Lallana: We owed that to Liverpool fans

Sarah Winterburn

Adam Lallana admits Liverpool “owed the fans a performance” after Saturday’s no-show at West Ham.

The Reds were abysmal in their 2-0 defeat to the Hammers but were impressive in beating Stoke 1-0 in the first leg of their Capital One Cup semi-final.

“It’s a massive win for us,” Lallana told the Liverpool Echo. “We spoke before the game about the need to start well. Against West Ham we were sloppy at the start. We wanted to show our intent against Stoke.

“We wanted to show what it meant for us to be in the semi-finals. We wanted to show how much we want to get this club to Wembley.

“We got the goal, defended really well and had chances to make it more comfortable. It was probably a perfect performance.

“We owed that to everyone connected with the club, but especially the supporters after what happened at West Ham.

“We all knew we didn’t perform to the right level on Saturday and we wanted to put that right. We owed the fans a performance.

“This is a tough place to come. We’ve had some bad results here in the past but we dug deep and got a great win.

“At times it’s felt like we’ve been taking two steps forward and then one step back. As a squad we need to be more consistent. We need to build on that.

“It was vital we came here and put on a good show.”