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Roy's Everton verdict

Roy Hodgson revealed his frustrations after Liverpool slipped to a 2-0 defeat in the Merseyside derby clash with Everton on Sunday afternoon.

Goals in each half from Tim Cahill and Mikel Arteta secured local bragging rights for the Blues on a disappointing afternoon at Goodison Park.

Afterwards, Hodgson told reporters: "This was always going to be a difficult game to win.

"We suffered at the hands of an early onslaught, which you invariably do here at Goodison. They put us under pressure and made it difficult for us to get the ball, but towards the end of the first half we started to do better - we were starting to more than even the game out

"I thought the shape of the team was good and I thought the quality of our passing and moving was good today."

He continued: "We had plenty of the ball in the second half and we were camped out in their half of the field in the final third for large periods.

"I thought we caused them plenty of problems, but you're never going to get the really clear one-on-one chances when teams are defending a two-goal lead."

The timing of Arteta's goal in particular came as a blow to Liverpool in the early stages of the second period, and Hodgson admitted his team are culpable of conceding too many goals at the moment.

He said: "We are conceding too many goals and yet today I think we were a little bit unlucky to do so. Even in the good spell of pressure Everton had at the beginning, we weren't shipping goal chances.

"But it is a problem that we're letting in goals. We need to score goals to take pressure off the fact we could let them in, especially when you're playing with the sort of line-up we were at the end of the game.

"Good teams score goals and don't let many in and that's what we have got to be trying to do as well. We need to get better in both areas.

"In particular today, one could argue with all the possession we had in the second half and the time we had in the final third, we should have scored because the possibility was there."

The boss added: "We're not trying to disguise the fact this is a predicament or whatever word you want to use. For any team to take six points from eight games at the start of the season and go through that type of bad spell is a predicament. We don't in anyway try to deny that."

Though disappointed with the performance, Hodgson refuted suggestions from journalists his players are suffering from a lack of confidence.

He said: "I didn't see it (a lack of confidence) with Maxi Rodriguez, Gerrard, Meireles or any of the back players. I thought all of those showed plenty of confidence in themselves.

"Fernando (Torres) is going through a bad time, he needs a goal and his confidence is low.

"I wouldn't say it is a question of too many (players) lacking confidence, but people are playing under pressure. That's the bottom line.

"We've taken six points from eight games and every game we don't win, the pressure builds up even more. That will affect people's confidence in the long run."

Reporters quizzed the boss on whether he would be forced to reassess his target of a top-four finish following Liverpool's disappointing start to the campaign.

He replied: "There are 30 games to go and 90 points to play for. I don't know if I would write that off at the moment.

"It would take a really good run of four to five wins on the spin, but I thought there were signs in the game today and who knows, maybe we can get those four or five wins on the spin. That's what it is going to take."

Away from the pitch, New England Sports Ventures' Principal Owner John W Henry and Chairman Thomas Werner took in their first game as Liverpool owners from the directors' box.

Reporters asked Hodgson if he felt as though today's defeat could be classed as a missed opportunity to build on the surge of optimism following the sale to NESV on Friday.

He replied: "Yes, of course I feel that. This would have been the ideal opportunity to turn things around on the back of the entry of the new owners and the way that has been received by everyone. To get a result here and win the game would have been utopia.

"But I can only analyse the performance and there is no point in attempting to analyse dreams. The dream was we would come here on the back of new owners and win, but we had to play a game of football."

On NESV's involvement in the January transfer window, Hodgson added: "They're going to be very interested in doing that I think. It's still two and half months off and there is a lot of football to be played, so there is no point in us trying to put all our eggs into that basket.

"The first thing we have to do is start playing and winning matches. Hopefully we can do that and get ourselves in a better position, then if the owners can find a way to back us and improve the team in the transfer window we will obviously do so.

"Of course the January transfer window is something that interests us. We'll have to do our scouting work for future transfers like any other club, but it's not something that interests us in the coming weeks. What interests me is preparing for Napoli and Blackburn - a game we need to win."

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