Rodgers dismisses suggestions about complacency

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has dismissed suggestions that his team were complacent in the 1-0 defeat against Aston Villa. The Midland outfit have been regarded as one of Liverpool’s bogey teams in the Premier league after they lost to Paul Lambert’s team via same score last season. This time around, it was a Gabriel Agbonlahor’s solitary goal that led to the second defeat of the season for Liverpool. As a result, they have failed to take advantage of the slipup between Arsenal and Manchester City last weekend.

Ahead of the match with West Ham United during the weekend, Rodgers has had to fend off suggestions that Liverpool have become complacent due to the return of Champions League football to the club. The manager rested a number of key players like Raheem Sterling for the encounter against Villa, while the likes of Mario Balotelli have also been struggling for form. The absence of Daniel Sturridge since the international break has also been a crucial factor. Rodgers has dismissed several of those reasons by claiming that Villa took all three points at Anfield only because they played well.

Liverpool’s other defeat of the season came in the match against Manchester City a few weeks ago. Liverpool suffered only six defeats throughout last campaign, but they are already up to 2 defeats with only four matches played in the season. “No, we are allergic to complacency here. We are not good enough to do that. Villa played well. We were not playing the same way in March and April last season as we were in September. We played some outstanding stuff last season, but this time last year we weren’t playing like that. We developed over the season, and we will do that this time around,” said Rodgers, whose team only managed to narrow 2-1 win over Ludogorets in the Champions League.