Gerrard: Don't Panic!

"In football you can be left feeling hard done by," said Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard. "After a 3-0 defeat everyone is going to be concerned. It's important that the likes of myself and the other experienced players take responsibility for a poor defeat.

"It took us five minutes to settle down but after that we controlled the game until they scored against the run of play just before half-time. In the second half quite a few things didn't go our way at big times. It's not the start we wanted but it's no time for panic. It's only the first game and it was one bad day at the office."

Of course, anyone considering panic as a response to Saturday's loss will be doing so not so much because it was one exceptionally poor performance, but rather because it seemed a continuation of the club's struggles throughout last season—rather than being one bad day, it was yet another bad day.

Once again Liverpool controlled the run of play but looked toothless in the final third; once again an opponent scored an unlikely goal to go ahead; and once again Liverpool began to crumble with the referee giving them a helpful shove or two along the way. It may have been the first game of a new season and the first game under a new manager, but in many ways it felt as though it could have been match number thirty-nine of the 2011-12 campaign.

Still, for all that it felt at times like more of the same, and as difficult as that might make it for fans, Gerrard is right when he insists that both the players and supports must look at the bigger picture and avoid getting caught up in too much of a panic after only one Premier League match:

"There's been so much hope around the place [since Brendan Rodgers' arrival] and rightly so. We have to put it behind us. We've got to dust ourselves down and bounce back against Hearts on Thursday night. We have to react in the right manner and look to put things right in the coming games."