LIVERPOOL -- Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers has played down a Daily Mirror report that he held a crisis meeting after Saturday's Premier League defeat at Arsenal.
Rodgers acknowledged that a meeting did take place after his side were beaten 4-1 at the Emirates Stadium but insisted that the significance of it has been overstated.
Successive defeats against Manchester United and Arsenal have all but ended Liverpool's chances of qualifying for next season's Champions League, as they currently sit seven points off the top four with seven games to play.
The Mirror claimed on Monday that Rodgers had accused several players of not trying hard enough for him at a meeting after training on Sunday, leading to several of the squad reacting angrily and speaking out against the manager.
Tomorrow's @DailyMirror back page: http://t.co/4lxL7C7peg pic.twitter.com/z5hXORsAFx
- Mirror Football (@MirrorFootball) April 5, 2015
However, Rodgers told a news conference on Monday: "We have lots of meetings here in terms of analysing performance, and it was no different to a whole host of meetings we've had throughout the year.
"It was those meetings that allowed us to recover from the bad start that we had and win 10 games out of 13.
"It was nothing, really. It was analysing performance and where we're at, and then feeding forward to the players what the objectives are, with seven games to go and an FA Cup quarterfinal. It was just unfortunate that something else was made of it."
Rodgers, though, acknowledged that his side's performance had been tailing off even before their 13-match unbeaten league run was ended by Manchester United on Mar. 22.
The manager is looking for an upturn in performance when his team visit Championship side Blackburn for their FA Cup replay on Wednesday.
Liverpool drew the first match between the sides 0-0 at Anfield on March 8 before labouring to a 1-0 league win at Swansea eight days later, and Rodgers has acknowledged that his players were not at their best in those games either.
He said: "In the last four games we've played, we haven't created as much, and that's more about ourselves than anything the opposition have done.
"In the first Blackburn game and the matches following that, we probably haven't created as much. We want to focus on creating those chances. It's my job to find the solutions."