Liverpool were dumped out of the Europa League on Thursday evening after a 3-1 aggregate loss to Atalanta.

The Reds won on the evening, but after taking the lead in the fifth minute, the Merseyside club couldn’t find another gear.

Indeed, Jurgen Klopp’s side weren’t as attacking as they perhaps should’ve been, and speaking on the Official Liverpool Podcast, Ray Houghton has outlined one issue from Thursday.



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Houghton spoke about Liverpool’s style of play, and he says that the Reds made too many backwards passes, claiming that they went to Alisson way too often.

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“The Liverpool players became too negative for me, there were too many balls going back to Alisson.

Alisson probably had more touches in the second half than most of the outfield players, look at it logically, they kept going backwards,” Houghton said.

Playing backwards and resetting can be a great way to retain the ball and kickstart attacks further down the line.

However, when you’re chasing a three-goal deficit, you need to get the ball forward as quickly as possible and try to create chances.

As good as the £67m goalkeeper is, he’s not the player you turn to when you need a goal – well, unless it’s the last minute against West Brom a few seasons ago.

Liverpool needed to bombard Atalanta with attack after attack on Thursday in order to break down the Italian’s defence, but, they played this game as though it was a league game they were leading 1-0 rather than a European game where they needed to score at least three.

Liverpool needed to leave everything on the pitch on Thursday, but, unfortunately, it feels as though the Merseyside club didn’t push as hard as they could have.