'Sack the board normally means sack the manager,' Brendan Rodgers

Q: If you got that goal, James Forrest denied by the combination of the keeper and the post. If you’d got that, it could be sitting here and having a very different conversation but ultimately must have been frustrating overall?

Brendan Rodgers: “Yeah, because of course you want to take the advantage, but I’ve also been here before when we’ve drawn nil-nil in a qualification game against Rosenborg. They were a good side and we were going to there to have to qualify and we did do. We played very well out there and won the game. There’s no doubt we can go there and win. Of course you’d want to have taken an advantage with you, but it’s still very much in the balance.”

Q: The fans were pretty vocal at the end in their displeasure, their disappointment. Is that a justifiable reaction in your view?

Brendan Rodgers: “Well listen, what I do know is over many years that sack the board normally means sack the manager. It’s normally the manager that goes when that starts to be sung. But no, listen, I think I can only really look at the players that we have here and the performance. We’ve known for a long time what we’ve needed as a squad, so I don’t want to go into that. I can only concentrate on what we have here.

“Of course, at the end of the game, we’re having to shuffle things about to try and make it work and playing players out of position. But the players’ endeavor in the second half was really good, but at this level it’s more than that. Hopefully we can show that. The boys are a great bunch of lads, really honest. They’ve started the season well. Defensively, they’ve been strong, but tonight we just, offensively, we just couldn’t show those moments of quality to breakthrough.”

Q: Brendan, given that frustration in the stands, that’s something you don’t want to fester. What needs to happen on and off the field to make sure that that doesn’t fester and the frustration doesn’t build?

Brendan Rodgers:  “I think that we need to improve the squad. There’s clarity around that for a long time and we see that, you know, I think supporters see that. We certainly do in football. We need to improve. And then from that, then this is a performance club. This is a club that’s to perform. And that starts on the field. And you do that with getting the very best players you possibly can to allow you to perform. It’s getting performance on the pitch, a style and a type of football that excites supporters, and that’s what this club is used to. We know that, and hopefully between now and the end of the window, we can get that. And then that’ll support us going through the rest of the season.”

Q:  But you knew you had this game, Brendan. Does that add to the frustration that this was always potentially going to be a tough tie whoever you got and maybe being in a better place going into it?

Brendan Rodgers: “Yeah, but I can’t answer that because it’s not my decision in the end. I can prepare the team with the staff, and the players that are here have been fantastic over pre-season. We were all clear on what we need to improve, and for whatever reason, we haven’t been able to do that. Now we’re in this position and we have to accept it and not dwell on it and try and come through it for Saturday and for Tuesday.”

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