Liverpool player ratings: 0-1 Villarreal

Liverpool lose their first European game this season against Villarreal in the semi-final of the Europa League

Well, that sucks. For anybody who plays FIFA, you can sympathise with the painful manner in which Villarreal scored that cheeky winning goal in 92nd minute. They simply passed the ball across goal, and then tapped it calmly into an open net.

The funny thing is, Liverpool didn’t play badly. They were simply punished for a lack of ambition, shown by the players and even Jurgen Klopp.

With Daniel Sturridge on the bench for whatever reason, and Christian Benteke returning alongside him, fans were sure we’d see at least one of our strikers make a considerable appearance.

Instead, we saw Philippe Coutinho replaced by young Jordon Ibe during the half-time break. Benteke featured, but only for the last two minutes.

We played an out-of-form Roberto Firmino up top and expected goals, and then added Jordon Ibe (undergoing his worst form to date) to make a difference over Daniel Sturridge.

I’m not going to hound on the managers decisions, but many fans simply can’t understand why we wouldn’t use a striker earlier. It seemed as though Liverpool were playing for the draw, and because of that we now need either a 2-0 or 3-1 home victory in order to progress.

It’s going to be tough but possible. We’ve seen this before, but we need our strongest players out on the pitch. Today Villarreal gave us so much time around the box, and I was certain even Benteke could have won a few headers had he been introduced sooner.

It was unfortunate to concede at the end, but we are by no means out of the tie. We can still get through this, and we can still make it into a European final.

Here’s Rush the Kop’s player ratings for the 1-0 loss to Villarreal.

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