Liverpool were unfortunate to go behind to a deflected goal by Paris Saint-Germain’s Desire Doue, but club legend Steven Gerrard believes the Reds could have done better in the build-up
Former Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard believes the Reds should have done a better job of defending in the build-up to Paris Saint-Germain’s opening goal in their Champions League tie. Desire Doue opened the scoring with a deflected effort that offered Giorgi Mamardashvili little chance.
But Gerrard believes if the Reds had done better early in play, they possibly could have avoided the danger. The ex-midfielder highlighted Ibrahima Konate‘s play.
“They could have been better around the halfway line, you can see PSG have dragged them out of shape. Konate could have done better winning his duel. You look at the backline now, it’s all out of sync,” he said on TNT Sport.
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“Again, they get up to the ball quick enough, there’s enough bodies. They’re not being passive, they’re getting around it. They end up with four people around it when he cuts back in but no one gets tight enough and they get that cruel deflection and it makes them go a goal down.”
Gerrard was not prepared to let Mamardashvili off the hook either.
“Maybe he could have been a foot or a yard further back, there’s no reason maybe for him to be that high,” Gerrard added. “It is unfortunate and probably being slightly cruel, but if you step outside of the goalkeeper’s union, you can say maybe he could have been that little bit further back. Then he might have been able to tip it over the bar.”
Paul Robinson perhaps had a kinder take on Mamardashvili’s role in the goal after just 11 minutes. Doue received attention from Jeremie Frimpong, Florian Wirtz and Ryan Gravenberch before finding a moment of space to unleash a shot.
The ball fired high in the air off the Dutch midfielder, however, and Mamardashvili was left stranded, scarcely off his line.
Speaking BBC Radio 5 Live, Robinson said: “It is a fortunate finish from a PSG point of view. The pressure was mounting on Liverpool and it is a wicked deflection, which takes it up and over Giorgi Mamardashvili. He takes his opportunity Desire Doue.”
The Reds spent much of the match camped in their own half despite a narrow scoreline. Former Liverpool defender Stephen Warnock reckoned they could be happy to settle for that result, such was their difficulty working their way higher up the pitch.
“Liverpool will be very happy it is only 1-0 and their aim now is to keep it that way,” he said. “From what we’ve seen so far, I don’t see them getting a goal to take back to Anfield – they cannot get up the pitch and, even when they beat the press, they are finding it hard to get near the PSG area.”
The Reds were unable to prevent PSG from grabbing a second goal, however. Khvicha Kvaratskhelia ran off Ryan Gravenberch before coolly dispatching from inside the area to double the Ligue 1 side’s lead after 65 minutes.
