Adam Lallana was mostly to blame for Liverpool’s equaliser, according to Glen Johnson.
Despite a bit of chaos in the team selections, Liverpool passed a difficult test to book their place in the final of the FIFA Club World Cup in Qatar tonight.
Jurgen Klopp’s side edged out Monterrey 2-1 to advance into the showpiece this weekend, with Roberto Firmino netting a last-gasp winner for the Champions League winners.
The Mexican outfit had held Liverpool to a 1-1 draw at the break after Rogelio Funes Mori cancelled out Naby Keita’s opener on 12 minutes.
With Virgil van Dijk absent through illness, captain Jordan Henderson had to play as a centre-back, and Adam Lallana had to fill the void left by his skipper in midfield.
Lallana isn’t used to such a deep midfield position, and former Liverpool defender Glen Johnson believes that he was at fault for the Mexican club’s equaliser.
He said to BBC Sport: “Lallana is in the middle of the goal and he runs past the goalscorer and just leaves him. If that was a natural holding midfielder or a centre-half they would not have run past that player.
“He did the right thing in trying to push out but you have to push out at the right pace. You can’t just run past players, not in the middle of the goal.”
There’ll be a bit more order in the final, one should hope.
Van Dijk isn’t injured, just ill, and hopefully for the Merseyside club they’ll have their towering defender back where he belongs in the showpiece, allowing Henderson to go back to midfield
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