Liverpool’s Brendan Rodgers: We let our standards slip at Southampton

Brendan Rodgers has admitted Liverpool were guilty of letting their “standards slip” after a 3-1 defeat by Southampton at St Mary’s on Saturday.

The Reds boss had talked about possible Champions League qualification ahead of the trip to the south coast but a top-four finish now looks unlikely following wins for Arsenal and Chelsea.

Southampton’s victory ended a four-game winning run for the 18-time English champions in all competitions which had seen them leapfrog Merseyside rivals Everton into sixth place.

But the Toffees moved ahead of Liverpool after an impressive win against Manchester City in Saturday’s early kick-off, and Rodgers says the Reds must reflect on their loss during the international break.

“We’ve got about seven players left because a lot of the group goes away this week,” he told the Liverpool Echo.

“You can work individually with players. Obviously there is very little team work you can do. A few of them are travelling quite a long way, like Luis Suarez who is going to South America, but you get that at big clubs.

“We have just got to go away and reflect because it is important to us to maintain the efforts which have been getting us results.

“We’ve let those standards slip a wee bit so we need to get refocused and I’m sure we’ll see a different side against Villa.”