‘He did this twice’: BT Sport pundits in agreement that one Liverpool player was ‘at fault’ for two goals tonight

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The pundits in the BT Sport studio felt one Liverpool player was at fault for the opening two Benfica goals tonight. The Reds went through on aggregate after a 3-3 draw at Anfield.

Liverpool are into another Champions League semi-final but things were more chaotic than anyone planned. The Reds held a 3-1 lead going into the game at Anfield but conceded three times.

Fortunately, they managed three of their own to draw on the night and qualify 6-4. It wasn’t exactly a wonderful defensive display, however.

A big, big factor in that was Jurgen Klopp making seven changes. It created an unbalanced side or, at the very least, one that hadn’t played together all that much. This back four had never featured together, in fact.

But that doesn’t mean we didn’t see individual errors in defence. The BT Sport pundits felt Naby Keita made mistakes for both of Benfica’s first two goals, for instance.

“Naby Keita goes wandering into areas that he shouldn’t,” said Steve McManaman of the first Benfica goal.

And it’s true – he did. Keita stepped out of his ‘zone’ and allowed Benfica to move the ball inside. It wasn’t exactly the only time he did, either.

“He did this twice – it’s the second time that this man goes wandering,” said Michael Owen when dissecting the second goal “He doesn’t need to move here, he’s protecting areas.

“And he almost vacates, Naby Keita, vacates a hole and all of a sudden, then, you’ve got two players in this box [in the middle]. That really is his area – you can’t vacate that. Then they get turned and then they’re in trouble, running back to their own goal and it’s 3-2.

“I think Keita was at fault for the first one and then again for the second one. Doing a similar thing.”

Liverpool 3-3 Benfica

We wrote ahead of the game that Keita could really make a statement with a fine performance. He was excellent in the first leg, after all, and another top display put him in best-XI contention. Not to mention strengthening his case for a new contract.

Unfortunately, we didn’t quite see that from Keita. His positioning was badly off and he failed to really take control of the game as he did in Lisbon.

Now, he was far from the only one who looked sloppy in defence. Keita was just slightly unfortunate that two of his errors led to goals. But he still made them and combined with his lacklustre game on the ball, this wasn’t the display we hoped for.

But we’ll cut him some slack. This was a mix-and-match side that didn’t really offer the best environment for Keita – or anyone – to show what they can do.