Liverpool: Joe Allen blames poor start and feeble run-in for Liverpool's disappointing season

Joe Allen says Liverpool players let down manager Brendan Rodgers down with a disappointing start and finish in the 2014/15 campaign.

The Merseyside club saw managed just two wins from their opening six games and were able to bag only five points out of the possible 18 in the final six fixtures, including a humiliating 6-1 defeat at the hands of Stoke City in May.

The former Swansea midfielder believes a lack of consistency throughout the season hurt the Reds, seeing them finish sixth in the table. They were eliminated in the group stages of the Champions League and suffered defeat at the hands of Aston Villa in the FA Cup semi-final.

"The players we've got here are all honest players who take responsibility. At the end of the day we were the ones who let the supporters down, the manager and the staff down and ourselves down," Allen said, as quoted by the Liverpool Echo.

"It's as simple as that. It's up to us to get back out there and get back to the levels we know we can reach.

"The start of last season was disappointing for us. We didn't start the way we would have liked but turned it around at one point and had a good run from December through to March.

"In the last two months we dropped off again. To allow the standards and the levels to drop like that was what hurt the most."

"When you end on a low like we did at Stoke then it's a really long summer. But, thankfully, we're back in now and everyone wants to set the record straight."

Liverpool have strengthened their squad with the signings of James Milner, Danny Ings, Adam Bogdan, Joe Gomez, Roberto Firmino and Nathaniel Clyne this summer. Allen has urged his teammates to start the next season on a high in order to avoid last season's disappointment.

"It takes a while to get over disappointments like that but our mentality now is to look forward. There's a lot of work to be done between now and the start of the Premier League season," he explained.

"The players we've got here don't need extra motivation when they go out and wear the shirt. I wouldn't say there's added incentive after what happened at the end of last season but we certainly want to make sure we hit the ground running this time around."