Pablo Fornals felt West Ham United were hard done by in Saturday’s 2-1 Premier League defeat at Liverpool.
Clear-cut opportunities were hard to come by at Anfield, where the two teams combined for just eight shots on target.
The first saw Fornals put West Ham in front on ten minutes, while the second saw Mohamed Salah equalize from the penalty spot just before half-time.
The second half saw both teams go close, with Fornals seeing one shot saved by Alisson and a second blocked, while Andy Robertson and Sadio Mane both tested Lukasz Fabianski.
Liverpool had a Diogo Jota goal disallowed for Mane’s foul on Angelo Ogbonna with ten minutes to play, but the Reds snatched all three points five minutes later when the Portugal forward fired home Xherdan Shaqiri’s pass, leaving Fornals and his teammates with a feeling of deep frustration.
I think it’s a moment to see what we did and be proud, but we cannot stop trying to get more points and fight for every game
Pablo Fornals
“We were close and went into the last few minutes hoping to get something, but when you don’t score against the best teams you normally get punished,” said the Irons’ Spanish midfielder.
“I think it’s another game in the line we were playing. I think this is the better line where we are getting a lot of points against great teams. I think we are sad about the loss, but this is the way to keep going and keep taking points.
“Always when you don’t go home with points it’s not good enough but I think this is one of the teams at the end of the season, when you see the table, it’s a game you can lose, but the way we lose and how we fight in every game and in this game, we should be proud.”
Fornals’ goal made it two in two visits to Anfield for the No18, but on both occasions he put his team in front but ultimately ended up on the losing side, only adding to his disappointment.
“I don’t know if I’m happy or I’m a little bit sad because I have scored against Leicester and Liverpool and I’d already scored against both, so I hope I can score against some other teams,” he told West Ham TV.
“In this game, I could have scored some more goals but I’m working for that every day and of course I want to help the team to score more goals and that’s what I’m doing.”
While Saturday’s result left the Hammers wondering what might have been, there is optimism among the players that they can build on a start to the 2020/21 campaign that has seen them take eight points from a fiendish-looking fixture list that saw them take on six of last season’s top-eight in their opening seven matches.
With Fulham and Sheffield United next up, Fornals is hopeful the Irons can turn performances into more points in November.
“For sure, I think when all of us and the West Ham supporters saw the schedule before the start of the season, we thought ‘What a start!’, but we have done well to get eight points playing against these teams,” he concluded.
“I think it’s a moment to see what we did and be proud, but we cannot stop trying to get more points and fight for every game.”
