Nuno Espirito Santo makes 'absurd' claim after being left frustrated by Liverpool loss

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Liverpool Echo IconSportFootballLiverpool FCLiverpool moved up to fifth in the Premier League table on Saturday with a 5-2 win over West Ham United at Anfield but Nuno Espirito Santo believes the outcome could have been differentWest Ham United boss Nuno Espirito Santo described his side's 5-2 defeat at the hands of Liverpool on Saturday night as 'hard to explain'.The Reds appeared to take complete control of the match after first-half goals from Hugo Ekitike, Virgil van Dijk and Alexis Mac Allister gave them a 3-0 half-time lead, but that did not tell the full story of the opening 45 minutes, with the Hammers creating plenty of opportunities of their own, without supplying the killer instinct.That arrived early in the second half when Tomas Soucek pulled a goal back at the Kop end and although Cody Gakpo restored Liverpool's three-goal advantage, Taty Castellanos struck a second West Ham goal to set up a nervy finish, before Axel Disasi turned Jeremie Frimpong's cross into his own net to end the contest.READ MORE: Arne Slot details bad Florian Wirtz injury news after Liverpool beat West Ham UnitedDespite the 5-2 scorline, Nuno saw plenty to be positive about. Maybe it is absurd to say that it is a good performance when you lose 5-2."But there's a lot of positive in our game.

But you go off at half-time and you have your players in front of you and you say: 'Boys you are playing good, but we are losing three zero'."We create a lot of situations and we combine well, but we really made mistakes on our set-pieces. Things that can change the game."Being in front of you guys and saying that is a good performance, maybe sounds really silly from myself, but I saw a team that didn't give up, believed that it had a chance in the game, but we go home with a poor result."This season's Premier League theme of goals coming from-set pieces continued at Anfield with all three of Liverpool's opening goals resulting from subsequent corners.The Reds have been on the receiving end of dead-ball situations throughout the season but this time it was Slot's side that was dishing out the set-piece winners, something that irked Nuno."It's frustrating as a coaching staff," he added.

"It's something that we've been really putting a lot of effort and time into to make it right."Recently there was improvement. But today, all the first three Liverpool goals come from corner situations."There's no other way to look at it.