Former Manchester United midfielder Roy Keane has said Liverpool can forget about winning any of the ‘big prizes’ after being guilty of ‘schoolboy defending’ in their 2-2 draw against Sevilla.
The Reds returned to the Champions League for the first time since 2014, but were guilty of slack defending as the Spanish side came away from Anfield with a point.
Goals from Roberto Firmino, who also missed a penalty, and Mohamed Salah appeared to have put them in control after a Dejan Lovren mistake had allowed Wissam Ben Yedder to score after just five minutes.
But with 18 minutes to go the defence switched off allowing Joaquin Correa to nip in to equalise with only their second shot on target, and Keane was not at all surprised by how Jurgen Klopp’s side threw away the victory.
The Republic of Ireland assistant manager told ITV: ‘This sums up Liverpool in a nutshell, and why they’re not going to win any big prizes.
‘Just switching off from a throw in, leads to the equaliser. In such an important game, at such an important moment.
‘Experienced players just switching off. It must drive the manager crazy as it’s just schoolboy defending.
‘It’s the easiest part of football… just switching on. Liverpool did all the hard stuff really well, in terms of creating chances, pace, power and quality going forward, but Liverpool can’t seem to do the easy things.
‘Liverpool can forget about winning the Champions League. I mean, they should have enough to get through the group, but in the knockout stages against the Real Madrids and all these boys, they’ll be laughing at Liverpool.’
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