Liverpool player ratings vs. Atalanta – Gakpo ‘best’, 3 players joint-worst

Liverpool barely had a good performer on show in their wretched 3-0 defeat at home to Atalanta, on an appalling night in the Europa League.

Jurgen Klopp‘s side were expected to get the better of their opponents on Thursday, but they suffered a disastrous quarter-final first leg.

The fact that 3-0 arguably flattered Liverpool says all you need to know about the performance, as a stunned Anfield watched on.

It leaves the Reds on the verge of crashing out of Europe, while there are real question marks about their Premier League title credentials, too.

Here we compare our player ratings with those of the Liverpool Echo, Goal, FotMob and This Is Anfield’s readers.

One thing’s for sure: this was not a night to focus on good performances.

Three different players shared the worst rating for Liverpool, with Joe Gomez, Kostas Tsimikas and Darwin Nunez all getting a meagre 3.9.

TIA’s James Nalton criticised Gomez for a “couple of shots well off-target when he might have been better passing,” while the Echo‘s Ian Doyle said Tsimikas was “clearly targeted by Atalanta.”

Meanwhile, Mark Doyle of GOAL produced a scathing assessment of Nunez, writing “the fact that he was subbed off while Liverpool needed a goal represented a damning indictment of his wastefulness.”

Next up was Ibrahima Konate (4.3), who didn’t do his chances of starting ahead of Jarell Quansah against Crystal Palace any good.

The Frenchman’s “lack of decisiveness didn’t help a wayward defence,” according to Ian Doyle, with Liverpool’s back line all over the place.

The third-worst score was shared by Virgil van Dijk (4.4) and Wataru Endo (4.4), neither of whom came close to replicating their brilliant displays this season.

In terms of the ‘best’ player, if there was one, Cody Gakpo (5.7) scored highest, showing moments of quality.

The Dutchman was at least lively in the opening exchanges and Nalton felt that “of the players that played the majority of the game, he was the least bad of a bad bunch.”