Micah Richards was “disappointed” with Liverpool winger Luis Diaz during their League Cup final defeat to Newcastle United at Wembley on Sunday.
The Magpies won their first domestic trophy in over 70 years with Eddie Howe’s side the better team throughout the showpiece event.
Liverpool, who are leading the Premier League, rarely threatened Nick Pope’s goal with Newcastle going ahead on the stroke of half-time through a Dan Burn header before Alexander Isak knocked in a second shortly after the interval.
Federico Chiesa did get a goal back for Liverpool in injury time at the end of the second half but the Arne Slot’s side struggled to offer an attacking threat for much of the game.
Diaz was particularly quiet against Newcastle and, with Salah not at his best either, Slot would’ve hoped for other players to step up.
READ: 16 Conclusions from the Carabao Cup final: On Joelinton, Isak, disappearing Salah, VVD woes and more
Richards said he was “disappointed” with the Colombian’s performance after seeing him be “electric” for Liverpool on previous occasions.
The former Man City defender said on the Rest Is Football podcast: “I think I was disappointed with Luis Diaz today. I know he’s been through a lot with his father getting kidnapped and all that sort of thing. But when I’ve seen him previously, he’s been electric. He’s been up and down.”
MORE LIVERPOOL VS NEWCASTLE COVERAGE ON F365…
👉Newcastle United in rapture as they finally, finally get their day to celebrate over dismal Liverpool
👉Carragher slams ‘battered’ Liverpool in Newcastle loss as he explains why he ‘feels sorry’ for Salah
👉Liverpool: Carragher claims Slot’s ‘big’ decision ‘bit him on backside’ vs Newcastle – ‘got to learn’
Gary Lineker defended Diaz, insisting he wasn’t “picking” on the Liverpool winger but that he wanted to see more from the Colombia international.
Lineker added: “I’m not picking out Diaz at all, but I just think on a big pitch like Wembley, where at times there was space to exploit them gaps, I just wanted to see a little bit more.”
When asked in his post-match press conference whether Liverpool were physically or mentally fatigued on the day, or a combination of both, after Tuesday’s game against Paris Saint-Germain, Slot said: “Mentally, it’s always difficult to judge. Were we on Tuesday mentally or physically tired? No.
“But this game had nothing to do with running, this game had only to do with playing duels and there was no intensity in terms of running in this game at all. So you cannot even judge it if we were tired yes or no, physically, because we could not press them.
“You can judge a team if they are tired and they press. But there was nothing to press because they played over our press. If they got a goal-kick or if they got a free-kick – which they had quite a lot of in the first half – they every time brought it into our last line, which led to a lot of set-pieces.
“So, the game was slow and not intense, so it’s difficult to judge for me if we were physically ready. Mentally, that’s always a difficult one. If you look at the result and the performance you might feel it maybe did something to us, but I prefer to look at how the game went.
“And this game went exactly the way they wanted it to be: a fight with a lot of duels and a lot of duels through the air. And if we play 10 times a game of football through the air against them, they win it probably nine times because they are a stronger team through the air than us, which led to the first goal and the second goal because the second goal was also a header that they won at the second post that fell for Isak and led to the 2-0.”
READ NEXT: Arne Slot deserves Liverpool blame for no Plan B and over-working players