Even the Harlem Globetrotters put in defensive shift

TURNING a team into football’s equivalent of the Harlem Globetrotters is all well and good.

- By Jeremy Cross

But even the American basketball legends had to defend at times. Which is what Liverpool failed to do.

Someone once famously said that attacks win games but defences win titles. This game was a microcosm of such a fact.

Twice Liverpool went ahead. But twice Palace came back, after Liverpool’s back line let themselves down.

First it was Virgil Van Dijk, of all people, making a needless mistake inside his own box to concede a penalty before halftime.

Then he was left standing as Ismaila Sarr waltzed through to score. Sarr also came within a whisker of scoring earlier.