Liverpool FC — James Milner analyzes Liverpool’s draw with Crystal Palace

On going into half-time 1-0 down after such a strong start…

That’s football, that’s the Premier League, it’s always going to be tough. You’re coming up against organized teams, teams with quality, teams that will try to hurt you on the break as well. They’re well organized but they’ve got a lot of very good individuals as well who are unpredictable and caught us on the break. It’s disappointing but ultimately the main thing is that at least we created those chances. I think if you’re not creating anything, that’s obviously a bigger problem. We’re creating, we need to take them. But it’s not the ideal start to the season but we need to keep playing the way we started and finished the game. I think the reaction going down to 10 men was very, very good. The crowd helped us out as well. And Lucho scored an incredible goal.

On Nunez’s send-off…

I did not see the incident. Obviously he’s going to be disappointed with that and it’s down to us to get round him and rally. I’m sure he’ll learn from it. I think the reaction was the most important thing. The team reacted very, very well and the ground reacted very well – as they always do – they got right behind us and we could’ve nicked a winner. It wasn’t to be but we moved on.

That’s what good teams do, they get together with disappointments and you stick together. We’ve got a great team spirit at the club and you don’t have to say too much about the fans here, they’re obviously incredible and always get behind us, especially when things are tough. They did that and we rallied. It was disappointing not to get the winner but I think the reaction was incredible from the boys – 10 men and kept pushing. It’s not the ideal start but you see the readiness for the season and it’s obviously a long, long season. It’s not the start we would want but you see the fight there. We’ve had a week of tough things that have gone on and preparation hasn’t been ideal. I think it’s disappointing but you see the fighting spirit was there and no-one can deny that. We fought until the end.