Chelsea 1-0 Liverpool: 5 Talking Points

#4 Liverpool's glaring midfield problems

Not using Henderson in the first half did not work out well for the Reds

When Liverpool did get their attacks going, it was either Firmino or Mane carrying the ball out from deep inside their defensive half. Liverpool's midfield desperately misses Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and the absence of Adam Lallana is not helping.

As a result, the Merseysiders are finding it difficult to connect defence and attack in an amicable manner and as a result of Mo Salah, in particular, was gravely starved of good service in the first half.

Liverpool had 5 shots in the first half, 4 of which were on target in the first half and almost all of them came from individual drives as opposed to scintillating build-up play.

In the second half, two of their best chances fell to Dominic Solanke whose headers were off the mark by quite some distance.

James Milner, Wijnaldum and Trent Alexander-Arnold were struggling against the likes of N'Golo Kante, Cesc Fabregas and, even, Tiemoue Bakayoko and that is saying something.

Adam Lallana is back in training but his match fitness is still suspect. One thing is for certain and that is that if Liverpool are going to bring the same game to Kiev, Modric, Kroos and Casemiro will tear them a new one.