‘Bizarre’ – French newspaper hammer Arne Slot and 3/10 Liverpool players

Liverpool suffered a 2-0 defeat to Paris Saint-Germain in the first leg of the Champions League quarter final on Wednesday. 

PSG manager Luis Enrique was without his key player, Bradley Barcola, for this clash. He has been on the sidelines since picking up an injury in the previous round against Chelsea in March.

Désiré Doué, who came on to replace Barcola against Chelsea, started at Parc des Princes yesterday.

He opened the scoring against Liverpool in the 11th minute and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia doubled PSG’s lead in the second half. 

The Premier League side were disappointing in their latest European defeat. The stats below give an idea, with the first one for the Ligue 1 winners.

• Possession [%]: 74-26
• Total shots: 18-3
• Shots on target: 6-0
• Corners: 3-1
• Big chances: 4-0
• Accurate passes: 683-189
• Yellow cards: 0-2

Liverpool player ratings

L’Equipe have come up with ratings for Liverpool players and also for Arne Slot.

We start first with the Reds manager, who has been rated 3/10. The French newspaper slam the Dutch coach for employing defensive tactics that clearly didn’t suit his players against PSG.

They state: ‘His choice to field an ultra-defensive team, in a system his players clearly didn’t understand, resulted in a match in which the Reds failed to register a single shot on target. His decision to bring on four players at once in the 78th minute also proved ineffective.’

L’Equipe also gave 3/10 to Virgil van Dijk, his compatriot Ryan Gravenberch and left-back Milos Kerkez.

The Reds haven’t enjoyed a good run in recent times and the newspaper insists Van Dijk extended his poor run in Paris.

Regarding the 34-year-old centre-back’s former, L’Equipe say: ‘Aside from his grand gestures when directing long throw-ins, he was as inconsistent and uncertain a defensive leader as he has been lately. He was beaten twice, and almost three times, on the play leading to the first goal, and never provided the command and security his team needed.’

Gravenberch, as per L’Equipe, had a ‘match to forget’, and they didn’t hold back when being critical of the 22-year-old left-back.

The newspaper state: ‘The Hungarian international had a very difficult evening, exemplified by his bizarre headed pass to no one (45+1) and an action in which Hakimi beat him with disconcerting ease (52nd minute). He waited until the 69th minute to deliver a cross, before being replaced by Robertson (78th).’

The second lowest rating for Liverpool was 4/10, given to Alexis Mac Allister, Jeremie Frimpong and Ibrahima Konaté.

Hugo Ekitike, Florian Wirtz and Dominik Szoboszlai all got 5/10 and 6/10 for goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili. The latter was the highest.

What next for Liverpool

The second leg of the Champions League quarter-final between Liverpool and PSG will take place at Anfield next Tuesday.

Prior to that, the Reds will host Fulham in the Premier League on Saturday.