Bren refuses to blame fatigue

course, the result and performance. We gave away two poor goals from our perspective, nothing to do with energy from Thursday, it was to do with tactical discipline and not concentrating.

“In the first minute we left gaps, we pressed at the wrong time and then we didn’t track runners at such an early stage. That was disappointing because we didn’t get off to a good start playing against a team that wasn’t overly confident. It’s not as if they have been flying.

“The second one comes from our free-kick. Again, it’s tactical discipline. We don’t secure the ball at the top end of the field and Scott Brown is left in a two-against-one situation at the back. So, two poor goals from our perspective and then we didn’t create enough going forward.

“We had some flashes across the box and whatnot, but we didn’t quite have the performance level today.”

Rodgers was forced to abandon his normal system and went with a 3-5-2 which did not work.

He said: “The formation may well have had an effect. I don’t think it had anything to do with the goals. If we need someone to blame then blame the system, but that was the system because of the players we had available.

“We need to obviously [strengthen] in the window. When we had Leigh [Griffiths] and Odsonnne [Edouard], we were definitely in the market for another striker. Because of the number of games that we play, I think it’s been unfair on Odsonne. He has had to play in so many games as a 20-year-old when I’ve wanted to take him out.

“But through necessity, really, he’s had to play. That’s been unfortunate for him as he’s not had the support around him in terms of that. It is certainly something in January that we have to look at it.”