Saturday, 13th September, 2014
Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has brushed off his side's 1-0 defeat to Aston Villa today as a blip, explaining that the game was one of the rare occasions when a little quality was lacking.
A scrambled Aston Villa goal from Gabriel Agbonlahor in the eighth minute gave Liverpool a mountain they were not capable of climbing at Anfield, despite boasting 75 per cent possession.
Liverpool could only manage one shot on target, the same number as Aston Villa, despite the skewed possession statistics.
For Rodgers though there is no reason to panic and the occasion was just a blip, a rare set of circumstances which saw the hosts come up short on the quality side.
"It's a very honest group of players. They gave everything today – there was no lack of commitment, effort or work rate, we just lacked that bit of quality today", he told his post-match press conference.
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"We've seen many games here in the couple of years I've been here where we've ended up with 15-20 shots on target, but today we just couldn't find that bit of quality for some reason.
"That happens. We'll go again, we'll work again tomorrow and get ready for Tuesday [against Ludogorets Razgrad]. We're going into the Champions League again this season, which is where the club wants to be."
Liverpool will now aim to shrug off their disappointment when they welcome the Bulgarian outfit to Anfield on Tuesday evening.
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