Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher identifies ‘attacking problem’ that weakened Liverpool in draw vs Crystal Palace
Speaking on Monday Night Football (h/t Liverpool Echo), Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher has reasoned injury issues and lack of depth as to why the Reds could not get the better of Crystal Palace on Monday night.
A Wilfried Zaha goal put the South London club ahead in the 32nd minute, a point until Liverpool’s high line was creating numerous chances. An early second-half red card for Darwin Nunez for headbutting Joachim Andersen made things difficult for the Reds. It took a Luis Diaz screamer from outside the box in the 61st minute to settle the issue.
From last weekend’s draw away at Fulham, Liverpool had made four changes. Roberto Firmino sat out owing to a knock as a precautionary measure, with Darwin Replacing him. Thiago’s hamstring injury saw him sit out for Harvey Elliott.
Jordan Henderson’s minor issue paved the way for James Milner to start the game as captain. Surprisingly, Nathaniel Phillips made his first league start in over a year with Joe Gomez on the bench.
Nunez’s red card put the Reds a man down, and on top of that, there were no like-to-like replacements for him on the bench as well. With the club offloading a figure such as Divock Origi earlier this summer, it has come back to haunt us. Carra said:
“Missing Thiago is a huge loss, you can’t really replace him .Where the injuries really hurt Liverpool was they couldn’t bring in an attacking player from the bench.”
“But Liverpool had a team on the pitch to beat Crystal Palace and I think if Nunez stays on the pitch they go on and win that game.”
This just goes to show Liverpool lack depth in all three departments. Carragher’s notion also affirmed the same. The midfield injury list consists of Thiago, Curtis Jones, and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
As far as the attack is concerned, Firmino was left out of the game against the Eagles as a precaution and should be back into the squad for Manchester United. Diogo Jota spoke about his injury in the first week of August. “A few more weeks”, he said. Jota’s return does not have a specific date set yet.
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With Nunez out serving a ban and also Diogo Jota’s return speculative to say the least, it leaves the club with only one option in centre-forward, Roberto Firmino. It is a major task for the management to pick a front three that can be clinical against teams that set up to defend.
