Gerrard Rounds on Mamardashvili After Liverpool's Limp Paris Surrender

Steven Gerrard has trained his sights on Giorgi Mamardashvili in the aftermath of Liverpool's Champions League quarter-final humbling in Paris, where the Reds fell 2-0 to PSG at the Parc des Princes on Tuesday evening.

Goals from Desire Doue and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia put the French outfit firmly in the driving seat, though Gerrard reckoned the hosts should have added more gloss to their dominance. For all their superiority, PSG perhaps didn't make the scoreline fully reflect their control of proceedings.

Liverpool's defensive setup—a back five deployed for the first time in European or domestic competition since December 2017—proved insufficient against PSG's fluid attacking play. The Reds were systematically taken apart by their opponents, who dictated terms throughout.

Speaking to TNT Sports post-match, Gerrard acknowledged the uphill battle awaiting Slot's men at Anfield next week, whilst simultaneously admitting his former club had offered precious little in attacking endeavour.

"It was total domination tonight," Gerrard observed. "Liverpool's tactics and gameplan worked for large periods of the game but they didn't have anything up top. They were quite toothless and didn't create anything."

He continued: "Over the course of 90 minutes Liverpool haven't offered enough but what they've done is given themselves a small opportunity next week at Anfield."

On PSG's failure to kill the tie, Gerrard added: "PSG were more ruthless, certainly in the second half they had big chances… to go and kill the tie off. Liverpool getting out of here at 2-0 is okay, it's not fantastic but if any place can make a tie of this next week, it's Anfield."

Yet Gerrard proved less charitable when dissecting Doue's opening goal, which arrived after Ibrahima Konate's wayward challenge on the halfway line released the Frenchman. The former Liverpool captain then turned his focus to Mamardashvili, despite Slot's post-match assertion that the goalkeeper had performed admirably.

"Maybe he [Mamardashvili] could have been a foot or a yard further back, there's no reason maybe for him to be that high," Gerrard said. "It is unfortunate and probably being slightly cruel, but if you step outside of the goalkeeper's union, you can say maybe he could have been that little bit further back. Then he might have been able to tip it over the bar."

Gerrard highlighted the defensive miscommunication that preceded the goal, noting how Liverpool's backline became disorganised as PSG's movement dragged them out of shape.

"They could have been better around the halfway line, you can see PSG have dragged them out of shape. Konate could have done better winning his duel," Gerrard explained. "You look at the backline now, it's all out of sync. They end up with four people around it when he cuts back in but no one gets tight enough and they get that cruel deflection."

Fellow analyst Steve McManaman echoed concerns about Liverpool's attacking impotence, describing the visitors as "very lightweight up top" and suggesting PSG squandered opportunities to put the contest beyond doubt.

"It's an easy game to analyse. Weirdly enough, PSG weren't ruthless enough tonight," McManaman said. "Liverpool had Alisson to the rescue last year, if anything it was PSG not putting them to the sword today. I thought Liverpool were very lightweight up top. Not being ruthless enough, not taking shots on."

McManaman warned that overturning the deficit would require a seismic shift in performance, particularly given PSG captain Marquinhos' comparative ease throughout the evening.

"It's going to be difficult to turn this around, against this team. Marquinhos has had the easiest game of the season, he's hardly done anything today. It's going to take a huge performance for Liverpool to turn this around next week."