5 takeaways from Liverpool’s 0–3 home loss to Atalanta

These are five talking topics from Liverpool’s UEFA Europa League match against Atalanta, which ended 0-3 at Anfield. A night to remember for the Reds.

FEW SIZEABLE RETURNS

Let us begin with the one and only advantage.

For this match, Jurgen Klopp was able to bring Stefan Bajcetic, Trent Alexander-Arnold, and Diogo Jota back to the first team. The first two are key players who have missed a tonne of important games; they haven’t played in about two months.

But Bajcetic took me by surprise. He has only played a pitiful 72 minutes this season and hasn’t appeared in any games since September. The Spaniard is currently back in the starting lineup.

As Klopp attempts to keep up his zeal in the title hunt, it ought to make things simpler in the upcoming weeks. Of course, it’s preferable if there are more elite players accessible.

INTENSITY

We’ve been able to say this over and over the past few weeks: Liverpool simply lacked the intensity they needed here. An oddly pervasive mood that borders on arrogance.

However, this was the clearest example of it that I could find. Liverpool failed to be aggressive and urgent, which let Atalanta constantly overwhelm them.

This is a pattern that must end right away or it could spoil the season.

DEFENDING

If Liverpool simply played better defence, this game wouldn’t end in disaster despite the terrible intensity and wasted opportunities. Gianluca Scamacca’s two objectives were directly related to his lack of notice.

He was first there to do a cut-back without encountering any obstacles. Then he finished from a cross so wide that everyone thought something had gone wrong.

Atalanta easily breezed through the heart of Liverpool in the third as well. Really, without any opposition.

That, above all, was the main issue at hand. The Reds’ shoddy defence lost them the match and probably their prospects of winning the Europa League as well.

CHANGES MADE

Subs by Klopp made sense. At halftime, he substituted Andy Robertson, Dominik Szoboszlai, and Mohamed Salah. Luis Diaz followed by Diogo Jota. In a sense, he replaced the absent first team players.

Did the proper players, nevertheless, score points? Second-half Liverpool were considerably blunter. For example, Harvey Elliott came closest to scoring more than anybody else, but two excellent opportunities to do so were lost due to poor passes from Cody Gakpo.

Darwin Nunez also blew a fantastic opportunity, but he was driving action. After he left, not much happened.

Once more, Klopp will have had much higher expectations of the players he started, and ultimately, the outcome favoured those who left off.

CURRENTLY WHERE?

Now, Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp must decide whether to give up on the Europa League. Really, they need to defeat Atalanta—a squad that has a strong home record—by four goals.

It might ultimately be wiser to rest the stars in Bergamo and focus domestically given they’re involved in the title fight.

Meanwhile, Liverpool has overcome a 3-0 deficit in Europe under Klopp’s leadership. But that’s the same as at Anfield.