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Liverpool suffered a 2-0 loss against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League quarter-final first leg.
Jamie Carragher believes that Liverpool head coach Arne Slot got his tactics all wrong in defeat by Paris Saint-Germain.
The Reds’ 2-0 loss in the quarter-final first leg at Parc des Princes leaves them on the verge of exiting the Champions League. Liverpool were cut apart by the reigning European champions and the scoreline could have been more emphatic. Desire Doue and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia were on target.
The visitors conceded 19 shots, with goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili having to make several important saves while PSG forward Ousmane Dembele blazed a glorious chance over the crossbar and hit the post with another effort.
Slot, who remains under pressure as head coach, decided to deploy a five-man defence in the hope of more defensive solidity. But Carragher reckons it backfired and made Liverpool more open and captain Virgil van Dijk ‘never looked more uncomfortable’.
Speaking on CBS Sports, Kop legend Carragher said: “He [Slot] went about it with the back five all wrong and they were actually more open with a back five than they would be with a back four.
“Because they went man-to-man all over the pitch and your three centre-backs had to cover the width of the pitch and for Virgil van Dijk watching him tonight in a middle of a back three… normally when you get to a certain age you feel in the middle of a back three is perfect, everyone’s in position, getting a bit of protection. This was different.
“Defenders were jumping into midfield, there was no one to mark and Virgil van Dijk at 34 years of age was having to run in there and he was having to run across. He couldn’t do it.
“People have criticised Van Dijk for his performances this season but I think it’s been harsh. I think he plays every game, the fella next to him has been awful all season and poor again tonight, Konate, makes a mistake every game, so that’s not easy to play alongside, so I still think he’s been one of Liverpool’s better players, Virgil van Dijk.
“But tonight in that back three I have never seen him [Van Dijk] 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.
“But, what I must also say, it’s not just the system of Liverpool and getting it wrong tactically, PSG were absolutely out of this world. The biggest compliment I can give them was it was like watching Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona.”
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