Tim Sherwood was left to reflect on a 'bitterly disappointing' day at Liverpool.

Younes Kaboul’s own goal inside two minutes left us with a mountain to climb at Anfield.

Luis Suarez doubled the lead on 24 minutes and although we responded well at 2-0 – forcing Simon Mignolet into saves from Nabil Bentaleb and Roberto Soldado before the break – when Phillippe Coutinho made it 3-0 on 55 minutes, it was all over. Jordan Henderson added the fourth with 15 minutes remaining.

“The game plan was to keep it tight for as long as we could and hopfully they would get a bit edgy but with all the will in the world, the game plan goes out of the window when you concede so early,” said Tim.

“We started poorly, gifted them two goals and unfortunately there was no way back from that. We’re bitterly disappointed.

“It was a poor start and the players don’t need me to tell them that. We made individual errors and they were punished.

"We had a chat afterwards. It was difficult for everyone, no-one likes losing. We’ve six games left to try to get some pride back. That has to start next week.”

Tim reported that Jan Vertongen departed after 24 minutes with a knee injury while Roberto Soldado suffered a hamstring injury late on. “We’ll assess both players next week,” he said.