Andy Robertson fumes 'there's no structure' as Liverpool dug out at Brentford

Andy Robertson has confessed that Liverpool did not stick to their strategy in a brutally honest evaluation of the Reds' 3-2 loss to Brentford. Arne Slot's team were brought back down to earth with a bump after their midweek victory over Eintracht Frankfurt, suffering their fourth consecutive Premier League defeat.

Dango Outarra got the ball rolling just five minutes into the game, scoring at the far post following a long throw from the Bees, before Kevin Schade doubled their lead, capitalising on Mikkel Damsgaard's through-ball. Milos Kerkez managed to claw one back for Liverpool in first-half stoppage time, marking his first goal for the club. However, the Hungarian's shaky start to his Reds career continued as he was replaced by Robertson just after the hour mark.

By this stage, Slot's squad had slipped further behind due to an Igor Thiago penalty. Despite Mohamed Salah reducing the deficit late in the game, Liverpool were unable to reverse their fortunes, marking their fifth loss in their last six matches across all competitions.

Following the final whistle, Robertson conceded that the Reds had been 'nowhere near good enough' against Brentford, extending their Premier League losing streak.

Despite being fully aware of the threat posed by Keith Andrews' side, the Scot was left scratching his head as he admitted that the Reds had ultimately failed to adhere to their game plan.

"We didn't do enough off the ball. On the ball, first half I thought we created a couple of moments, kept the ball quite nice," he said.

"But you can't come to Brentford away and just expect to play them off the park because they are always going to be ready to fight.

"They're always going to be ready to put bodies in the box when it comes to set-pieces, put the balls in behind, pick up second balls. You know what you're going to come to, here. They're always the same and they're so good at it.

"It felt to me like we were just a yard off it in terms of that. They picked up so many second balls, and then the balls in behind.

"Our backline are running back to try and head the ball, which is so difficult as it is. We know how difficult... how good a set-piece team they are.

"We've worked on the long-throw and everything, and five minutes in you concede three long throw-ins. One of them you concede from.

"It's not good enough, you play into their hands and have got an uphill battle from there. Kept fighting but nowhere near good enough.

"You have to fight for the control. No team in the Premier League, nobody's going to go, 'On you go, you take the ball, we'll try and defend.' Nobody does that.

"They always have a gameplan, against us and every team. All the managers in the Premier League are so talented, especially the teams that have got a full week to prepare. They would have had a clear gameplan and I think they played theirs perfectly.

"We didn't play ours at all. That makes it so difficult. If you just think you're going to show up and all of a sudden they're going to drop off, we're going to have control and we'll just wait until we score. It never, ever happens.

"This is my ninth season, I think maybe it's only happened once or twice. If we expect that, then we're in big bother.

"You have to fight for that control, you have to fight first of all. You have to fight for the second balls, fight for the first balls, and try and feel your way into the game. And then the quality will come through.

"I felt as if we never got a grip on the game at all today. Had moments but not enough moments to go and really put them under pressure."

Goals from Kerkez and Salah at the conclusion of each half had offered Liverpool a glimmer of hope for a fightback.

However, Robertson admitted the Reds hadn't warranted anything from their journey to the capital.

"Coming in at 2-1, we probably didn't deserve it really," he revealed to LFC TV. "And you come in, 'Okay, we've got a chance here. We can get back in the game. Good time to score a goal right on half-time.'".

"Come out for the second half and I thought they started the second half really well. They were the one pushing again, winning set-pieces, winning corners.

"We didn't push on from that. You just try and they get a penalty, whether it's on the line, off the line, whatever.

"But then you're 3-1 down and it's just about throwing bodies forward and it becomes chaotic. There's no structure to it which is never good.

"We get a goal, okay. We try and push and nearly score right at the end but, to be honest, if we got a draw today it would have probably flattered us."

He continued: "We've got to work harder. In training, in games, recovering better. When you're at this football club, people demand results.

"In a difficult moment, the only way to get out of it is to work even harder, run that bit more and look after yourself that bit better. And that's what we've got to do.

"The results have been nowhere near good enough over the last five or six games. We're the only ones who can get us out of it. We know that.

"Starting Wednesday again, there's no rest. There's no time to re-group. We've got games, games, games. Sometimes it can be a good thing that you've got such a quick turnaround and we can go again.

"But we need to start playing better and we need to start showing a lot more consistency in our game."