There were too many poor performances in Liverpool’s sobering 5-2 defeat at home to Real Madrid, with Joe Gomez particularly below par.
Goals from Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah seemed to hand Liverpool a commanding lead early on, but Vinicius Jr.’s double brought them crashing back down to reality.
Things only got worse from then on, with Eder Militao making it 3-2 and the evergreen Karim Benzema adding a further two goals.
Here we compare our player ratings with those of the Liverpool Echo, the i, WhoScored, FotMob and the This Is Anfield readers.
Gomez (3.8) had a dreadful evening and got the worst average rating, arguably playing a negative role in three of the goals.
The 25-year-old looks like an increasingly error-strewn player these days and there are surely question marks over his long-term future.
Ian Doyle thought of the Echo thought Gomez “could have got closer to Vinicius” for the first goal, while Oliver Young-Myles of the i criticised his “clumsy, needless foul” in the lead up to the third.
The second-worst performer was Alisson (3.9), who absolutely gifted Vinicius one of his goals with a woeful error.
TIA’s Mark Delgado felt it was a “dispiriting” night for the Brazilian, who was otherwise solid apart from his costly mistake.
Next in the reckoning was Virgil van Dijk (4.9), who still look well short of his best after his return from injury.
Doyle did at least note a “couple of vital interceptions” by the towering centre-back, but this was far from a vintage showing.
There were some players who made positive contributions, of course, and Salah (7.2) got the best average.
The Egyptian became Liverpool’s all-time leading goalscorer in Europe, also assisting Nunez’s opener, with Delgado calling him “untouchable” at times in the first half.
