Martin O'Neill: “I think when we had a couple of chances in the first half we really had to take one those.
“That would have given us a lift, given us a foothold in the game.
“But we gave away two very poor goals and in the end we were well beaten.
“Liverpool deserved to win.
“James had a great chance – it was one of those where you think we must score – but we didn’t take it, and on the night, we needed to do that.
“After Liverpool’s third goal, just after half-time, that put us really on the back foot and from then on in, Liverpool were comfortable after that.
“They looked very comfortable.
“We had more energy against Man City because we were fresher.
“We had been buoyed by a great win at Southampton and with our home crowd behind us, offering us fantastic support, we showed great energy in that match against City and deserved to win.
“I felt we might have got something out of the Spurs game after that.
“But against Liverpool, with us being unable to shuffle our pack much, I felt the fourth game just got caught up with us.”