Brendan Rodgers got his tactics wrong
Why Rodgers played Joe Allen, Lucas Leiva and Jordan Henderson from the start, while Adam Lallana and Philippe Coutinho were left on the bench in a must-win game is anyone’s guess. Liverpool were simply not at the races in the first-half, and had given themselves a mountain to climb by the time the second-half response came. Rodgers got his tactics and his team wrong, and on such a big night that cannot be considered acceptable.