Sam Quek took to social media to ask a rhetorical question which must be bouncing around every Liverpool fan’s head after their humilating Europa League defeat by Atalanta.
The Reds hadn’t lost at Anfield in 14 months before Gian Piero Gasperini’s side rocked into town and came away with a 3-0 victory which was the least they deserved, ruthlessly punishing a thoroughly insipid performance from Jurgen Klopp’s team.
The LFC-supporting Olympic gold medal winner posted on X just after the full-time whistle: ‘What the bloody hell was that’, a six-word review which was very much on point.
What the bloody hell was that
— Sam Quek (@SamanthaQuek) April 11, 2024
Liverpool have stuttered through a few games recently, making hard work of beating Brighton and Sheffield United and twice failing to defeat a far from vintage Manchester United side, but nobody could’ve expected such a non-entity of a performance tonight from the Reds.
Right from the moment in the first five minutes that Caoimhin Kelleher was forced into an early save which left him with a scar on his left cheek after he took the ball in the face, Atalanta showed that they were up for it and were by far the better team.
FOLLOW Empire of the Kop on Instagram (@empireofthekop) HERE
The Europa League is the only trophy for which Klopp has competed but not won during his time at Anfield, and sadly that void looks set to remain for good, barring a highly improbable comeback in Bergamo next Thursday.
The debrief on that lifeless performance will be brutal, and like Quek, we’re all left wondering just how Liverpool could’ve been so far off the pace on a night when their hopes of one final European trophy for their exit-bound manager were all but extinguished.
Precisely Ms. Quek. If we do not get our heads out of our backsides, we are on a slippery path downhill.