12 April 2024 , 07:34
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Steve McManaman has claimed the "wheels have come off" for Liverpool following their 3-0 defeat to Atalanta.
A brace from Gianluca Scamacca and a late strike from Mario Pasalic means Atalanta hold a major advantage heading into the second leg of their Europa League quarter-final tie against the Reds, which is set to take place on April 18.
And McManaman, who spent nine seasons at Liverpool as a player, delivered a scathing assessment of the Reds' performance. "This victory means more to them [Atalanta] of course because last time Liverpool had qualified and changed the team," he said on TNT Sports.
"This time this is against the favourites at Anfield, the favourites who people expected to walk to Dublin. And woah! They've put a stop to that talk. And do you know what, they haven't deserved it tonight.
"Liverpool have been very average. They've been amazing this year and all the nice things that have been said about them, but tonight... Wow the wheels have come off. All the substitutions that have been made haven't had an impact as they have had this year.
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"It will be interesting to see what the manager has to say when he explains it away... because there's a lot to explain! They'll have to keep a clean sheet at Bergamo and they're finding that hard to do."
And manager Jurgen Klopp did not mince his words when discussing the defeat, admitting Liverpool "lost the plot" and "deserved to lose". He said: "It was a really bad game. We started well and didn't continue. We just lost the plot a bit.
Liverpool were beaten 3-0 by Atalanta (Getty Images)"We were everywhere and nowhere. I didn't recognise what they were doing [in midfield]. We played a bad game and deserved to lose. We must feel that now. But it's this night to feel bad about it. Congratulations, Atalanta. They played really well."
Liverpool did beat Atalanta 5-0 in Bergamo in the Champions League back 2020, but Klopp insisted: "I believe it's not the moment to talk about that [second leg]. I'm not in the mood to think about a game in a week’s time when we have another game before.
"We will definitely try to win and see if we can. This was probably a low point for us for a long time so it should be possible to play a bit better. And a lot better."
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