Trent Alexander-Arnold bemoans lack of character as Liverpool lose to Bournemouth

The Reds slipped to a 1-0 loss at the Vitality Stadium as Philip Billing's effort took the hosts off the bottom of the table.

Mohamed Salah missed a second-half penalty to top off a miserable trip to the south coast for Liverpool, who were brought back down to earth having thrashed fierce rivals Manchester United 7-0 just six days earlier.

"This is the time of the season when everyone knows what they are fighting for and obviously Bournemouth are in a relegation battle," Alexander-Arnold told liverpoolfc.com.

"They are fighting for survival. But every team in the league is fighting for something so it means a lot to get the three points.

"I think looking back on it now, they probably wanted it more than us and that is something that is unacceptable and we need to make sure this kind of thing doesn't happen again."

Liverpool now face a trip to Spain for the second leg of their Champions League last-16 clash with Real Madrid.

Trailing 5-2 from the first leg, Alexander-Arnold insists Jurgen Klopp's side will give everything to try and turn around a hefty deficit at the Bernabeu.

"There's only one more game before the internationals and it's a huge one for us," added the England defender.

"It's one that we need to go and do something special, so all our focus is solely on that Real Madrid game now and it means that we can put everything into that game knowing that we've got days afterwards to recover.

"So, it's about throwing the kitchen sink at it and going all out and I think that's what we're going to do - it's important to do that. Then we'll get ready for an important run-in."

For Bournemouth, the victory came off the back of a gut-wrenching loss at league leaders Arsenal a week prior.

They had led 2-0 at the Emirates Stadium only to be beaten by a Reiss Nelson strike deep into added time.

Billing opened the scoring with just 9.11 seconds on the clock in north London and was delighted to grab his sixth goal of the season to down Liverpool.

"We all put on a good display," Billing told the club's official website.

"The thoughts obviously from last week, it was a heartbreak but we knew if we came into this game at home, try to perform the same, it will eventually pay off and it did against a top side.

"After last week, it was tough going into this game. Of course it does put a dent in your confidence a little bit.

"But we just have to keep going, we just know we have to grind them out and try to get as many points as we can.

"A lot of people have probably written us off but if you look at the table, obviously it's not what we want but I think we've played well - it's just been we've conceded late goals.

"We haven't been quite relentless and diligent enough but we were (against Liverpool) and we have to just carry it on."