Rafa Benitez refused to excuse his team after their abysmal defeat to Wigan.
Liverpool crashed to a catastrophic 1-0 defeat to the relegation-threatened club, leaving Liverpool’s Champion’s League dream in tatters.
Rafa’s Revulsion
“I think we didn’t play well, especially in the first half. We didn’t show attitude.”
Benitez admitted his side gave the ball away too often.
“That is very clear, especially in the first half,” he added.
‘You are always disappointed after a defeat, but when it is a crucial moment and you know you can do so much better, it is especially hard to take. We did nothing in the first half, and it is really hard to explain.
‘We were not winning the first or second balls, and it is hard to come up with a reason for that. I let the players know I was not happy, and at least there was a response in the second half.’
“We’re not happy. We have to show more character if we want to be in top four.”
We remain in 6th place with a mountain to climb as the teams above and below us, all have games in hand.
The manner of the defeat was hard to take.
We couldn’t get our passing game going, this was due to Wigan’s clever tactic of hounding whoever had the ball into making a hurried pass under pressure, which usually meant the ball found a Wigan player.
But even in yards of space, the Reds were guilty of some woeful play.
Kuyt, in particular gave the ball away unopposed time and time again and it was one of his many stray passes which lead to Rodellega’s goal on 35 mins.
Gerrard had an off night and Torres had an off night and when those two are not playing well then Liverpool struggle and so it proved tonight.
So its back to the Europa League on Thursday where we face Lille of France.
Expect to see a big improvement in performance from this Liverpool side.
YNWA.