Arne Slot change proves ineffective as brutal Liverpool truth clear - 5 talking points vs PSG

Liverpool has a mountain to climb against PSG in the Champions League after goals from Desire Doue and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia gave the French side a win. This is what we spotted.

Liverpool head coach Arne Slot talks to Jeremie Frimpong and Ryan Gravenberch.(Image: Antonio Borga/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images)

PARC DES PRINCES, PARIS // Liverpool will have to attempt to come from two goals down against PSG after it was comfortably second best in the Paris leg of the tie.

A deflected effort from Desire Doue saw PSG open the scoring early in the game, and Liverpool struggled to offer much in the way of an attacking threat, even though defensively it was slightly more stable than usual with a back three.

Even so, Ousmane Dembele missed a sitter and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia danced through to score a second for the host, doubling its lead. Here are the five things Liverpool.com spotted as the game unfolded.

Back three works more by luck than judgment

Last season, Liverpool was battered by PSG in this stadium — albeit a Harvey Elliott goal somehow gave the Reds a 1-0 win that they couldn't hold onto — and so switching formation and going with a back three made some sense.

It can be argued that Arne Slot changing things up because of the opponent (and how things have gone recently) is not a good sign. Liverpool doing something so drastic could be viewed as a last throw of the dice; a desperate measure.

Arguably, though, playing Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong as wing-backs is more natural for them than operating in a back four. On paper, Liverpool's new-look set-up was more solid.

In reality, it looked a bit of a mess. There were enough bodies between the goal and the ball to avoid a collapse, Giorgi Mamardashvili had to make a couple of decent saves, and poor finishing from the likes of Ousmane Dembele and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia helped, but it worked.

Ibrahima Konate and Virgil van Dijk got pulled all over the place at times and Joe Gomez didn't always look comfortable, but while it isn't a blueprint for the future, it was an effective temporary stopgap.

Hugo Ekitike isolated

Playing against his former club, Hugo Ekitike was in familiar surroundings. This is a very different PSG team, though — one without Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe, but a considerable amount more in the way of a team unit.

While Liverpool changed things up and got bodies back to defend, it needed much more from its front two. Ekitike and Florian Wirtz were very quiet, with the former's slashed effort early in the second half the first shot that Liverpool recorded in the game.

Both players were crowded out quickly when they did get the ball, and it wasn't often that the Reds managed to string more than two or three passes together. Attacking-wise, Slot's side offered little.

Ekitike was unable to make the right decision at times and Wirtz looked lightweight, with the odd brilliant piece of ingenuity thrown in for good measure. Ultimately, it wasn't enough.

Familiar midfield concern

Curtis Jones was a decent performer — one of very few — at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday, and yet here, he found himself out of the starting XI.

Though Slot had insisted in Manchester that nothing had been decided in terms of his selections for the rest of a big week, it was always likely that Alexis Mac Allister would come back in.

Mac Allister is not having a good season, though. He was booked, and while the center of the pitch looked more solid because the team was much more compact, it isn't a system for the long-term.

When Liverpool goes back to playing more like it normally does, with some actual intent to attack, the gaps that have been evident will return. This felt better, to some degree, in the context of the team the Reds were facing, but it was only papering over the cracks.

Jeremie Frimpong chance missed

Frimpong, it has been said many times, is not really a right-back. He is not really a winger. And yet, he has been played in both of those positions all season long.

What he actually is — or certainly what he was for Bayer Leverkusen — is a wing-back. For the first time since arriving at Liverpool, he has not played that role, but did here.

The result? Well, not much different to usual. He is fast and direct and can beat his man with his knack of timing the forward touch well enough to get into good positions, but the final ball wasn't there.

Crosses went into the box but not to a specific player, while a shot that he had (albeit he was marginally offside anyway) went well wide from an angle. Getting into the positions is one thing; capitalizing on them is quite another.

PSG takes commanding advantage

Ahead of the return leg at Anfield next Tuesday, the task here was simple — in very basic terms — for Liverpool: just don't lose by so many goals that the tie is already over before PSG has to travel to Merseyside.

Fresh from an embarrassing 4-0 hammering against Manchester City, after which Virgil van Dijk admitted that his side had given up, there was a reaction needed.

There was one: Liverpool played much better. The brutal truth, though, is that PSG is just a considerably better side, filled with more quality and energy, and looking much better coached.

There is still something to play for at Anfield next week, but PSG is firmly in the driving seat. This outcome was about as good as Liverpool could have dared to hope for.