Andy Robertson delivered a blunt assessment after Liverpool\u2019s 3\u20132 defeat to Brentford, arguing the side failed to follow the game plan and did not show the necessary fight. Milos Kerkez reduced the deficit for Liverpool, but Brentford held a two-goal cushion before Igor Thiago converted a 60th-minute penalty. Mohamed Salah\u2019s late goal proved only a consolation.<\/p>\n
Robertson said the team were simply \u201cnot good enough.\u201d He singled out defending from set plays and the battle for second balls as decisive weaknesses. \u201cWe didn\u2019t do enough off the ball,\u201d Robertson fumed. \u201cThey\u2019re always going to be ready to put bodies in the box when it comes to set pieces, put the balls in behind, pick up second balls. You know what you\u2019re going to come to, here. They\u2019re always the same and they\u2019re so good at it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt to me like we were just a yard off it in terms of that. They picked up so many second balls, and then the balls in behind.\u201d<\/p>\n
The opening Brentford goal came from a Michael Kayode long throw, and Ouattara\u2019s swipe was the sixth set-piece goal Liverpool have conceded this season. Only West Ham United have shipped more set-piece goals.<\/p>\n
Robertson continued to emphasise tactical preparation and work-rate, noting Arne Slot had focused on long throws in training: \u201cthe only thing we did yesterday on the training pitch.\u201d He warned that opposing teams always have a plan and highlighted Liverpool\u2019s failure to impose their own. \u201cWe didn\u2019t play ours at all. That makes it so difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also called for greater physical commitment: \u201cYou have to fight for the control, you have to fight first of all,\u201d he warned. \u201cYou have to fight for the second balls, fight for the first balls, and try and feel your way into the game. And then the quality will come through.\u201d<\/p>\n
With a congested schedule ahead, Robertson stressed the response must be practical. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to work harder. In training, in games, recovering better. When you\u2019re at this football club, people demand results. In a difficult moment, the only way to get out of it is to work even harder, run that bit more and look after yourself that bit better. And that\u2019s what we\u2019ve got to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no time to re-group,\u201d the fullback fretted. \u201cWe\u2019ve got games, games, games. Sometimes it can be a good thing that you\u2019ve got such a quick turnaround and we can go again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Andy Robertson vowed the team must ‘work harder’ after a 3-2 defeat by Brentford at the weekend. ok.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4044,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[728,175],"tags":[220,299,1066],"class_list":["post-4045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brentford","category-liverpool","tag-andy-robertson","tag-arne-slot","tag-carabao-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4045"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4045\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}