‘Cost them dear’ – James Pearce says Liverpool duo were ‘particularly wasteful’ v Galatasaray

James Pearce felt that two Liverpool players were guilty of being ‘particularly wasteful’ in their team’s defeat to Galatasaray on Tuesday.

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The Reds were beaten 1-0 at Rams Park for the second time in six months, and the frustration was compounded by Arne Slot’s side failing to capitalise on the opportunities that they did create.

Florian Wirtz had two good chances to score inside the first 15 minutes but didn’t take either of them, while in the second half Hugo Ekitike again failed to make the most of a one-on-one with Ugurcan Cakir, just like in the teams’ previous meeting earlier this season.

Pearce laments ‘wasteful’ night from Wirtz and Ekitike

In an article for The Athletic (co-authored with Andy Jones) analysing the latest setback to Liverpool’s dismal season, Pearce highlighted the profligacy of the two summer signings as a contributing factor towards another poor result for the Merseysiders.

The journalist wrote: ‘The lack of a ruthless streak cost them dear, with Wirtz and Ekitike particularly wasteful as they failed to capitalise on a string of promising attacks.’

Liverpool can’t be so profligate in the second leg next week

Having scored 22 goals between them so far this season, it’d be reasonable to expect that Wirtz and Ekitike would’ve made the most of the chances which came their way last night.

The German ought to have done better in the first two minutes after being presented with a glorious opportunity by a botched clearance from Cakir, and the Frenchman ought to have slotted the 66th-minute chance he had at the other end when through on goal.

As per Sofascore, that duo missed three ‘big chances’ between them at Rams Park and had a combined xG of 0.82, with Liverpool’s total xG amounting to 1.31 and the Reds getting six of their 15 shots on target.

If such promising goalscoring opportunities come our way at Anfield next week, we simply must capitalise upon them and not be left to rue glaring misses or contentious VAR decisions contributing to yet another round-of-16 exit from the Champions League.

Both Wirtz and Ekitike have had purple patches of form this season, but the former is now without a goal in five games, while the latter has netted just once over his last seven matches. We could do with that duo (and their attacking teammates) coming good against Tottenham Hotspur and Galatasaray over the next week.

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