OPINION
Liverpool were aiming to overcome Red Star Belgrade for the second time this season in the Champions League when they travelled to face them on Tuesday evening, but they were unable to.
The Reds had to deal with a very loud atmosphere when playing at the Red Star Stadium as supporters of the Serbian giants didn’t stop making noise from start to finish, which even made the referee’s whistles hard to hear.
The noise only increased when Red Star took the lead in the first-half through Milan Pavkov and it didn’t get better from there.
Parkov grabbed a second, a beautiful goal, before the half-time whistle blew to make the noise nearly unbearable.
Live 4 Liverpool have rated every single Liverpool player v Red Star below from their 2-0 defeat to the Serbian giants, with two liabilities battling for the lowest score in 3/10 displays.
Goalkeeper and defence
Alisson Becker – 6 – Made a couple of good saves in the first half, including denying Marko Marin. However probably should have done better for Red Star’s opener. Could do nothing to stop the Serbian’s extending their lead to two after a cracking goal.
Trent Alexander-Arnold – 3.5 – Stretched to have a shot on goal in the early stages, saw his effort go whizzing over. The full-back’s touch abandoned him before he was dragged off at half-time, and he can have no complaints about not playing the second half.
Joel Matip – 4 – Should have done better for Reds Stars’ opener. Struggled to cope throughout the game.
Virgil van Dijk – 6 – Dealt with a lot of the danger in the first-half but failed to head clear the ball when it was whipped in from corner, and Red Star ended up scoring. Wasn’t fantastic but wasn’t awful.
Andy Robertson – 6 – Played a beautiful pass to Sadio Mane in the early stages. The left-back was probably one of the only players whose first-half wasn’t riddled with errors. Didn’t really put a foot wrong like the majority of his teammates, but his passing was up to his usual standard.
Midfield
Georginio Wijnaldum – 4 – Got shrugged off with ease and this alone lead to the Red Star extending their lead to 2-0 in the first half. This was easily Wijnaldum’s worst performance of the season.
James Milner – 4 – Watched his volley go flying over the crossbar and then took out his frustrations with a late challenge. Little reckless when sliding in. Didn’t run the midfield like he is capable of.
Adam Lallana – 3 – Did well to carve out a few chances in the first-half but needed to do more. Lallana was easily exploited in the midfield by his opponents as he didn’t get back quick enough and let his opposition have it their own way. Was a liability.
Attack
Mohamed Salah – 4 – Saw a lot of the ball in the first half but didn’t really do much with it. Salah had opportunities in the second half but didn’t take them.
Sadio Mane – 5 – Unselfishly cut-the-ball back to Daniel Sturridge in the first-half but he blazed the ball over. Livewire in the first-half but switching flanks seem to make him more ineffective if anything.
Daniel Sturridge – 3 – Should have at least worked the keeper with Mane gifted him a chance. Was rather wasteful and gave Klopp no reason to rely on him anytime soon, was a liability.
Substitutes
Joe Gomez on for Trent Alexander-Arnold (45) – 5- More solid than Alexander-Arnold but didn’t really get the opportunity to show what he can do.
Roberto Firmino on for Sturridge (45) – 4 – Was like a man possessed upon entering the game, but didn’t really have the impact he would have liked.
Divock Origi on for Lallana (79) – N/A
