Two of Liverpool’s less culpable players from the awful loss to West Ham yesterday, Dejan Lovren and Simon Mignolet, have spoken of their anger following the 2-0 defeat.
Mignolet actually kept us in the game in the second-half, while Lovren was mostly solid at the back as well against a Hammers outfit who clearly wanted it more at Upton Park.
Michael Antonio gave Slaven Bilic’s men an early lead before Andy Carroll confirmed their win with another header later on.
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“We are disappointed. It wasn’t the best performance from us and we need to be angry with ourselves,” Lovren began.
“We could and we need to do more because when you look to the two [previous] games, today it was something different.
“I don’t know the reasons why but we need to step up quickly from this because we don’t have time to think about it now, because we have the game with Stoke on Tuesday.
“We definitely need to change our mentality and we need to keep a better run of games and to fight more. It was two easy goals [conceded], I would say.
“We left them space to cross early and then it’s difficult [to defend] for Clyney and Alberto because Carroll is 6ft5, so it’s easier for him. We need to step up and forget this as soon as possible. We have a game in the cup against Stoke and it’s a big chance for us to get to the final.
“So we need to stay calm and say tomorrow is a new day and we’ll start to prepare for the Stoke game and try to be in the final.”
Mignolet has had to read countless links between Liverpool and new keepers since Jurgen Klopp’s arrival, such as the Marc Andre ter Stegen rumour (via the Mirror), but he’s adamant that we’ll bounce back on Tuesday in the League Cup semi-final.
Liverpool travel to Stoke City, having qualified for the semis thanks to the 6-1 Southampton thumping in the quarterfinal.
“We’ve got a new game coming up very early, the semi-final, so hopefully we can put things straight there because it’s very important. Hopefully we can do well against Stoke,” said the Belgian.
“Any game we play we want to win. We focus on the next game in hand. We’re featuring in all competitions and that’s a positive thing.
“We can do well in all of the cup competitions we’re featuring in. We’ll try to do our best in the next game – that’s Stoke so we’ll focus on that.”
The Stoke game will hopefully give the players the chance to put the West Ham nightmare behind them. We’ve been relaxed in cup competitions under Klopp so far, and it’ll be interesting to see what kind of lineup the manager goes with. After the 2-0 loss, we wouldn’t be surprised if there’s some changes – although his hands are largely tied by injury.