Hull City 3 Liverpool 1
Hull City: Livermore 20', Meyler 72', Skrtel og '87
Liverpool: Gerrard 27'
HULL // Brendan Rodgers, the Liverpool manager, is concerned his side do not have the depth to deal with the Daniel Sturridge’s lay-off after a shock 3-1 defeat at the hands of Hull.
Steven Gerrard found the net with a fine free-kick to cancel out Jake Livermore’s opener, but a second-half strike from David Meyler and a Martin Skrtel own-goal did not flatter Hull, who were clearly superior after the interval. As well as missing Sturridge, Phillipe Coutinho was restricted to 25 minutes from the bench having suffered with an ankle problem all week.
The stand-ins, Victor Moses and Raheem Sterling, put in unconvincing performances and left Rodgers worried about the strength of his squad coming into the busy December period.
“The quality of our squad isn’t big enough to cope with two big players like that missing. No doubt it was a disruption,” he said. “This little period will test us now but players will come in and it’s a great opportunity to a stake a claim.”
Rodgers could not hide his frustrations at the performance.
“Disappointing is an understatement,” he said. “We went into the game with confidence and belief but we made too many mistakes with and without the ball.”
After successive defeats to Southampton and Crystal Palace, Hull’s manager Steve Bruce cut a contented figure at full-time.
“I said last week was the most disappointing since the start of the season because the expectation was to roll over Crystal Palace and we didn’t play well at all,” he said.
“It was important to get a response. I knew there would be one because it was Liverpool at home and you need a game like that sometimes.”
Bruce also intends to speak to owner Assem Allam about his proposal to rebrand the club after claiming the Egyptian “does not understand” the tradition that goes with the name of the team.
Allam has been the target of criticism from fans ever since he announced his intention to ditch the 109-year-old title of Hull City AFC in favour of his preferred Hull Tigers.
He has been dismissive of those who oppose the move and in an interview with a Sunday newspaper told his detractors they could “die as soon as they want” – a reference to the City Till We Die movement.
“I think the chairman has put something like £70 million (Dh420.8m) into this club, so without him there wouldn’t be a club or a ‘Hull City’,” said Bruce. “However, I’ve got to have a conversation with him. I don’t think he understands quite what it means to the history and the tradition.
“All he thinks about is going forward. He thinks the brand would be better and that’s his opinion.”
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