NEIL Atkinson, Rob Gutmann, Philippa Smallwood and Stephen Evans are in the studio to dissect Liverpool’s miserable afternoon in Wales on Sunday.
The Reds’ youngest-ever starting 11 in the Premier League era was no match for Swansea so did Jürgen Klopp do the right thing with Thursday in mind or could he have gone with a more experienced line up without harming our chances versus Villarreal?
What lessons – if any – did we learn and has that performance finally rubber-stamped Martin Skrtel’s summer departure from the club?
The panel analyse the performances from front to back in red before turning to the game Liverpool’s season hinges on – the Europa League semi-final second leg at Anfield.
Direct: Free Podcast – Liverpool’s sacrificial lambs to the slaughter in Wales
Ward MoTM? “Filled everyone with confidence?” “Done nothing wrong” “Blameless for first goal”
The first goal was scored from a slowish highish cross that arrived in the middle of the goal inside the six yard box. The only player in front of his was one of own (the awful Kevin Stewart).
If Mignolet had done that – standing rooted to his line without even making an effort to punch let alone catch – you would have slaughtered him.
Massive confirmation bias.
Agreed on all counts.
Sturridge, Stewart and Ward did not cover themselves in glory.
The fact that Stewart also almost manhandled Benteke off the ball for our goal (seriously, look at the replay, he is attempting to wrestle with Benteke to get to the ball, he is THAT unaware and in his own ‘little world’), coupled with his complete lack of awareness for Swansea’s 1st goal does not bode well for him.