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BRENDAN RODGERS admits Liverpool FC must keep working hard to try and eradicate inconsistency from their game.

The Liverpool manager was disappointed with the performance of his side in the weekend’s 3-1 loss at Southampton.

Defeat was the Reds’ first in four league matches and came on the back of impressive performances in the wins over Swansea City, Wigan Athletic and Tottenham Hotspur.

Liverpool found themselves 1-0 down after just six minutes before Southampton doubled their lead not long after the half-hour mark.

Although Philippe Coutinho halved the deficit on the stroke of half-time, Rodgers’ men were unable to draw level and conceded a third with 10 minutes remaining when Jay Rodriguez waltzed through the Liverpool defence.

Rodgers admits Liverpool improved after the break but said their poor start left them with far too much to do.

“Sometimes it’s like that,” he said. “The players have been brilliant over the last couple of months and the performance level has been really high.

“But it is the start we had which gave us a real uphill task.

“When we went 2-0 down so early on, it is very, very difficult and even though we came back to 2-1 there was that feeling that we weren’t quite on it.

“The team is not at that level yet, we need to be right on it every game to get results and unfortunately we suffered.

“I thought we were a little bit slow in our game but give credit to Southampton because they played well.

“It’s a reminder more to me more than anyone. When we lose, we lose together. We are very much a group and the spirit is very strong. It is just one of them days when the team wasn’t quite right. But we’ll live with it and put it right for the next game.”

Rodgers was keen to put the performance in the context of Liverpool’s improvements in the second half of the campaign.

“For me, especially in the second half of the season, there has been a real upturn in terms of performance level and probably because of the start we’ve had, we put ourselves under so much pressure to get results,” he said.

“I can have no complaints because the players have been brilliant. It was just one of those days and every team has it. We didn’t perform anywhere near where we have been. Having said that, we could’ve scored three or four goals. But we didn’t do, so we lick our wounds and go away now and sit on it for a couple of weeks.”