West Ham’s collapse after Lucas Paquetá’s dismissal highlighted broader disciplinary issues within a squad that lacks the maturity and leadership to handle adversity. Playing with ten men for the final portion of the match, they offered minimal resistance to Liverpool’s attacks, with Cody Gakpo’s late goal merely confirming what was already inevitable.
The manner of Paquetá’s dismissal—two yellow cards for dissent in quick succession—demonstrated poor emotional control from an experienced international. Whatever frustration he felt with officiating decisions, allowing emotions to override professional discipline left teammates in an impossible position. For a squad already struggling, losing a key player to such avoidable circumstances compounded their difficulties.
Playing with ten men requires tactical discipline, organization, and collective commitment that West Ham failed to demonstrate. Rather than compacting defensively and making themselves difficult to break down, they appeared disorganized and demoralized. Liverpool, themselves struggling for confidence, found creating chances significantly easier against the reduced opponents.
The incident raised questions about leadership within West Ham’s squad. Who takes responsibility for maintaining discipline when frustrations rise? Who organizes the defensive structure when reduced to ten men? The lack of visible leadership during this crisis period suggested deeper problems beyond tactical or technical deficiencies.
For West Ham supporters, watching their team collapse in this manner must have been deeply frustrating. The disciplinary issue that led to Paquetá’s dismissal was entirely avoidable, as was the subsequent defensive disorganization. These self-inflicted wounds make an already difficult situation worse, destroying any hope of competing against opponents themselves vulnerable to upsets. Until West Ham address these fundamental issues around discipline and leadership, similar collapses will continue undermining their results and performances.