David Moyes was left furious with his West Ham side’s defending as they crashed out of the Carabao Cup at Liverpool and admitted he feared a hammering even more severe than their 5-1 defeat.
The Irons were outplayed by Jurgen Klopp’s side as their hopes of only a second victory at Anfield in 60 years were dashed.
For all the Reds’s excellence, however, they led only 1-0 at half-time and Moyes was particularly infuriated by the goal that doubled the home lead after the break, Curtis Jones running in behind Konstantinos Mavropanos and then squeezing through the legs of Alphonse Areola from a tight angle.
“We were well beaten by a really powerful team tonight,” Moyes said. “I thought Liverpool played really well. They made it difficult for us. The best part was we got in at half-time only 1-0 down and it gave us a bit of a chance.
"I thought we’d actually started okay and we grew into the game a little bit but we gave away a woeful second goal.
"I wouldn’t say it put the game to bed but it made it doubly difficulty to get back and I just thought we’d started to get a little bit of a look in the game, which we hadn’t really had.”
Cody Gakpo’s strike effectively killed the game soon after and while Jarrod Bowen’s effort briefly threatened a respectable scoreline, further goals from Mohamed Salah and Jones capped a rampant display from the home side.
"I’ve got to say, I’ve been here lots of times and been beaten lots of times but tonight was probably the one where I thought: ‘My goodness, how many more are they going to get tonight?’,” Moyes added.
“We weren’t strong enough. I thought the second goal was the biggest turning point. We got in at 1-0, had done well to keep it at that but the second goal was a killer. But it’s easy to say.
"Liverpool did a lot of good things and things that didn’t go for them at the weekend that went for them tonight. Couple of shots that went through legs for goals. Different things went against us.”
