West Ham United lost 3-2 away at Liverpool on Monday night.
Pundits Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville have both hailed West Ham United for their performance against Liverpool on Monday night.
The Hammers headed to Anfield with few giving them a chance of picking up a result, having turned in a meek, lifeless display at Manchester City just days ago.
Liverpool took the lead through Gini Wijnaldum, but West Ham were impressive, causing problems from set pieces – and that’s how they equalised as Issa Diop headed past Alisson.
West Ham then remarkably took the lead, as Declan Rice picked out Pablo Fornals to score, giving David Moyes and co hope of a dream result at Anfield.
However, Mohamed Salah’s shot somehow squirmed through Lukasz Fabianski’s fingers to level the game again, and Sadio Mane then scored from close range to break West Ham hearts.
Still, this was much more like it from West Ham. They used the ball well when they won it, they broke well, they were composed, they created openings from dead balls; Moyes will have seen plenty to be encouraged by.
That won’t count for much right now given that West Ham remain in the bottom three having failed to take anything from the game, but Carragher and Neville hailed the Hammers for their display.
Speaking to Sky Sports (24/02, 9:55pm), Carragher suggested that this is now the template that West Ham need to take moving forward, believing this is a much better approach than the one shown at Manchester City.
Neville added that he had no hope for West Ham, but they proved him wrong with a fine performance, claiming they ‘contributed massively’ and were unfortunate not to claim a point, believing that they now have something to build on ahead of this weekend’s crucial clash with Southampton.
“It was a brilliant game, and West Ham played a major part,” said Carragher. “For West Ham, who we’ve been very critical of before the game after their approach at Man City and other games, that’s the template for them going forward.”
“To be honest with you, I never held any hope at all for West Ham, didn’t think we’d have a game going into the last half an hour, I thought we’d just be sat there twiddling our thumbs thinking ‘this is a procession’. West Ham tonight contributed enormously, my feeling in the tunnel before the game was just ‘give us a match, give us something that we can take away from it’ – and West Ham have done that tonight,” added Neville.
“There have been times where I’ve watched West Ham this season; there was a Friday Night Football a month or so ago at Sheffield United where I was embarrassed at the mentality of the West Ham team at the end of the game when they were doing their interviews. Tonight, they were unfortunate not to get a point, they had chances going into the last minute of the game, that’s more like it from West Ham. We saw some damning statistics before the game about how they’ve been playing in this last few weeks, but Jamie’s just said it – that’s the template for them, they can take something from that,” he continued.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
