Andy Robertson has admitted his disappointment that Liverpool will not defend their Carabao Cup crown, but insists the Reds can take positive things from their defeat to Manchester City at the Etihad.
Jurgen Klopp’s side found themselves behind twice, early in both halves, but equalized shortly after the two goals.
Nathan Ake’s header just before the hour mark proved the winner, but the Scotland captain explained his team’s slow start to the game cost them a little.
“We wanted to stay in this cup, we know how much joy last season brought us,” Robertson told Sky Sports (via Liverpool Echo). “Ultimately disappointing, but when we look at the clips, we’ll take positives. It’s a good game, both sets of players were on their feet, we always raised our games against each other.
“There were positive aspects, we created chances, sometimes we played well with the ball, but there were also mistakes. It’s our first game back in a long time and it’s not often that your first game back is against Manchester City.
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“We didn’t start very well, we’re behind, Fabio scored a fabulous goal, we fell behind early in the second half, we reacted very well, we had a couple of chances, then we missed a penalty corner.”
Although many people are not too concerned about the League Cup, it is still an important trophy and we had a great trip to Wembley in the competition last season.
Our performance last night was far from convincing, but you have to remember that Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold were absent, while captain Jordan Henderson was only brought on as a second-half substitute.
Diogo Jota and Luis Díaz remained sidelined due to injury and at the moment it looks like we will have to give it our all for the Champions League this time around as our chances of success in the Premier League look slim which is quite frustrating if Keep in mind that we came agonizingly close to completing a glorious quadruple last season.
Robertson explained that he and his teammates have already turned their attention to the Boxing Day clash with Aston Villa, where they will try to “kick off” their league campaign.
“We really don’t have time to waste, especially in the league,” added the 28-year-old. “We had a tough start before the break, we got the last two results that were really positive and we wanted to push that.
“There are positives to take away from tonight, but it ultimately ended in defeat and we’re out of the cup, which is disappointing when you want to go for all the trophies available to you.
“Now that the league starts, we are looking forward to Boxing Day, a really tough game at Villa, new manager, new style of play and they have started very well with him, so we are expecting a really tough game, but we have to be ready, we have to be back at our best level if we want to play in the league and that’s what we plan to do.”
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