• West Ham 3-1 Liverpool

Liverpool no way near level that is expected, says Rodgers

Brendan Rodgers says Liverpool must get used to playing in the Champions League again © PA Photos

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Brendan Rodgers says his Liverpool players are "nowhere near" the levels he expects them to be at after his side crashed to a third Premier League defeat of the season.

Rodgers' side slumped to a 3-1 loss at West Ham on Saturday - their second successive league defeat - while his players appeared to suffer a Champions League hangover following their last-gasp victory against Ludogorets midweek.

"We're nowhere near the levels we expect to be at," Rodgers told BBC Sport. "The expectancy is raised for us after the last few seasons but at this moment in time we are not there. We will continue to work hard. We'll look to bounce back.

"Overall we never showed the composure that is related to this team. We didn't start well. It was disappointing. We knew this would be a tough game but we were 2-0 down before we started.

"I thought we reacted well but we were risking the game at the end and unfortunately for us it was a day of too many mistakes."

He added via Sky Sports: "That's something we've got to get used to, we've got a lot more Champions League games. The group has come such a long way and the level expected now has grown, but we have to be able to cope with that and at the moment we're not."

Whether his players are suffering from their European exploits only Rodgers will know, but counterpart Sam Allardyce was well aware of the issue in his pre-match preparations - and the West Ham manager was pleased to see his tactics pay off.

"When you see a gameplan work as early as that, it's brilliant," Allardyce told BBC Sport. "Liverpool had played in the Champions League for the first time in five years which is tiring and we wanted to start as quickly as we can. We said let's not let them control the tempo and press their back players. It worked brilliantly.

"From there on they only had one shot on target and we could have had three or four. It's a fantastic result and performance. I don't think anybody across the world of football can say that we didn't deserve that today."

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