Roy Hodgson vows to bounce back after Carling Cup exit
Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson has accepted responsibility for his team's Carling Cup exit after his team lost to League Two-side Northampton Town after a penalty shootout on Wednesday.
His comments came at a lengthy post-match press conference, where the manager expressed clear disappointment at not having delivered a satisfactory performance in front of the home fans.
"But when it goes to penalties and you're at home in front of the Kop, your hope is that the players will have the composure and confidence to win the shootout," Hodgson said. "But we didn't and all I can do is congratulate Northampton and apologise to everyone.
The fans who came tonight obviously expected to see us win, I expected to see us win, but it wasn't to be."
Hodgson made several changes to the team that started against Manchester United over the weekend, but he said that was no excuse for the team's poor performance. He said, "...so the obvious conclusion to that is that I shouldn't have changed so many players
and should have let some of those players who played against Manchester United play tonight, but I honestly believed the team we put out on the field would have been strong enough to get a result."
Poor run in the Premier League
Outside of the Carling Cup, Liverpool are in 16th place in the league with five points in as many games. Their only win came against West Bromwich Albion in August.
"It's one of many setbacks we're facing at the moment and it's a tough period to work and live through," Hodgson said about the defeat to Northampton in light of his club's recent run. "But we will work and live through it. We will survive it and get better.
I will learn an awful lot from this defeat tonight about an awful lot of people."
Liverpool faces Sunderland at Anfield on Saturday, and it will be a game in which the team and Hodgson will be desperate to improve.
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