Liverpool Manager Roy Hodgson Admits Side Are 'In A Relegation Fight' After Disastrous Blackpool Defeat

Roy Hodgson has admitted Liverpool are now "in a relegation fight" after Sunday's shock 2-1 defeat to Blackpool kept them in the bottom three.

The Seasiders went 2-0 up in the first half courtesy of a Charlie Adam penalty and a Luke Varney strike right on half-time. Sotiros Kyrgiakos got one back for the home side with a bullet header but it was not enough to salvage anything from the match.

The score line has left the Anfield outfit in 18th place, with just one win and six points to their name.

Speaking to reporters after the match, Hodgson refused to hide from the "bleak" situation he found himself in.

"Things are looking really, really bleak. It has been said that if you are in the bottom three, you are in a relegation fight, and I would have to go along with that," the 63-year-old said.

"But I'm not thinking too much about relegation with 31 games left. My concerns are that we are not playing to our full potential, or are only doing it in periods. In the first half we were punished for a lacklustre display.

"We had the ball as much as they did but didn't do anywhere near enough with it to satisfy my demands, the club's demands or the players' demands on themselves.

"We tried to pull it back in the second half, but nothing can change the fact that it has been a very bad day.

"I can tell by the mood in here that you can all tell how bad it has been. We were anxious to get back on the right track. Nothing I can say can change that situation or make it any better. It's pointless to try and be positive and say the second half was better. All those statements pale into insignificance because we lost."

He added: "It’s a bad result and a very bad day.

''Great result for Blackpool to come here and get a result here. Their great result is our nightmare result.

During the game chants could be heard from Liverpool fans shouting for Kenny Dalglish to take over and Hodgson understands the fans' frustration and accepts that the responsibility to get the team performing well lies with him.

"Is it unfair the fans sang for Kenny Dalglish? What's fair and unfair? There is no fairness. The fans are frustrated at the moment - there are a lot of things happening, and it's understandable they are frustrated.

"I am the manager, I am the one who has to take responsibility and I have to accept their right to aim their frustration in my direction.

"The early part here was not that bad, we had good results in Europe and had a stroke of luck in the league games. The last couple of weeks have been really bad. We’ve gone out the Carling Cup to Northampton, failed to win a home game last week and lost a home game to a team just been promoted. It looks bleak, looks bad, but we have to put a brave face on it.’’

The defeat was compounded as striker Fernando Torres went off injured after only nine minutes and Hodgson feels that this may have had an affect on his players during the game.

"They did play better than us in the first half, I don’t know if the early blow to Fernando Torres had a psychological effect.

"It’s a groin strain, I don’t know how severe but they’re assessing it at the moment. It came as a surprise to us, we had no awareness there was a problem in the groin area."

Blackpool’s attacking style up to winning the penalty clearly surprised Liverpool, who were completely outplayed.

Charlie Adam, who was influential in his side’s victory played a lovely through ball to Varney who then cut inside Glen Johnson and the defender brought him down in the area. Varney then doubled the lead by lashing a shot past Pepe Reina and the Reds boss felt that Blackpool deserved there 2-0 advantage at half-time.

"The first half we were correctly punished for a lacklustre performance, we had the ball as much as them but didn’t do anything thing with it to satisfy my demands, the clubs or players demands.

"We conceded goals from counter-attacks from the edge of our own area. Blackpool played well in the first half and will feel worthy of that 2-0 scoreline, we did our very best to turn it around but we were only able to get the one goal.

"I don’t think it’s because of the players’ attitude at the start of the game but at the start we are not at the level of intensity at the start of the second half. We shouldn’t need to go two goals down to get the type of reaction we had.

"The spirit of the team is still there and I couldn’t have asked anymore of them in the second half. We would have loved an extra 15 minutes but we didn’t get it.’’