The Reds boss also revealed that Emile Heskey has suffered a recurrence of his ankle injury.
"Emile turned his ankle again and had to come off. Vladimir had flu before the game so I knew he wouldn't be able to complete the 90 minutes. Jerzy Dudek injured his back in the warm-up so that's why he wasn't on the bench."
Houllier admitted that his side sat back too much against a good Blackburn side. Although he is frustrated, the manager believes his side have the character to regain their form.
"We played some good stuff in the first half but in the second we sat back too much. We wanted to keep it at 1-0 and hold onto the win but it was just a shame. Blackburn are a good side but we let them play too much in the second half."
"It is frustrating but when you go through this period you get stronger. I think we turned the corner at Aston Villa when we scored four goals away from home. We got a good result against an Everton side doing well. I was pleased with the quality of the first half but the second half we lost our way. In saying that Michael and Milan missed chances and Igor could have scored to make it 2-0. "
"Eight games without a win for us but two games against Sunderland were unlucky and we could have won those. We are the team with the most shots on goal, our team is young and we have to be patient. I trust my players and believe in them."
