Liverpool Suarez Coutinho
Liverpool players Luis Suarez, Philippe Coutinho and Lucas Leiva react after Hull's goal in their English Premier League clash, December 1. Reuters

Liverpool were dealt a big blow in their English Premier League title quest on Sunday when Hull City pulled off a 3-1 victory at the KC Stadium, and manager Brendan Rodgers was left scratching his head trying to figure out what went wrong.

When Steven Gerrard cancelled Jake Livermore's opener a little before the half hour mark with a brilliant freekick, it felt like now was the time for Liverpool to take the game by the scruff of the neck and run away with it.

However, that proved to be far from the case as Hull, determined to bounce back from a disappointing defeat to Crystal Palace, played remarkably well and deservedly got two goals in the second half, albeit with a slice of luck here and there.

David Meyler made it 2-1 to Hull on 72 minutes with a nice finish, before Tom Huddlestone's mishit strike was turned into his own net by Martin Skrtel late on - whether Huddleston, refusing to cut his hair until he scores a goal, now goes to his hairdresser or not remains to be seen, with the strike going down as an own goal to the Liverpool defender.

Rodgers was pretty honest in his post-match assessment - Liverpool were just not good enough. "It was very disappointing," the Reds manager said. "I thought this was an opportunity for us to begin the week well.

"Hull came in on the back of losing at home and we arrived into the game with confidence and belief. But we made too many mistakes, with and without the ball, and overall it was very disappointing."

"I just thought we lacked quality. With the ball we just didn't create enough and we didn't keep the ball long enough in order to move them about. I always felt that we were in control of the game, but we needed to show a wee bit more quality and penetrate that wee bit more.

"But we didn't play well enough. The players are committed enough and they have been giving everything - but today [Sunday], our quality [was lacking] and there were just too many individual mistakes."

Liverpool's first-ever loss to Hull City means they are now seven points behind leaders Arsenal and with fixtures coming thick and fast a win against Norwich is an absolute must on Wednesday.

Steve Bruce's men have cracked the top ten with the three points, and sit tenth with an impressive 17 points from 13 games. Rodgers admitted he was not too surprised by just how difficult the 90 minutes at the KC Stadium proved to be in the end.

"Out of the promoted teams, Hull have done the best this season," he added. "Before the game they were on 14 points, which tells you that if they keep that level going, they will be around mid-table.

"Steve changed things at halftime, but we still couldn't find a cutting edge and then we didn't defend well enough as a team.

"We just need to reflect on this. We haven't had too many days of late like this here. Now we have a massive game on Wednesday and we must focus and look to get our points in that game."