Gerrard aims ‘cruel’ dig at surprise Liverpool culprit after ‘toothless’ PSG defeat | OneFootball

Steven Gerrard aimed “cruel” criticism at one Liverpool star for their hand in the 2-0 defeat to Paris Saint-Germain as the Red legend admits his former side were “toothless” and “totally dominated” by the hosts at the Parcs des Princes.

Slot’s side were put to the sword by PSG in their Champions League quarter-final on Tuesday as goals from Desire Doue and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia secured a 2-0 win for the Ligue 1 giants which flattered Liverpool on a night in which they were completely outplayed by the hosts.

Liverpool fielded a back five for the first time in a Champions League or Premier League game since December 2017 and Jamie Carragher launched an impassioned defence of Virgil van Dijk, who he claims has never looked “so uncomfortable” before ripping into Florian Wirtz and two of his teammates.

Gerrard admitted after the game that PSG probably should have put the game to bed.

“PSG were more ruthless, certainly in the second half they had big chances… to go and kill the tie off,” Gerrard told TNT Sports after the game.

“Liverpool getting out of here at 2-0 is okay, it’s not fantastic but if any place can make a tie of this next week, it’s Anfield.”

On Liverpool’s hope of turning the tie around at Anfield, Gerrard added: “It’s going to be a real big ask is because PSG are so good. It was total domination tonight, Liverpool’s tactics and gameplan worked for large periods of the game but they didn’t have anything up top. They were quite toothless and didn’t create anything.

“Over the course of 90 minutes Liverpool haven’t offered enough but what they’ve done is given themselves a small opportunity next week at Anfield.”

Reacting to Doue’s opener, which saw Ibrahima Konate dive into a challenge on the halfway line to set the Frenchman on his way, Gerrard also hit out at Georgio Mamarshashvili, who Slot said had a “very good game” in his post-match interview and made number of saves to keep the scoreline respectable.

“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,” Gerrard said.

“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.

“Maybe he [Mamardashvili] 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.”

Fellow pundit Steve McManaman claimed the Reds were “lightweight up top”.

He explained: “It’s an easy game to analyse. Weirdly enough, PSG weren’t ruthless enough tonight. The chances they missed…

“Liverpool had Alisson to the rescue last year, if anything it was PSG not putting them to the sword today. I thought Liverpool were very lightweight up top. Not being ruthless enough, not taking shots on.

“It’s going to be difficult to turn this around, against this team. Marquinhos [PSG’s captain] has had the easiest game of the season, he’s hardly done anything today. It’s going to take a huge performance for Liverpool to turn this around next week.”