West Ham boss David Moyes defended his team selection after their Carabao Cup quarterfinal thrashing at Liverpool.
The Reds ranout 5-1 winners on Wednesday night.
Moyes said: "Liverpool played very well. Obviously we didn't play well enough. The second goal was a killer. I thought we were just beginning to grow a little bit back into the game. Not enough. But we gave them a really poor second goal which made it really hard for us to get back and get any further result.
"We didn't do particularly well in some areas for some of the goals, we could have done much better.
"We beat Arsenal before we got to this game and we probably had the hardest draw of all, coming to Anfield. We made a few changes tonight to give people opportunities, chances to show what they can do, also because of the schedule. We were up against a really strong opponent tonight, tough place to come and that's the way it proved.
"We're involved in a few trophies at the moment. We got to the quarter-final, we've got a European one we're looking forward to. We've had some really good results in the league, especially at home. Tonight was disappointing but overall we played against a really strong team. They were fast, competitive, positive. We found it hard at the start of the game to get a foothold in it.
"We've been in good form and that tells you how well Liverpool played today. But we had to give some players a rest somewhere."