Gary O'Neil shares Liverpool regret after supporters' reaction after final whistle

Gary O’Neil believes his Wolves side paid the price for going “gung-ho” against Liverpool and allowing their emotions to get the better of them. Having fallen behind in first-half stoppage time to an Ibrahima Konate header, the struggling Midlanders equalised 11 minutes after the break when Rayan Ait-Nouri capitalised on a defensive mix-up.

Wolves, though, were level for only five minutes after Diogo Jota was hauled down by Nelson Semedo inside the penalty area and Mohamed Salah converted from the spot to earn the Reds a 2-1 win.

And O’Neil explained how his team veered from the gameplan having been caught up in the excitement of restoring parity.

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“The lads performed excellently and gave everything,” he said. “We lost control and went off script for a minute, we got carried away after we scored and went chasing things we shouldn’t.

“We opened the game up and got badly punished for that lapse. Of course there are some other things we don’t do perfectly, a bit too patient in the build-up at the end and then not patient enough when trying to thread it through seven Red players on the edge of the box.”

O’Neil added: “The error was one from emotion. When we were in a controlled shape and structure, as talented as our group is you don’t want to open the game up to crazy situations against Liverpool as they have some real top talent that can hurt you.

“We tried to be aggressive from a good structure, we didn’t sit back. We have huge faith in the team that we can come up with plans that can cause big teams problems but we don’t need to become gung-ho and wide open.

“Just when you’re looking at what changes you can make after getting it back to 1-1 all of a sudden the situation is taken away in a heartbeat.”

Wolves remain bottom of the Premier League table after taking just one point from a difficult opening six games that have also included games against Arsenal, Chelsea, Newcastle United and Aston Villa.

And O’Neil said: “In terms of going toe-to-toe with one of the biggest clubs in the country I am proud of what the players gave. They deserve to be on more than one point after six games.

“They deserve a lot of credit as you saw from the reaction of the fans at the end which isn’t normal for a team who is bottom with one point from six games.”