Brendan Rodgers gave a harsh verdict on Liverpool’s 3-1 defeat to Crystal palace, saying: “We have no one but ourselves to blame.”
Liverpool suffered a shocking defeat at Selhurst Park for the second consecutive season despite taking a second-minute lead through Rickie Lambert.
But a strike from Dwight Gale before the break, then Joe Ledley and Miles Jedinak goals after, secured the much-needed win for Palace, putting even more pressure on Rodgers.
It is the fourth consecutive loss in all competitions for the Reds, whose last Premier League win came in the opening week of October.
The under-fire manager has admitted that his team is lacking confidence and it clearly shows in the way they have been playing in recent weeks.
He told Sky Sports: “We’re low on confidence at the moment in terms of the results and I think that sort of tempo and intensity of our game has just dropped right off and obviously we concede pure goals but we have no one to blame but ourselves.
“As the manager I take full responsibility for that.
“We aim to be tighter and more resolute defensively. Obviously we get the goal – and a number of the games this season – we’ve led a goal in front, and that should be enough.
“We work on defending, we work very hard on being compact, but we never managed the game.
“We’ve got a lot of young players and players who are new to the club but we have to be better than that.”
Rodgers has, however, given praise to Rickie Lambert after he picked up his first goal for his boyhood club.
He said: “Well done to Rickie Lambert. He had a great movement, touch and finish to get his goal and I thought he did excellent today.
“He worked tirelessly up front and touch and movement, he worked very well.”
Free-kick hero Jedinak has described the game as “massive” for Crystal Palace, who were on the brink of dropping back into the relegation zone.
The Australian midfielder has commended the team for fighting back.
He told Sky Sports 1: “It’s massive. We needed that big time.
“We knew it was going to be a difficult game. We didn’t help ourselves by conceding so early on but I think the reaction from the boys after that was first class.