Andy Robertson apologises to Liverpool fans as stand-in captain admits Red ‘nowhere near good enough’ after FA Cup exit
ANDY ROBERTSON conceded Liverpool have been “nowhere near good enough” as the FA Cup holders crashed out to leave their season in tatters.
Kaoru Mitoma’s injury-time stunner plunged the Reds’ bid for silverware to a new low as Jurgen Klopp’s flops suffered defeat to Brighton for the second time in 15 days.
With Liverpool dumped out of both cups and ninth in the Premier League – ten points off the top four places – the only shot of a trophy remains the Champions League, where they face holders Real Madrid in the last 16.
Fuming Robertson, who apologised to the club’s fans, said: “This season has been nowhere near good enough. We wanted a new start at the turn of the year. If anything, we’ve been worse.
“You can’t put your finger on one thing that’s gone wrong, it’s more than that. You can tell we’re not confident in front of goal; we’re still a bit open defensively.
“We need to get our confidence back. I feel sorry for the fans. They were unbelievable today and we’ve let them down again.
“I thought it was a proper cup tie – end to end, both teams had chances.
“We were slightly better than two weeks ago, but we’re out of the cup and it’s bitterly disappointing. We need to start winning games. It’s easy to say and harder to fix.”
Liverpool took the lead on the half hour through Harvey Elliott but were pegged back by Lewis Dunk’s fluke, before the excellent Mitoma won it in injury time with a superb piece of control and composure.
Robertson’s fiery words were put to Klopp and the German replied: “It’s not 100 per cent true, but it’s not 100 per cent wrong. Of course you want a new start when you come back after the World Cup break, you want to go for it.
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“And so far it didn’t happen properly. But we have to keep working. There were good performances and good moments in the game today.
“We had the game in mind from a couple of weeks ago which was pretty much the bottom of my time. So this was better, much better.
“But we still conceded two goals from set-pieces. We have to improve, body language, a couple of boys have to do much better.
“But last game here we couldn’t have won. Today nobody would have been surprised if we had won the game.”
Mitoma was signed for just £2.5million from Japanese side Kawasaki Frontale in 2021, before going on loan to Albion’s Belgian sister side Union Saint-Gilloise last term.
He has been a revelation this season, netting six goals in 19 games for the Seagulls, and his injury-time strike was simply breathtaking.
On the magical match-winner, Dunk said: “I’m glad he’s on our side. I wouldn’t fancy having to chase him. He’s a top player and he’s come out of nowhere.”
Roberto De Zerbi was happy with the result but felt his side could have played even better.
The Italian added: “The result we are very happy. We won a very difficult game against a different team than the last game.
“If you want to speak about quality of play, I didn’t like the game. We made a lot of simple mistakes and we have to work. We have to improve to achieve the higher level.”