He added: “I don’t think it’s the senior players who need to come to the fore, it’s all of the players. We know what we need to do to improve.

“This was one of those.

“I’m sure we have enough quality. We still think we can win the title. Maybe we can not lose any more games until the end of the season, but we believe we are strong enough to be there at the end of the season. But it’s too early to speculate, we just need to look to get a run of winning games.

“We have a lot of good players here already, enough to win the league. Aquilani is still injured and can bring us a lot of good things, we have a very strong squad, and we don’t need to look at those kind of excuses after losing two games. We have enough quality to win games.

Š“It’s important to get a winning run together, but maybe it’s good that we have an international break coming up after the Bolton game.

Š“We have to try and come back stronger and we have games that we believe we can win. If we can win three or four games then the confidence can come back.

Š“Because there are other teams that are stronger, I feel the big four will lose more points than expected. Villa have proven they can beat anyone, and I’m sure Man United, Chelsea and Arsenal will have tough games against the likes of Villa, Manchester City and Tottenham.

“Hopefully, at the end of the season we will still be there.”

Liverpool have sent reserve striker Krisztian Nemeth for a season-long loan at AEK Athens, while another youngster, Andras Simon will also have a season with Spanish side Cordoba.