When Jurgen Klopp faced the media before Liverpool’s match against Red Star Belgrade the main line of questioning was his decision to leave Xherdan Shaqiri in England.
After his team’s pathetic display you would expect the questions to surround his call to leave his mega-money-midfield on the bench.
Fabinho, signed from Monaco for £43.7 million, and Naby Keita, finally a Red after Liverpool had to pay RB Leipzig £52.75 million, both sat on the bench as their team-mates were outfought and outplayed by a determined Red Star side.
Liverpool's German coach Jurgen Klopp reacts during the UEFA Champions League Group C second-leg football match between Red Star Belgrade and Liverpool FC at the Rajko Mitic Stadium in Belgrade on November 6, 2018.
Image credit: Getty Images
In stark contrast to the reverse fixture at Anfield, where Liverpool ran riot, Red Star were simply better than their opponents in every single department.
Few players can leave Serbia with a semblance of credit and the chief culprits were in midfield.
James Milner, the goalscoring hero on Saturday at the Emirates, Georginio Wijnaldum and Adam Lallana were made to look very ordinary on a quite extraordinary evening.
And their performance highlights a worrying trend for Liverpool under Klopp, that their midfield fails to really take games by the scruff of the neck when their opponents sit deep and frustrate them.
Liverpool's English midfielder James Milner (L) kicks the ball during the UEFA Champions League Group C second-leg football match between Red Star Belgrade and Liverpool FC at the Rajko Mitic Stadium in Belgrade on November 6, 2018.
Image credit: Getty Images
Last season their incredible front-three masked those particular issues, after all even the most well-organised defence is going to find it difficult when they have Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah charging towards them at breakneck speed.
But this is a different Salah; he is struggling for consistency after the highs of the last campaign, and Mane and Firmino have been unable to counteract their team-mate’s decline.
Their struggles in the final third has shown up the midfield, who seem to suffer from a basic lack of creativity.
Liverpool's Egyptian forward Mohamed Salah reacts during the UEFA Champions League Group C second-leg football match between Red Star Belgrade and Liverpool FC at the Rajko Mitic Stadium in Belgrade on November 6, 2018.
Image credit: Getty Images
Keita in particular should alleviate that issue, he carries the ball forward and actually looks to try and make something happen, but he is the only one. Milner, Wijnaldum and club captain Jordan Henderson all seem to offer much of a muchness, whilst Fabinho focuses on breaking up attacks rather than starting them.
Lallana is supposed to be that difference-maker, it is something he has done so well in the past for Liverpool and England. Yet he is clearly not the same player since his injury, he cannot seem to find any sort of rhythm with his player and he is now at best a passenger.
Wijnaldum, an attacking midfielder in his youth, looked lost at times in Belgrade and the way he allowed the hero of the night Milan Pavkov to wriggle away from him for the second goal was frankly laughable.
Pavkov, a previously unheralded forward who will presumably be the subject of countless expert features tomorrow, could hardly believe his luck upon getting past the Dutchman.
Red Star Belgrade's Serbian forward Milan Pavkov celebrates after winning the UEFA Champions League Group C second-leg football match between Red Star Belgrade and Liverpool FC at the Rajko Mitic Stadium in Belgrade on November 6, 2018.
Image credit: Getty Images
He had all the time in the world to pick his spot as Joel Matip and Virgil van Dijk backed away. Alisson will be disappointed in himself, but he still has plenty of cause for frustration with those in front of him.
Of course all this negativity surrounding Liverpool should not take away from Red Star, who played the game of their lives. They took their chances when they came and they defended magnificently.
Yet having said that, this is precisely the problem: when teams like Red Star produce defensive performances like this one then Klopp's Liverpool seem to run out of ideas. On a couple of occasions this season they’ve eventually managed to find a way through, but that has not always been the case.
This is not to say that it is time to slam the panic button for Jurgen and his staff. They’ve been to London three times this season and come back with five points, they held the champions at home, and they recorded a memorable win over PSG at Anfield.
Manager Jurgen Klopp of Liverpool reacts during the Group C match of the UEFA Champions League between Red Star Belgrade and Liverpool at Rajko Mitic Stadium on November 06, 2018 in Belgrade, Serbia.
Image credit: Getty Images
But this is what we have come to expect from this Liverpool side, there are few teams who relish the big game more. They rise to the occasion, driven on by their Duracell-bunny of a manager and their raucous home support.
If they are to close the gap on Manchester City they have to find a way to consistently break smaller teams down. They are capable of it, they’ve shown it this season, but City do it more or less every single week, and that is the level Liverpool are aiming for.
Solve that quandary, and get Salah firing on all cylinders, and surely this Liverpool team won’t be too far off becoming part of the European elite? But that certainly seemed a way away in Serbia on Tuesday…
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