Andy Robertson has admitted his disappointment at the fact Liverpool will not defender their Carabao Cup crown but insists the Reds can take positives from their defeat to Manchester City at the Etihad.
Jurgen Klopp’s side found themselves behind twice, early in both halves, but equalised shortly after both goals.
Nathan Ake’s header just before the hour mark proved to be the winner but the Scotland captain explained that his side’s slow start to the game somewhat cost them.
“We wanted to stay in this cup, we know how much joy it brought us last season,” Robertson told Sky Sports (via Liverpool Echo). “Ultimately disappointing but when we look at the clips we will take positives. It’s a good game, both sets of players were out on their feet, we always raise our games against each other.
“There were positives, creating chances, sometimes we looked good on the ball but there were mistakes as well. It’s our first game back in a long time and it’s not often your first game back is against Manchester City.
“We didn’t start great, go behind, Fabio scored a fabulous goal, we went behind early in the second half, reacted so well, had a couple of chances, then we switched off at a short corner.”
Although many people aren’t overly fussed about the League Cup, it’s still a major trophy and we had a great trip to Wembley in the competition last term.
Our performance at times last night was far from convincing but it must be remembered that Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold were all absent while captain Jordan Henderson was only introduced as a second half substitute.
Diogo Jota and Luis Diaz remained sidelined through injury and at the moment it’s looking like we’ll have to go all out for the Champions League this time around with our chances of Premier League success looking slim – something which is rather frustrating when you consider that we went agonisingly 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’ll attempt to ‘kickstart’ their league campaign.
“We don’t really have time to waste, especially in the league,” the 28-year-old added. “We had a difficult start before the break, picked up the last couple of results which were really positive and we wanted to kickstart that.
“There’s positives to take from tonight but ultimately ended in defeat and we’re out the cup, which is disappointing when you want to go for every trophy available for you.
“Now the league starts, we look forward to Boxing Day, a really difficult game at Villa, new manager, new style of play and they’ve started really well under him, so we’re expecting a really tough game but we have to be ready, we have to be back at our best if we want to play in the league and that’s what we plan to do.”