Jamie Carragher singled out two Liverpool stars for criticism as a 2-0 defeat to rivals Everton all but ended their Premier League title ambitions.
Liverpool went into Wednesday night’s Merseyside derby knowing that anything but three points would surely see them out of the running to be champions.
But from kick-off it was clear the Reds were in for a rough night, with the Toffees winning a penalty in the opening few minutes, though the offside flag and VAR came to their rescue.
They didn’t heed that warning however and Everton took the lead on 27 minutes when Jarrad Branthwaite scored from a set-piece situation.
Carragher blasted Liverpool’s defence for the goal as ‘awful’ before singling out Ibrahima Konate for blame.
‘How many times have Liverpool given free kicks away? I mean, that is the name of the game for Everton,’ the Reds legend said on Sky Sports at half-time of the match.
‘Everton have been fantastic, certainly with the set pieces, they’ve looked like scoring on every single one.
‘The amount of times Liverpool have given fouls away in their own half and Konate, what is he doing?! He doesn’t know where he is. He just sticks a leg out at it.
‘But Everton definitely deserved to go in front and deserved to get a goal from a set piece.’
Konate was eventually subbed off after 63 minutes for Jarell Quansah.
The Toffees did indeed double their lead in the second-half from a set-piece, with Dominic Calvert-Lewin headed home from a corner.
But Liverpool never looked in control of the game, with Alexis Mac Allister coming in for criticism from Carragher, who added: ‘The naivety of Liverpool in terms of how you play a derby game. They got away with one with the penalty.
‘Forget this game, whenever you come to Goodison as a Liverpool player, there’s two rules that you’ll always do: You don’t give silly fouls away and get the crowd up, and you move the ball on quickly and don’t let tackles come in.
‘Mac Allister in midfield, who has been fantastic for Liverpool this season, he’s given so many fouls away and he’s taking too long on the ball and he’s allowing people to tackle them and it lifts the crowd.’
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