James Noble
Tuesday night hurt. In truth, the better side over the course of the tie went through. Paris Saint-Germain look like they’ll take some stopping. Even so, the margins remained minuscule, and there’s still loads to look forward to. Sunday’s Wembley cup final with Newcastle United has tonnes of potential – and there’s still a Premier League title to win.
Liverpool are evidently an immensely high-level team in the context of both the domestic and European game. A test such as that offered by PSG can helpfully highlight areas to improve, though.
One such area looks to be the central striker position. While both had good moments, neither Diogo Jota nor Darwin Núñez reliably imposed themselves in that role, which has arguably been the case for much of the season and may partly be a product of our system.
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Newcastle possess one of the world’s best strikers in Alexander Isak, of course. The 25-year-old has, unsurprisingly, been linked with us, Arsenal and others – and there’s little denying he’d be a brilliant addition – but he’s very much an opponent, at present. Jota, Núñez and co remain capable of positively decisive contributions.
The Magpies will undoubtedly be right up for it. We can more than match them. Let’s roar the Reds on to an 11th League Cup, and a first trophy of Arne Slot’s tenure.
Rhys Buchanan
Although we can be immensely proud of our performance on the whole, I think the two-leg tie against PSG really highlighted some increasingly evident issues with our attacking line.
With Gakpo clearly not ready for a return and Jota still struggling to find his form in front of goal, it's clear that when Mohammed Salah goes a rare couple of games without scoring (in open play), we need others to step up and deliver alongside him. The fact that Slot didn't turn to Federico Chiesa is rather telling as the team huffed and puffed towards the whistle at 120 minutes.
Even though they're supporting men, there will be questions as to whether Gakpo and Jota are good enough to hold down a space in the long-run, and it feels almost inevitable that Nunez will have to move on in the summer at this stage.
All this being said, there's still road left to travel this season, starting with the biggest of stages for any of the above names this Sunday.
Andrew Cullen
What a painful night it was on Tuesday.
With PSG allegedly in dismay and disbelief about how poor Liverpool performed in the first tie, it was pleasing, at the very least, to see a good performance from Liverpool (minus the missed chances) in the second leg.
On balance, PSG marginally deserved to go through. In the Anfield crucible, they defended well and posed a real threat going forward.
It’s not fair to the blame Curtis Jones and Darwin Nunez for our demise on Tuesday evening. They did not show poise in the moment, but they had the temerity to step forward.
Nunez has been subject to stern scrutiny this year. His career at Liverpool does hang in the balance. I expect Liverpool to bring players in this summer, which should cause some concern for the players who have been on the periphery of the team.
The cost of Tuesday is beyond the result. We have a depleted, fatigued team. Newcastle will be buoyed after seeing Liverpool’s endeavours on Tuesday, and they will be thinking that they can land another knockout blow, to make it a torrid week for the reds.
I would like to see Gakpo, Elliott, and Endo start on Sunday, although Gakpo looked bereft of energy on Tuesday. You shouldn’t offer starting places to players on the basis of their attitude; after all, that is an irreducible minimum when you put on a red shirt. But both Elliott and Endo have been consummate professionals this year in the face of lack of game time.
This suggestion is not based purely on sentiment: those are two trusted players who will give every ounce of energy that they have on Sunday, which is what we will need to get over the line against The Toon Army.
