John Aldridge has his say on Jarell Quansah’s costly error vs Manchester United and Liverpool’s misfiring forwards in the second half of his weekly ECHO column
Sunday was a learning curve for Jarell Quansah. The lad’s been brilliant this year and he’s got to not let it knock his confidence. Of course, it will do. It’s such a big game.
Jackie Charlton used to say to us with Ireland, ‘Never play blind ball across midfield, never play a blind ball across your back four.’
Don’t play it blind because once they get the ball, you’re out of the game. It’s like the Red Arrows.
When you play the ball across your back four, you have to make sure that it’s right. If it gets intercepted, you’re f**ked.
Quansah’s got to learn from it, that’s all. He’s a young lad and he’s been brilliant, his first bad mistake he’s made probably. And it couldn’t come at a worse time.
But it will make him better. He shouldn’t do it again.
Jota can’t come back quick enough
You’re never going to score every opportunity, but you expect to hit the target more.
The chances Diaz and Nunez had, there are no excuses for not hitting the target. If the goalie saves it, that’s fine. But when you squander it like that, you do worry.
From a striker’s point of view, it was so frustrating to watch. You ask Robbie (Fowler) or Rushie (Ian Rush), we know as strikers that you’ve got to take them chances. They weren’t difficult and we fluffed our lines.
Mo is getting older so it might be more difficult for him (after injury). I don’t know. But certainly the last few games, he’s not been himself.
Nunez had a game to forget to be quite honest! That last opportunity he had, a tap-in, I think that suggests his confidence is down at the moment for some reason.
Scoring in midweek off his backside should have open up the avenue to score more goals and give him the confidence, but he looked devoid of confidence in front of goal.
That happens with strikers, unfortunately. He needs to snap out of it because we need him.
Diaz was at least always a threat. As a manager, you can’t be too harsh with them. But they have got to know that they have got to hit the target.
We need all of the forwards to be clinical. That’s what we weren’t on Sunday. And the one forward who can be in front of the goal is Jota. He can’t come back quick enough to add to the firepower.
He was flying before he got injured. He was probably having his best stint as a Liverpool player. His confidence was up.
Hopefully he can get straight back to that. Sometimes it takes time, that’s the only thing after injury.
But he hasn’t been out for months and months so hopefully he can get back to what he was doing, because he was exceptional in the games that he was playing.
