The Reds sustained a sixth consecutive Premier League loss on home soil as Mario Lemina’s strike on the stroke of half-time secured three points for the visitors.
Speaking post-match, Milner rued his side’s failure to reach the standards they set for themselves and insisted it is down to the squad to turn things around through hard work.
Read his interview with Sky Sports below…
On where it wrong for Liverpool today…
Obviously it wasn’t good enough from the standards we’ve set. We made changes today and we didn’t really start very well, they passed it around very well in the first half and their set-up caused us problems where we couldn’t get too close to them. Second half, we had a lot of the ball and probably had chances to score but didn’t really create as much as we would have liked.
On getting familiarity in the XI after seven changes to the line-up…
It’s not familiarity, obviously we train with each other a lot and we’ve all played together a lot. It’s just obviously players who maybe haven’t played as much and getting that rhythm. But it’s excuses at the end of the day. We need to be better, we know that. We know we can perform a lot better but things aren’t happening for us at the moment. I don’t think you can level at the players there’s no effort there – the effort is always there. I don’t think you ever see anyone strolling around, that would never happen with this group of players, it’s an honest group of players. But when things aren’t going for you everything is a lot harder; you miss a chance and it hits you a lot harder. You need one to go in off someone’s knee or something and at the moment it’s not happening for us.
On whether the Reds are missing that touch of luck…
I don’t think it’s just that, obviously it’s a break that you need, a little bit of magic. Shaq had an effort that has gone the wrong side of the post – when things are going well it goes in. One from a corner that’s bouncing around – when things are going well it goes in. At the moment it’s not for us and it’s down to us to dig ourselves out. The only way is working hard and it’s down to us to do that.
On how difficult it is to take the streak of home defeats…
The mindset has to be like it always is: concentrate on the next game. It definitely hurts. When you’re playing for a club with the history of Liverpool, the history we’ve created as a group of players, the standards we’ve set, we’re not hitting them at this moment in time and it’s not good enough. We know the incredible support we get all around the world and they’re still with us despite our poor performance at this moment in time. It’s disappointing and hard when you’re letting the club down and letting the fans down. It’s for us to keep pushing and dig ourselves out of the mess.