James Collins says West Ham United ‘cannot dwell’ on their defeat at Liverpool and instead must focus all of their attention on Saturday’s Premier League trip to Swansea City.
The former Wales international and his teammates matched the high-powered Reds for 45 minutes at Anfield, only for a weak second-half display to allow Jurgen Klopp’s team to run out 4-1 winners.
Defeat on Merseyside saw the Hammers drop to within three points of the relegation zone ahead of a visit to the Liberty Stadium to face the 18th-place Swans.
“We’re going to have to go to Swansea and then host Burnley in the next couple of weeks and pick up our points from those games,” said Collins.
“I said to the boys in the dressing room that we cannot dwell on what happened at Liverpool, as better teams than us have gone to Anfield and been steamrolled, so we’ve got to look at the video, look at what we did right and what we did wrong and move on to a huge game in Wales on Saturday.
“Morale in the camp is good. We had a good result against Watford and then a couple of weeks of good training, so spirits are high. We’ve got some great characters in that dressing room and we need to focus on Swansea, go there and get a good result.”
We’ve got some great characters in that dressing room and we need to focus on Swansea, go there and get a good result
James Collins
Reflecting at greater length on Saturday’s loss at Anfield, Collins felt it would have been a different game if West Ham had taken one of a number of first-half chances they created.
Marko Arnautovic was denied by two acrobatic saves from Liverpool goalkeeper Loris Karius, while the Hammers also worked the ball into dangerous areas on a number of other occasions, but could not find a way past the German.
Emre Can headed the Reds in front from a corner on the half-hour mark before the hosts took control after the break, adding further goals through Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane, rendering Michail Antonio’s breakaway strike a mere consolation.
Collins admitted the east Londoners were disappointed by their second-half performance.
“If you look at the first half, we played well, but conceded from a set play. In the second half, they went up a few gears and scored three goals. Obviously, we’re not happy with the way they went in, but they’re a very strong team at Anfield.
“We said in the dressing room, if we’d gone 1-0 up, it would have given us something to hang on to, so we were disappointed to go into half-time 1-0 down when we thought we’d played relatively well and coped with them. So, to come out in the second half and not play as we wanted to and concede some goals, we’re obviously disappointed.
“Liverpool have got a bit of everything. They suck you into a false sense of security and then, when they get around the box, it speeds up. We didn’t deal with that in the second half.”