when West Brom were on the ball in the first half.

One jet-heeled counter attack, sprung from a West Brom corner, floundered on Mane's heavy touch as the Baggies found themselves out of position, while another culminated in Alexander-Arnold's cross just away from Salah's stretching boot.

Solanke and Oxlade-Chamberlain added energy and guile off the bench late on, but the relief around Anfield when the former bundled into the net in the 82nd minute proved short-lived as referee Paul Tierney rightly blew up for an accidental handball.

Pardew starts to turn the tanker

West Brom have conceded only two more goals than Liverpool in the Premier League, but scored 22 less than the hosts.

Pardew, only three matches into his reign at the Hawthorns, has promised more ambition in attack to right that lop-sided statistic.

But this match, following defeat by bottom side Swansea at the weekend, was not the one to start implementing that longer-term vision.

Instead, despite James McClean and Robson-Kanu's initial eagerness to support to lone frontman Salomon Rondon, it owed more to the qualities instilled by Pardew's predecessor Tony Pulis.

For the most part, McClean and Robson-Kanu tucked back to shore up a bank of five men in front of the defence.

That flexible formation gummed up Liverpool's fluid attack, without entirely blunting West Brom's threat going forward.

A string of swirling Grzegorz Krychowiak deliveries into the Liverpool box after the break caused Loris Karius, in the Liverpool goal for Simon Mignolet, some real discomfort.

With the late pressure piling on and a visit from Manchester United to come however, the visitors gladly took the point.

Man of the match - Trent Alexander-Arnold

West Brom's winless run reached record levels - match stats

• This was just the fifth time Liverpool have failed to score in a Premier League home game under Jurgen Klopp - they had scored at least once in 38 of their previous 42.
• The Reds are unbeaten in their last eight games in the Premier League (winning five and drawing thee); their longest run without defeat in the competition since November 2016 (11 games).
• However, Klopp's side have drawn five of their last seven games at Anfield in the Premier League (winning two), including each of the last three.
• West Brom have not won any of their last 16 games in all competitions (drawing eight and losing eight); the longest winless run in the club's history.
• Similarly, the Baggies are winless in 15 games in the Premier League - their only longer such run in the competition came between February 2006 and August 2008 (16 games).
• Fourteen points is West Brom's worst haul after 17 games of a Premier League season since 2008-09 (12 points), when they were relegated after a 20th-place finish.

'You need a bit of luck' - match quotes

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp on Solanke's disallowed goal: It is for sure chest and then I am not sure if handball. We cannot take the decision back so all good, it is like this.

"First half we were a little bit stiff, the passing and movement was not so good but even then we had two or three chances. The second half we changed the system two or three times.

"We can do better and we have to do better but on a night like this when you are not at your best you need a bit of luck."

West Brom boss Alan Pardew: "We were so disappointed to lose at Swansea, we didn't think we deserved to, but you have to earn your right and we were excellent in all aspects of our defending today.

"We are growing with defensive confidence. It is looking a little bit brighter tonight."

What's next?

Liverpool travel to Bournemouth on Sunday with West Brom at home to Manchester United on the same afternoon.