Beard says Liverpool 'lost control'

Liverpool boss Matt Beard blamed his players for the way in which they "lost control" in their 2-1 defeat to Leicester City.

The Reds had taken an early lead through Olivia Smith, but goals from Sam Tierney and Missy Goodwin sealed Leicester's second league win of the season.

Beard's side have now lost five of their past six WSL matches and sit in seventh place in the table.

"Obviously a good start [to the match] but then I thought we lost control of the game after that, which is frustrating," Beard told Liverpoolfc.com

"It's tough when you're playing teams, like Leicester, that are fighting for their lives.

"I said before the game to the players, they are fighting for everything, so we've got to make sure we outfight them and outwork them – and I don't think we did that in the first half.

"I thought we controlled the second half completely. We just needed a little bit more composure in certain moments at certain times."

One bright spot for Beard was the performance of midfielder Julia Bartel, who made her debut as a second-half substitute having joined Liverpool on loan from Chelsea earlier this month.

"Julia is a fantastic player, she's so comfortable on the ball [and] she's a little bit feisty as well, which we like," Beard added.

"She would have come on last week [against Brighton] but unfortunately Hannah Silcock hurt her knee.

"We've had to patiently build her up because she's not played many minutes for Chelsea – it's only really been [with] the Spanish youth national team. She's going to be a good addition for us."