Liverpool: Rodgers Bemoans Self-Inflicted Defeat

Reds boss Brendan Rodgers has pinpointed sloppiness and missed chances as the main reasons for defeat to Aston Villa...

Liverpool's recent good form came to an abrupt and surprising holt at Anfield yesterday as lowly Aston Villa recorded a famous 3-1 victory.

The hosts had all the early possession and chances but goals on the break by the impressive Christian Benteke and youngster Andreas Weimann gave the Villains a 2-0 half time lead.

Another goal from Benteke shortly after the break cut short any hopes of a Liverpool fight-back and despite a late Steven Gerrard consolation the Reds were left to lick their wounds and digest another false dawn.

"It was a bad day at the office," Kop boss Brendan Rodgers told reporters in the post-match press conference.

"We're very disappointed and, I've got to be honest, I didn't see that coming. Our momentum and confidence coming into the game was as high as it's been.

"We had chances early on and didn't take them. We could easily have been 3-0 up in the game but we didn't make the final pass or have that bit of quality in the top end of the field, and then we went on to concede some poor goals.

"The first goal we gave the ball away in our half of the field, and then our positioning wasn't great - Benteke gets the shot in too easily. The second goal we never tracked the runners into the box and the third, again, we gave the ball away in our own half."

The result certainly puts a big dent in any hopes of the Merseysiders gate-crashing the top four this season which is something some fans and pundits were starting to consider as a possibility.

Much will be determined by the busy Christmas period which is now upon us and Liverpool must get over this result quickly and bounce back against Fulham next weekend.

"All week we've been talking about the possibility of top four but for us it's going to be steady progress," continued Rodgers.

"There are going to be steps forwards, like we've done in the last couple of weeks, and today we made a step backwards.

"The great hope with this group is that they are very honest. They're bitterly disappointed, we all are. But we'll go into next week's work, reflect on it, and make sure we come back next week and are bang on where we've been for a lot of the season, which has been a much greater intensity to our game."

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