Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish: We got what we deserved following defeat to West Ham United

FA Cup – Manchester United vs Liverpool, Kenny Dalglish(Getty Images)

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Kenny Dalglish admits the Liverpool players “got what they deserved” following the 3-1 loss to West Ham, and claimed that, with how well his team had been playing recently, they were due to slip up at some stage.

Dalglish also spoke about injuries suffered during the match, with Martin Kelly in particular looking in trouble, as he left the pitch before half-time with a hamstring problem.

“He has pulled his hamstring and Raul got a kick in the knee,” Dalglish told reporters. “Obviously Martin is more serious than Raul.

“With a hamstring he might be struggling for next Sunday [against rivals Manchester United] – though I wouldn’t take it as a given because I wouldn’t know. But I would have thought with a hamstring it takes a bit longer than a week. With Raul we don’t know.”

“The players have done fantastic up until here and I suppose there was always going to be some time when we lost a game.

“I think the credit the boys have had has been deserved and I think they’ll stand up and be honest with themselves today and say they probably got what they deserved – and that was nothing.

“We are disappointed with the way we played. We started by looking comfortable at the beginning but they got a goal – that gave them something to hold on to and something to make them believe in themselves.

“There was nothing West Ham did that surprised us because they are fighting for survival. After they scored they got a lot of belief but we never played as well as we’re capable of playing, we never passed it as well as we can pass it and we never took the chances that came our way.

“The last 20-25 minutes we started to play a little bit like we can play. We got the goal quite near the end and I thought maybe we’d steal a point but Carlton Cole got a goal at the other end.

“There were a couple of penalty shouts and maybe a break of the ball here and there but we’ll go in on Tuesday morning and try and manage and correct the mistakes we’ve made. That’s all we can do.

“I don’t know whether this was the aftermath for some of the boys from what happened on Thursday night, because that was a tough game. We didn’t seem to be as good as we have been.

“It’s not just losing that’s disappointing – it’s the way we played.”

Some better injury news for Liverpool was that Andy Carroll is close to making his debut for the Anfield club.

“He’s better than bang on schedule,” said Dalglish. “We never pencilled in a date when Andy’s going to play. As soon as he’s okay we’ll get him involved. Whether that’s next week, the week after or after that, we’ll just have to wait and see. There is nothing that has happened since he came in that’s had an adverse effect on his progress.”

One journalist was left feeling the fool towards the end of the conference when probing Dalglish about rumours of contract offer at Anfield.

“A contract from who?” replied Dalglish. “From the club,” replied the reporter.

“I thought you meant the wife was putting me under contract again!

“If there is any news to be told we’ll tell you. I’m happy to be here, I’ll do what I’ve got to do for the club that means an awful lot to me.

“There’s never been a discussion other than the first ones so I’m not sure where they [the Sunday newspaper] have got that from.”

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