Monday, September 23, 2013

Rodgers Blames Liverpool’s ‘Criminal’ Defending

Brendan Rodgers has slammed Liverpool’s ‘criminal’ defending after they lost their first match of the season against Southampton.

The Reds went into the match yet to lose so far this term, but Dejan Lovren’s second-half header proved to the difference on a difficult afternoon at Anfield.

And manager Rodgers blames his side for switching off at the back as the key reason for the defeat.

‘We were not technically good enough,’ he said.

‘Both the performance and the result were very disappointing – we didn’t play to the usual level that we like to.

‘I thought the goal was criminal, really. That’s the brutal honesty of it.’

Rodgers rotated his backline for the clash and made the surprise decision to play four centre-backs across a back-four, with Kolo Toure, Martin Skrtel, Daniel Agger and Mamadou Sakho all playing.

The system didn’t work, but Rodgers finished by highlighting the positions – which includes Luis Suarez now completing his 10-match ban for biting Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic.

‘That is the positive as he has now served his ban and we can bring someone as good as him back.’

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