West Ham United boss Nuno Espirito Santo shares 'absurd' and 'silly' verdict after Liverpool loss

West Ham United boss Nuno Espirito Santo admitted he had mixed feelings after his side’s loss to Liverpool.

The Hammers fell to a 5-2 defeat at Anfield - although the scoreline did not reflect the game. The Reds led by three goals at half-time, but they were all from set-pieces - through Hugo Ekitike, Virgil van Dijk and Alexis Mac Allister - while the visitors missed a couple of opportunities.

West Ham reduced the arrears twice in the second period, with Tomas Soucek and Valentín Castellanos bagging but a strike from Cody Gakpo and an Axel Disasi own goal ensured Liverpool were never fully in danger.

The defeat leaves the Hammers 18th in the Premier League table as they battle for survival. But Santo felt that West Ham’s reverse was harsh on their performance. He said: “Sorry, it’s hard to explain and maybe it’s absurd to say that it’s a good performance when you lose 5-2. But there are a lot of positives in our game – and a lot of negatives also,” Nuno said. “You go in at half-time and you have your players in front of you and you say; ‘Boys, we are playing well, but we are losing 3-0!

“We created a lot of situations and combined well, but we really made mistakes on our set pieces and the first three goals came from corners,” adds Nuno, who saw Konstantinos Mavropanos, Jarrod Bowen and Tomas Soucek miss fine first-half chances.

“I think in the second-half we started well, scored early [through Tomas Soucek] and created problems for Liverpool. Things that can change the game. Being in front of you guys and saying that it is a good performance maybe sounds really silly from myself, but this is what I saw.

“I saw a team that didn’t give up, that believed they had a chance in the game, but we go home with a poor result.

“It’s frustrating [for the] coaching staff. [Set-piece defending] is something that we’ve been putting a lot of effort and time into to try to make it right. It’s something we’ve been dragging. I think at the beginning of the season it was [an issue], but recently there was a lot of improvement.

“Today, all the first three goals came from corner situations. There’s no other way to look at it: admit that we made mistakes and improve for the next one.”