Steve McManaman stunned by Liverpool v PSV incident – ‘What on earth?’

Steve McManaman was left stunned by the challenge that PSV defender Joey Veerman made on Federico Chiesa to give Liverpool their penalty to open the scoring in Wednesday’s Champions League clash.

The defender received the ball off of his teammate and then didn’t have any options to pass the ball onto which then allowed Cheisa to make a run towards the defender who then panicked and kicked the Italian while trying to clear the ball.

Speaking live on TNT Sports (29 January), McManaman shared his thoughts on the challenge in a game the Reds went on to lose 3-2.

“It’s Veermam, it’s a terrible challenge, he was fast asleep,” he said. “He catches his foot and it’s a penalty, what on earth?”

Liverpool should have done much better against PSV

Even though Liverpool were nowhere near full strength in their Champions League clash on Wednesday, it still feels like they should have performed to a much higher standard.

The fact that a centre-back partnership of Andy Robertson and Jarell Quansah got sent sideways by Johan Bakayoko is nothing short of embarrassing in what should be a performance that the duo will not be happy with.

Caoimhin Kelleher also wasn’t at his best and even though some of the blame on the Irishman can be looked over due to the makeshift defensive line he had in front of him, he should have performed better.

Liverpool Caoimhin Kelleher
Credit: Imago

One positive from the clash, however, was seeing Chiesa get some much-needed minutes.

Alongside Cody Gakpo, the Italian was one of the best players on the pitch for Liverpool and if the rest of the team performed as well as they did, the Reds would have gone invincible in the Champions League group stage which in itself would have been rather impressive achievement.

In other Liverpool news, Arne Slot is bang on about one of his first-team players after what they did against Ipswich last time out.

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