Liverpool midfielder humiliated in historic to defeat to PSG and four other things we learned

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In a breathless night of action in Paris, PSG beat Liverpool 2-1.

It was an epic clash where the Reds froze like deer in headlights, allowing PSG to roll over them in the first half. The game was more even in the second half, but the Parisians held on for the win. What did we learn?

1. Mbappé is the answer

In 1963, Bob Dylan released Blowin’ in the Wind, perhaps one of the greatest songs of all-time. In it, Dylan poses a series of rhetorical questions to the listener about war, peace, life in general. Dylan then answers his own musings by saying “the answer my friend, is blowin’ in the wind.”

People have speculated for decades about what Dylan was really talking about. Did he mean that the answer was obvious? Or that the answer was intangible? Or how about that it didn’t even matter? Well, PSG’s win against Liverpool showed us what Dylan was talking about: Kylian Mbappé running with the ball.

There are many, many things that Mbappé does brilliantly. The teenager (yes, still!) is an incredibly talented player. But his most enthralling skill, the most bewitching talent, is the way he runs with the ball at speed. He’s incredible. The way he flew forward in the move for PSG’s second goal was almost terrifying. As poet warrior Musa Okwonga noted, it looked like he was about to take flight.

The Reds couldn’t get anywhere near him and he should have clocked a direct assist had Cavani taken the chance (luckily for PSG, Neymar tucked home the rebound). What’s more, Mbappé was at it all night long. He somewhat created the first goal when his low cross was poorly cleared by Liverpool, and besides the goals, he was just a constant source of danger for PSG.

2. Henderson humiliated

When Liverpool splashed out on Fabinho this summer, the unspoken truth of the signing was that Liverpool had realised that in order for them to cut it at the top table of European football, they would need a better presence at the base of midfield than Jordan Henderson.

Henderson, the Liverpool captain, is really good at driving the ball forward with his passing. It’s fast, goes forward and is usually accurate. He doesn’t shine when it comes to the shorter passing one needs to help maintain possession and his defensive ability is… well let’s be generous and say that he is vaguely aware of the concept of defending.

PSG exposed Henderson almost every time they attacked. Neymar, in particular, seemed to have identified Henderson as a weak point early on and continually ran into spaces in and around the Englishman. All night long Henderson failed to protect his defence.

3. Titan Silva

Thiago Silva has been at PSG for a long time. When he initially went there, he chose to do so over a move to Barcelona and claimed he had to sign with PSG because, like Benny from Total Recall, he has kids to feed. It rang hollow and painted a picture of a player who would rather coast in Ligue 1 than truly test himself.

Since then, none of Thiago Silva’s displays in the Champions League (the only stage in which PSG can truly test themselves) have really made it look like Thiago Silva was still the defender that many wanted him to be. Sure, he was good, but he wasn’t dominant. Not like he used to be for AC Milan.

Well, tonight against Liverpool, in a huge win-or-go-home match for PSG, Titan Silva returned.

The Brazilian was constantly in the way of Liverpool’s attacks. Any cross came in, it was Thiago Silva who got it away. Any Liverpool player running into the box, it was Thiago Silva who stepped up and dispossessed them. He was ably assisted by Marquinhos and Presnel Kimpembe, to be sure, but he was the bedrock at the heart of PSG’s genuinely impressive defensive display.

4. Liverpool’s historic away day blues

Liverpool have now lost their last four away games in the Champions League, and their last five away from Anfield (including last season’s final). Any side who can play in front of a crowd as electric as Anfield’s will always suffer when deprived of such rabid and loyal support, but Liverpool really have a problem here.

Alright, one could argue the first such defeat, away to Roma in last season’s semi-final, was forgivable. Liverpool had won the first leg 5-2 so they were always going to take their foot off the gas. They then lost the final itself in Kyiv, but again, that was against Real Madrid and all their European voodoo. Plus Karius did literally hand Los Blancos a lead.

But this season? Liverpool have lost all three of their group stage games for the first time in their history. And worse, they never looked like winning any of them.

Now, to be sure, none of the games were easy. Napoli, PSG and Red Star are all fierce at home; but a side with ambitions as lofty as Liverpool’s need to find a way to perform in these games.

When the crowd is cheering for your opponents, you need to be able to keep your head and play your own game. To associate, create and threaten.

Against PSG, Alisson completed more passes than any of Liverpool’s much-vaunted front three, and that is simply not good enough. Liverpool now have a home game to secure qualification, but if they want to get back to the Champions League final they need to find a new balance to be able to perform away from Anfield.

5. PSG make no sense

PSG are a strange side. They’ve committed nearly half a billion Euros to three strikers yet bar the excellent Marco Verratti they don’t seem to care too much about, y’know, midfielders. They keep renewing the Italian’s contract and showing him love but they didn’t get anyone to partner him, letting Thiago Motta age into a coaching role and beefing with Adrien Rabiot to the point where he’s likely to leave.

For a large part of the second half against Liverpool, PSG’s midfield featured Verratti playing with a centre-back (Marquinhos), a right-back (Dani Alves) and a striker (Eric-Maxim Choupou-Moting). That is absolutely nonsensical, especially as Marquinhos started there and wasn’t a late-game reshuffle. Later Adrien Rabiot would come on to add a bit more shape, but it was still weird.

This side basically lives and dies on Neymar’s ability to conjure attacking moves from deep. And sure Neymar’s one of best players in the world: if you’re going to rely on a single player to be your creative hub in both attacking midfield and in attack, there’s only one man who’d be better to have in your side.

Neymar was excellent today, but even there the flaw of relying on him in midfield came to light. Sure he helped create the first goal with a delightful pass between the lines to Verratti, but when he tried to push the ball towards the Italian later in the half, the pass was badly underhit and Verratti was then chasing the ball so desperately he lunged at Joe Gomez and committed a tackle that should have seen him sent off. And a Verratti red card would have doomed PSG (as it did against Real Madrid last season).

PSG will likely qualify for the round of 16 this season, but they need to start making sense if they want to win the Champions League.

The post PSG 2-1 Liverpool: five things learned as titanic Thiago Silva returns to complicate Klopp’s Champions League hopes appeared first on Squawka News.



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