Brendan Rodgers defends both Philippe Coutinho and Mark Noble after red cards
Saturday 29 August 2015 19:09, UK
Philippe Coutinho and Mark Noble should not have been sent off in West Ham's 3-0 win at Liverpool, said Brendan Rodgers.
The Reds boss lost his star playmaker Coutinho to a second yellow card with West Ham two goals ahead in Saturday's Premier League clash at Anfield, and Noble followed him with an early dismissal before a late third goal.
Coutinho was booked in the first half for stopping a West Ham counter-attack and a foul on Dimitri Payet resulted in an early bath while Noble earned a straight red for clashing with Danny Ings - but Rodgers thought both players should have been let off.
"Very harsh," he told Sky Sports. "I thought both were.
"I don't know what Philippe was booked for on the first one. And on the second one, you can see his two feet are nowhere near the player.
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"Actually, their guy runs into Philippe so to get booked for that was very harsh.
"For Noble, I didn't think it was a sending-off either."
Rodgers refused to panic despite West Ham's first win at Anfield in 50 years which ended Liverpool's unbeaten start.
He believes that, on a day where four of seven Premier League hosts lost, teams are becoming cleverer when they travel.
"Teams are setting up differently away from home," Rodgers said.
"They're well organised and closing the spaces. Unless you can get that early goal it can be very difficult and that's something you'll see all season.
"Unfortunately for us, we conceded the early goal which gave West Ham even more motivation to hang onto their lead.
"I think the first goal was critical. Obviously West Ham, like at Arsenal, were coming to sit and block, block, block and make it difficult for us. To then concede after only a few minutes was very disappointing.
"We then make a mistake for the second one - that can happen in football. All of a sudden we're 2-0 down. We didn't have enough creativity to break them down.
"When we lose Coutinho, it made it really, really difficult for us."
