Liverpool’s best players in 5-1 win over West Ham
Liverpool swept aside West Ham United in the Carabao Cup third round on Wednesday evening, firing five past the struggling Hammers at Anfield.
The Reds had initially gone one goal down after Jarrell Quansah turned into his own net in the 21st minute, however a header from Diogo Jota levelled things up before half-time.
In the second half, Liverpool then ran riot. Jota bagged another before Mohamed Salah side-footed home a third and Cody Gakpo wrapped up the scoring with a late brace.
Here are Liverpool’s best-performing players in the win, according to 90min’s esteemed player ratings.
Diogo Jota: 9/10
Diogo Jota has largely struggled for form in the early stages of the 2024/25 campaign, and prior to Wednesday night, he’d actually fired blanks in each of his last five appearances for both club and country.
Against West Ham, however, Jota looked back to his clinical best.
The forward showed off his poacher’s instincts to head home the leveller in the first half, before flexing a bit of finesse to curl past Lukasz Fabianski for his second of the evening.
He may have earned a place back in the starting lineup with that showing.
Honourable mentions
Cody Gakpo: 9/10
Gakpo played like a man with a point to prove on Wednesday evening.
Perhaps feeling a bit hard done by after not starting the weekend’s clash with Bournemouth, despite being the star of the show in the Champions League win over Milan at San Siro, the Dutch international sent a message to Arne Slot with a brace against West Ham.
Slot, it might be time to start Gakpo in the Premier League.
Conor Bradley: 7/10
The Northern Ireland international made the most of his first start of the 2024/25 season against West Ham.
Bradley was a real live-wire on the right flank, constantly bombing past Salah to give the Hammers defence all kinds of headaches. His tally of six won duels, two created chances and 90% pass completion rate are all markers of a very solid outing.