In truth, the Hammers faithful went into their EFL Cup showdown at Anfield with very little expectation, and in the end, they crumbled to a 5-1 defeat.
There were some talking points, including a few penalty calls being overlooked, especially when the away side were putting some serious pressure on Liverpool at 2-1.
Even when Mohamed Salah came off the bench to score his side’s third goal, West Ham were still in it, but then Edson Alvarez was shown a second yellow card.
That knocked the wind out of their sails and Liverpool just outclassed their out-of-form opponents, with one player, in particular, coming under fire.
Kevin Nolan was in the West Ham dugout for several years with Moyes and he was working for Sky doing some punditry work for the game.
One man who Lopetegui brought to the club in the summer was sought-after centre-back, Jean-Clair Todibo.
But Nolan slammed the 24-year-old’s defending, especially for Liverpool’s fourth and fifth goals and how it was ‘really poor’.
Jamie Redknapp refused to sympathise with the fact that Todibo is new to the league because he felt he was doing the ‘basics’ wrong, including turning his back when Cody Gakpo was shooting and how ‘I can’t stand that’, as he told Sky Sports Football(25/09/24 at 10:10 pm).
“I think it’s really poor defending by Todibo,” said Nolan for Liverpool’s fourth and fifth goals. “On both of these. See where he goes, he is a centre-half and he is going out to the right. Cody Gakpo comes, he is trying to cover Vladimir and that opens up the space. He isn’t looking at the ball.
Redknapp on the fifth goal: “Cody does well and now he has his tail up. He is playing great. Lovely bit of skill on Kudus. Rolls him. Uses him, cuts inside and wants to get on that right foot. Obviously gets a big deflection.
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