Rodgers disappointed but hails ‘outstanding’ Ings

Matthew Stead
Brendan Rodgers:

Brendan Rodgers: Bemoaned Liverpool's inability to defend the "back door" vs. Norwich

Brendan Rodgers admitted he was left “disappointed” by Liverpool’s 1-1 draw with Norwich, but praised the “outstanding” Danny Ings.

Ings put Liverpool 1-0 up just after coming on as a half-time substitute, but the Reds failed to hold onto their lead and conceded an equaliser through Russell Martin on the hour mark.

Chances fell to the likes of Philippe Coutinho late on, but Norwich held out for a deserved draw, leaving Liverpool with just eight points from their opening six games.

Asked on his thoughts of the game, Rodgers told Sky Sports: “I’m a bit disappointed and frustrated that we couldn’t get the three points, particularly after going in front.

“We get the first goal and I think you can see our confidence. We’re much better after that. But we lost concentration on a corner. It was a poor goal from that aspect.

“Credit to the players; they kept fighting and looking to get the goal. We had a number of opportunities and that was the pleasing aspect of today.

“In other games we haven’t really created so much. It was important that we got some flow in our game and our intensity in the second half was much better.

“But you have to look after the back door and at the corner we didn’t do that.”

But the Northern Irishman reserved praise for goalscorer Ings, who looked bright and bagged his first goal in Liverpool red.

“I’m very pleased for him because I thought he was outstanding when he came on. He gave us a real lift with his intensity. Alberto Moreno who played the pass (for Ings’ goal) was excellent today, and I thought Danny’s touch and finish was excellent.

“He gave us great enthusiasm and I’m very pleased.

Ings replaced Christian Benteke at half-time at Anfield, with the £32.5million Belgian suffering from an apparent hamstring injury, but Rodgers was keen to play down any potential knock and instead discussed his partnership with the returning Daniel Sturridge, who was making his first appearance since April.

“He felt his hamstring and we couldn’t risk it. We’ll see how that is tomorrow. The two are obviously very good players and it’s the first time they’ve played together other than training in the last 10 days. We’ll see how major it is.

Asked further on Sturridge’s fitness, Rodgers responded: “He’s played an hour today but he’s not match fit yet. He’s worked very hard in training and he’ll recover now and we’ll see if he’s up for the next game.”