Reaction'Hugely frustrating' - Andy Robertson reflects on Palace defeat

The Reds lost ground in the race for the title at Anfield on Sunday as, following an early goal for the visitors by Eberechi Eze, the home side were unable to convert any of the promising chances created.

Read Robertson’s post-match reaction with Liverpoolfc.com below…

On a gut-wrenching day and week…

Yeah, you can say that again. Hugely disappointing, hugely frustrating. The first half, we didn’t play anywhere near where we can play. I think Crystal Palace were probably hard done by not going in maybe 2-0 up at least. Second half we were better but not clinical in front of goal and that’s been the story of the games recently. And if you’re not clinical in front of goal, you don’t win games, simple as that. We’ve had six or seven clear-cut chances between six to eight yards [out] and if you don’t hit the net, you’re never going to win games. And unfortunately we’ve not managed that. That’s why we’re standing here talking about a defeat. Yeah, hugely frustrating.

On not being able to produce another comeback…

We’ve spoken about that as well and we’ve said we can’t keep relying on our comebacks. We can’t, it’s impossible. You can’t keep doing it season after season, game after game after game. You have to get on the front foot, get the first goal, be on top, go after them. And we’ve not managed that. Again, slow start, Palace capitalised on it, could have been 2-0 up easily. Then second half, OK, you start fighting back and you try to create chances, which we did. If you don’t hit the back of the net, with the amount of chances we had it’s so frustrating. Obviously all of us in front of goal aren’t exactly in a hot streak and we’re not keeping clean sheets, so the results are never going to be in our favour.

On the players having to now keep fighting…

Yeah, of course we will. We’ve got six Premier League games left, we’ve got a [Europa League] game on Thursday that we’ll go over and try everything we’ve got. This group of lads will never stop fighting. Hugely frustrating to be in the position we’re in now, being third and now relying on two teams dropping points. This time last week, we shouldn’t have been in that position. That’s where the frustration comes from. But that’s where we are, it is what it is. We need to be perfect from here on in, that’s for sure. We can’t drop any more points and let’s see what the other two teams do.

It’s just frustrating, and now we’re relying on other people. You could say it was in our hands but there was still a long way to go. Hugely frustrating position to be in. But this club, we don’t stop fighting – we have to fight in the stands, fight on the pitch for the last six games of the Premier League. Let’s see where it takes us. We have to stay positive. We have to pick everyone up in the changing room because there’s a lot of people who are down, whether they missed a chance, gave the ball away or whatever it is. We pick up, we go again on Thursday and we give everything we’ve got.