LEICESTER City manager Brendan Rodgers has refused to blame Wout Faes despite the defender’s errors costing the side three Premier League points last night.
The Belgian centre-back scored two own goals to hand the points to Liverpool at Anfield.
The game ended 2-1 in Liverpool’s favour as Faes’ own goals cancelled out Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s opening strike.
Faes is the fourth player with two own goals in a single Premier League game after Jamie Carragher (1999, Liverpool vs Manchester United), Michael Proctor (2003, Sunderland vs Charlton) and Jonathan Walters (2013, Stoke vs Chelsea), according to Opta statistics.
“I’m bitterly disappointed for him because he’s been brilliant since he’s been with us,” Rodgers said during his post-match interview last night.
“He’s been away at the World Cup but hasn’t played a great deal so it’s going to take a game or two to get up to speed and get his rhythm back.
“The first one, I doubt you’ll see another own goal like that again. It’s just unfortunate because it was coming straight into Wardy’s (Danny Ward’s) hands.
“The second one, we should do better earlier on – it should never get to that point where he’s challenging it coming off the post. But he scored the two and he’s strong enough to deal with that.”
The manager believes his side were unfortunate not to come away with at least a point after an improved display from their 3-0 home defeat to Newcastle United on Boxing Day.
“I thought we were much better than what we were the other day,” he noted.
“We started the game how we wanted, and the plan was working really well. You can’t plan for the two goals that we conceded inside seven minutes.
“That was frustrating but the boys were competitive in the game right the way through to the very end.
“We got into some dangerous areas, but didn’t at times show enough quality when we were in there, but we kept getting in there and we were just waiting for those moments to fall.
“But overall, we’re very disappointed not to take something from the game.”
