#2 Derby County’s toothless attack didn’t do them any favours
Darren Bent led the line gamely but it wasn’t his fault that Derby failed to score. His isolated presence at the top meant that he was a very sporadic threat. A look at the match statistics doesn’t lie about Derby’s performance on the night.
With only 4 shots in reply to Liverpool’s 16 out of which only 2 were on target represents a 50% accuracy which is good considering the score line. However, as English league football’s lowest scorers showed, it was the gap in quality among players, which was responsible for the score-line rather than poor performances from any individuals.
Derby struggled to mark the Brazilians and must do better to prevent goals such as the Coutinho one, where he was allowed to run freely from the half line and be at the receiving end of a one-two which he had started. These type of unhindered runs is what makes a manager’s blood boil and Derby would need to rectify such errors.
