FIORENTINA 2 LIVERPOOL FC 0

It was difficult to point to a decent performance by any player in a Red shirt tonight.
Maybe Gerrard who tried to drive us forward, particularly second half, to start an improbable revival.
But not really any other outfield player, other than some gameful energy from Benayoun.
It's games like these when you start to see the true value of a player.
Ok, we've been talking up the imporvements of Lucas Leiva in recent weeks, and rightly so.
But it's all very well excelling against the likes of Burnley, Hull and Stoke at home.
It's your Spurs away and Fiorentina away when proper class comes to the fore.
Sadly, Lucas went missing tonight, and the game passed him by. His stern tackling was nowhere to be seen and he offered nothing creatively.
But it wasn't just the Brazilian who had a bad day.

Kuyt's lack of technique is shown up on nights like this. For a so-called international class striker/winger, his limited ability came shining through.
Unswerving work ethic might get you through in the Premiership, but against the vibrant, speedy passing and running of the Viola, it wasn't enough.
I thought Yossi at least tried hard and attempted to get things going, but he was like paper at times, being swatted off the ball.
The Israeli's almost a 'must' home player, but a gamble whenever we're away.

And the decision to play Aurelio in centre midfield backfired. No matter what some people argue, he's never a central midfielder for me.
He's apparently played there for Valencia, and certain fans talk glowingly of his performance away at Pompey last season, but it's not one I agree with.
Left back or bench. And with Insua playing decently well, it's bench for now.

As for Inusa, the Argentinian showed his lack of experience tonight, being regularly roasted by his pacey counterpart.
The first goal was shambles really, a hopeful hand up to claim offisde - still, it would have been chalked off if Insua had been a couple of paces alongside his three defensive colleagues.
If memory serves me right, we surrended the ball really cheaply prior to that break, Yossi's weakness highlighted again.
The second strike was a great piece of instinctive finishing by the young lad, no shame in conceding there....but Fiorentina had our backline in a panic all night.

At the start of the second half we showed some spirit, and Gerrard and Kuyt started to get their fingers out.
We were a touch unlucky not pulling one back with a possible decent shout for a penalty after a challenge on Torres, a header which Lucas should have kept lower and decent openings for a couple of others.
But getting a point in this game would have been an injustice on the Italians.
It was one of those nights when it just looked wrong from the start. We couldn't keep the ball, we looked hurried in possession, and we struggled to cope with fast, incisive and pacey attacking.
I still think we'll go through, but it's not the sort of momentum we wanted going into the Chelsea game.
And the pattern developing already this season - hammer the mediocre opposition, surrender tamely to teams with a dolop of quality - has an ominious air.