Jamie Carragher was left to lament just how badly things have changed for Liverpool in the space of a year and has named who he believes to be the team’s weak link after they were roundly dominated in a bruising Champions League quarter-final defeat at Paris Saint-Germain.
Liverpool were deemed “lucky” by their own manager Arne Slot for escaping Paris with just the two-goal deficit in the tie, with the competition holders ripping the Reds apart from whistle to whistle.
Desire Doue’s early deflected strike was added to by Khvicha Kvaratskhelia in the second half to give Liverpool a mountain to climb in the second leg.
Slot took a gamble by starting the game with a back-five system instead of his usual four, operating Virgil van Dijk in the middle with Ibrahima Konate on the right and Joe Gomez on the left.
The strategic decision proved ill-fated, with Carragher saying on CBS Sports Golazo: “The manager has tried something but he’s got it massively wrong tactically, how he went about it.
“It’s easy for me to say that, after the event, but that’s what we do, we’re pundits, we speak after the events in the game.
“They were actually more open with the back five than they would be with the back four because they went man-to-man all over the pitch and the three centre-backs had to cover the width of the pitch.
“Watching Virgil van Dijk tonight in the middle of the back three… Normally, when you get to a certain age, you think, middle of a back three, that’s perfect for me, everyone’s in position, you get a bit of protection in your back five.
“This was different. Defenders were jumping into midfield. There was no one to mark. And Van Dijk, at 34 years of age, was having to run in there and run across. He couldn’t do it.”
While critics have once again pointed the finger at Liverpool captain Van Dijk after another disjointed display, Carragher came to the defence of the Dutchman and rather labelled his defensive colleague Konate as the problem.
“People have criticised Van Dijk this season for his performances and I think it’s been harsh. He plays every game,” he said. “The fella next to him has been awful all season and was poor again tonight, Konate. He makes a mistake every game.
“That’s not easy to play alongside. I actually think Van Dijk has been one of Liverpool’s better players but tonight in that back three, I have never seen him so uncomfortable in a Liverpool shirt in my life.
“I think he will be pleading with Arne Slot to never play that system ever again because he found it so tough.”
Carragher, comparing this Liverpool team to the Premier League title-winners that came to the Parc des Princes and won last season, is struggling to comprehend the scale of the club’s decline.
“That was like watching a team from a lower division,” he said. “The gulf in class was very worrying from a Liverpool point of view.
“In some ways, it’s a great result as it should have been five or six. But the gulf between the two teams was absolutely startling when you consider last season.
“Yes, Liverpool got battered at PSG and they won 1-0, we know that. But the second leg at Anfield was a really close game, two top teams.
“Liverpool then go and spend £450m, probably a lot more than PSG spent in the summer. To see the gulf there is worrying. You think, ‘how’s it got to that? How’s it got that bad?'”