Defensive mistakes sink Liverpool

Liverpool narrowly lost out to Udinese in their Europa League group-stage after second half goals from Antonio Di Natale, own goal by Sebastian Coates and a classy strike from Giovanni Pasquale put the visitors well ahead.

Liverpool lead before halftime after a well-worked Jonjo Shelvey goal, but the Italian side leveled straight after the interval.

Luis Suarez was again on the score sheet with a memorable free-kick in the second half, but it was Udinese who claimed the win.

“It was very frustrating,”

“It was a game where we were much the better side but lost our concentration at the beginning of the second half. I thought we’d moved on from that, to be honest.

“We had total control in the first half and were deservedly in the lead, but we were so loose at the beginning of the second half it was frightening.

“Our concentration was very poor and before we knew it we were 3-1 down. The last 20 minutes was very good but it’s too late by then.

“I thought we were lazy. Lazy in our play, loose and sloppy.

“We didn’t do what I call the dirty bit: we didn’t track runners. If you don’t do that, if you don’t earn the right…

Liverpool played some fantastic football during the first half of the game but again defensive errors cost us the game. Do you think the Reds need to sign a defensive coach after the departure of Steve kean or are we simply missing the presence of Lucas Leiva in front of the defense?