'Just lacking today': Steve McManaman pinpoints something that wasn't good enough from Liverpool today
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Liverpool put in an improved performance on Saturday as they grabbed a late win against Brentford.
It was a frustrating game for the Reds, and they could not find the net during a more than 90 minutes of football.
It wasn’t as though Liverpool were not creating chances, they peppered Mark Flekken’s goal with 19 shots during the opening 45 minutes.
Cody Gakpo missed a superb opening and he was not the only one, with Luis Diaz guilty of poor finishes either side of half-time.
By and large, though, Liverpool’s openings were not particularly clear cut and they had to rely on shots from range as Brentford sat in deep.
Tasked with breaking the home side down, Liverpool couldn’t really do it. And speaking at half-time, long before Darwin Nunez’s late double won the day, former Reds winger Steve McManaman was not impressed.
Steve McManaman disappointed with Liverpool
There’s little question that Liverpool were better at Brentford than they were in midweek against Nottingham Forest. That wasn’t difficult, however.
Just like at Forest – during the first-half anyway – Liverpool were too slow with the ball and were regularly playing into traffic through the middle.
There were moments that were better, but speaking to premierleague.com, McManaman was right to highlight the poor final ball from Liverpool throughout the day.
“Five shots on target, but you can't really remember many,” said the pundit.
“Liverpool have dominated possession, they've been comfortable, but I still think they're slightly laboured.
“The final ball is just lacking today. Maybe in the second half they'll improve, because they have done that of late.”
Did Liverpool improve in the second-half?
Commenting at half-time, McManaman obviously wasn’t privy to how Liverpool got on in the second period of the game.
Unfortunately for the Reds, though, they did not really do much better.
Again, they dominated most of the play and did create one or two openings, but again, they couldn’t really pick Brentford apart.
Nevertheless, the Reds still found a way. It had to be Trent Alexander-Arnold and it had to be Darwin Nunez. A huge goal right at the end of another really difficult day for the Reds.
It has to be better moving forward, but Liverpool did enough.
