INDEFENSIBLE, ARNE

Liverpool may be scary up front, but their back line was frighteningly bad as they kept handing Palace a host of chances, which cost them dearly

- BY JEREMY CROSS

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

But even the American basketball legends had to defend at times.

Which is what Liverpool failed to do in the Community Shield.

Someone once famously said that attacks win games, but defences win titles.

And that person was right. This game was a microcosm of such a fact.

Twice Liverpool went ahead at Wembley. But twice Crystal Palace came back, after Liverpool's back line let themselves down.

Before going on to win on penalties.

First it was captain Virgil van Dijk (left), of all people, making a needless mistake inside his own box (Van Dijk fouls Ismaila Sarr, circle) to allow Jean-Philippe Mateta to equalise from the spot before halftime.

Then Sarr waltzed through the Liverpool defence to make it 2-2 with 13 minutes remaining.

Before Sarr's leveller, he had come within a whisker of scoring when Palace had opened up their rivals.