Andy Robertson apologizes to Liverpool fans as he admits the Reds are getting even WORSE after being eliminated from the FA Cup at Brighton

ANDY ROBERTSON conceded Liverpool were “nowhere near good enough” as the FA Cup holders fell out to leave their season in tatters.

Kaoru Mitoma’s stoppage-time stunner sent the Reds’ silverware bids to a new low as Jurgen Klopp’s flops suffered defeat against Brighton for the second time in 15 days.

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With Liverpool eliminated from both cups and ninth in the Premier League – ten points adrift of the top four – their only chance of a trophy remains in the Champions League, where they meet holders Real Madrid in the Round of 16.

Fuming Robertson, who apologized to the club’s fans, said: “This season hasn’t been nearly good enough. We wanted a fresh start at the turn of the year. If anything, we were worse.

“You can’t say what went wrong, it’s more than that. You can tell we’re not confident in front of goal, we’re still a bit open defensively.

“We need to regain our confidence. I feel sorry for the fans. They were amazing today and we let them down again.

“I thought it was a real cup game – in the end both teams had chances.

“We were a little better than two weeks ago but we’re out of the cup and that’s sorely disappointing. We have to start winning games. That’s easy to say and harder to fix.”

Liverpool took the lead through Harvey Elliott after half an hour but were pushed back by Lewis Dunk’s lucky strike before the superb Mitoma won with an excellent piece of control and composure in injury time.

Robertson’s fiery words were directed at Klopp and the German replied: “It’s not 100 per cent true but it’s not 100 per cent false. Of course you want a fresh start, when you come back after the World Cup break, you want to go for it.

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“And so far it hasn’t gone right. But we have to keep working. There were good performances today and good moments in the game.

“We had the game on our minds a few weeks ago, which was pretty much the low point of my time. So that was better, much better.

“But we still conceded two goals from set pieces. We need to improve, the body language, some guys need to do a lot better.

“But we couldn’t have won the last game here. Today nobody would have been surprised if we had won the game.”

Mitoma was signed by Japanese side Kawasaki Frontale in 2021 for just £2.5m before being loaned out to Albion’s Belgian sister side Union Saint-Gilloise last season.

He’s been a revelation this season, scoring six goals in 19 games for the Seagulls and his stoppage-time strike was nothing short of stunning.

Of the magic match winner, Dunk said, “I’m glad he’s on our side. I wouldn’t want to have to chase him. He is a top player and comes out of nowhere.”

Roberto De Zerbi was happy with the result but felt his side could have played even better.

The Italian added: “We are very happy with the result. We won a very difficult game against a different team than the last game.

“If you want to talk about the quality of the game, I didn’t like the game. We made a lot of simple mistakes and we have to work. We have to improve to reach the higher level.”