Brendan Rodgers paid a visit to the set of Coronation Street last week and hoped to draw some inspiration from the famous old cobbles.

What he got instead at Hull City was, to borrow a phrase from the streets of Weatherfield, a load of old cobblers. Liverpool were utterly abysmal at the KC Stadium, producing a performance so wooden that Hull couldn’t fail to take advantage. They were not flattered by the 3-1 victory margin.

On days as bad as this, the Champions League ambitions Liverpool harbour appear hopelessly misguided. This should have been an afternoon when they seized the moment, capitalising on the mistakes made by the sides around them. Instead, they ended up being cruelly exposed.

Without Daniel Sturridge, who will be sidelined for six to eight weeks with ankle ligament damage, Liverpool lacked an edge, especially as Luis Suarez was out of sorts. Hull capitalised, their goals coming from Jake Livermore, David Meyler and Martin Skrtel, who put through his own net.

‘It’s an understatement to say it was disappointing,’ said Rodgers, who saw Steven Gerrard score Liverpool’s reply. ‘We thought this was an opportunity. We went into the game with confidence and belief but we made too many mistakes. ‘We are all very disappointed. We lacked quality with the ball. ‘We never created enough or kept the ball long enough to move them about. In the last two games we have conceded six goals — we have to be much, much better than that.’

Easier said than done. Liverpool, undoubtedly, made a good start to the campaign and when Sturridge and Suarez dovetail sweetly, they look an accomplished side. Take either out of the equation, along with Philippe Coutinho, who started on the bench here due to injury, and it is very different.

Rodgers knows that only too well. Liverpool are about to embark on their biggest test of the season — they have away games against Chelsea, Manchester City and Tottenham before the year closes — and he is concerned they do not have the depth to cope.

‘There’s no doubt that our squad, with all due respect, isn’t big enough to cope with two big players missing,’ said Rodgers. ‘Daniel could be out for up to eight weeks. Philippe hasn’t trained all week (due to an ankle strain) and had some injections to get on the bench.

‘You take those two out — and they are two very good players who have been very efficient for us — and this period now will test us. We still have some very good players and, for those who come in, it will be a great opportunity to stake their place in the team.’ Maybe the news about Sturridge had a bigger impact on Liverpool than Rodgers could have envisaged. In the first half, their game lacked pace and threat and too many of his players were off colour, struggling to make an impact.

Hull, by contrast, started with purpose. The backing for Steve Bruce’s side was noisy, relentless and unfailingly positive, encouragement being given even when a pass was misplaced or a tackle lost.

‘I said last week after losing to Crystal Palace that was the most disappointing we had been since the start of the season,’ said Bruce.

‘It was important to have a response. You need a game like this sometimes.’ It came as no surprise, then, when Hull took the lead, giving the KC Stadium faithful the goal for which they had been baying.

Fortune went their way — Livermore’s strike from 25 yards took a huge deflection off Skrtel — but it was fair reward for the enthusiastic start Bruce’s side had made. Liverpool’s response was almost instantaneous. Jordan Henderson’s charge forward was crudely halted by Curtis Davies and Gerrard ensured that crime received the maximum punishment when he fizzed the resulting 20-yard free-kick past Allan McGregor.

Gerrard was the only Liverpool player in an attacking sense who took responsibility but, for all his movement and prompting, he never received any support. Raheem Sterling and Victor Moses, the replacements for Sturridge and Coutinho, were anonymous.

The longer the game progressed, the less Liverpool offered and it then became a question of whether Hull, for whom Tom Huddlestone and Livermore were particularly impressive, could seize the moment. With the help of some appalling defending from the visitors, they did just that.

When Moses missed Liverpool’s best chance of the second period, Hull charged straight up field and the ball ended up breaking to Meyler, whose left-foot drive sped past his old Sunderland team-mate Simon Mignolet and nestled in the corner of the net.

An exultant Bruce danced a jig on the touchline but better was to come 10 minutes later. Yannick Sagbo held up play impressively before finding Huddlestone, whose attempt to chip Mignolet was diverted into the net by Skrtel.

‘You have got to give the goal to Tom so he can get his flaming hair cut,’ said Bruce, referring to the wild hairstyle Huddlestone has promised to have shorn when he scores again. ‘But he is a class act. We have now got 17 points going into the Christmas period. ‘We have got five wins and we need another five. If we can get 10 or 11 wins, that is usually enough to keep you up. Long may this continue.’

—Daily Mail