Rafa Benitez reflected on yesterday’s defeat at Ewood Park, expressing his disappointment at the result and being able to understand what went wrong:
“We were expecting something better from this game,” said Benitez.
“We created two or three clear chances in the first half, and when you miss opportunities sometimes you pay for it. In this case, we paid.
“It’s difficult to explain. We were moving the ball well, making crosses and clear headers, so you need to score.
“In the second half, their keeper was really good, but in the first half we should have scored. If we’d done the right things, the keeper wouldn’t have been able to do anything.
“It would have been a different game had we scored then. Had we the two or three goals we should, the game would be finished.
“We have seen this many times this season when we have created a lot of clear chances, but haven’t scored.
“Their goalkeeper was fantastic, but I have to be disappointed that we have got nothing from a game where we created so many clear chances. Everything was under control, and they’ve only had one chance.”
Rafa Benitez is aware this isn’t the first time the reds have failed to convert the chances they were presented with.
“Crouch had three clear chances in the first half, but maybe it was down to bad luck and good goalkeeping that we didn’t score,” said Benitez.
“Crouch is improving on attacking the ball, but there was no power. Now we need to be positive and think about the next games.
“I have to be pleased with the quality of the movements, but not with the most important thing, which was the finishing.
“Maybe sometimes it’s a ruthlessness in our game. When you can, you must finish the games.
“The game was similar to Charlton in the number of chances, but not in the goals. A lot of our away games have been like this.”