“With this squad we won a lot of games last year and we have to do the same this year,” he said. “The only thing we can do now is beat Bolton and the people will be behind us again.

“Our target is to win against Bolton next week. That’s it. We are not thinking about anything else.

“Clearly when you are losing, the only way to change things is to win. We lost against Tottenham and then beat Stoke, so we have to try and beat Bolton.

“The team needs to improve and the senior players need to take responsibility.

“I don’t think teams have worked us out. We’ve played for one year with this team and took 86 points. We need to be more precise and not give the ball away and score when we have chances.”

Benitez refused to single out Lucas for criticism, despite the Brazilian putting through his own net and being sacrificed midway through the second half as Liverpool sought a way back into the game.

“We have to be fair, it wasn’t just Lucas,” he said. “Gerrard gave away the penalty and while it might not have been a corner for the second goal, too many people were going for the same ball.

“I changed Lucas as I wanted to put Gerrard back and put another striker on.

“He has the mental strength to get over his own goal.”