5 talking points from Toulouse 3-2 Liverpool

Liverpool had an awful night in France, losing 3-2 to Toulouse in the UEFA Europa League. Here are the talking points.

Luis Diaz gets good news

The biggest news from today is that Luis Daiz's father was finally released after his kidnapping nearly two weeks ago. He'd been captured by the ELN militant group in Colombia and held until now.

The UN and Catholic church negotiated his release, however, and Diaz went into this one with that news. We're still amazed he's been playing at all - fortunately, he was able to do it here with some positivity.

Difficult midfield

Both Ryan Gravenberch and Curtis Jones stayed at home for this one, along with long-term absentees Thiago and Stefan Bajectic. That left Jurgen Klopp with few options in midfield.

Harvey Elliott, Wataru Endo and Alexis Mac Allister started as the trio in the middle but it simply didn't work. Liverpool couldn't control the game properly, frequently finding themselves defending counter-attacks and struggling to break Toulouse down.

While there are options for Klopp in midfield this season, it's clear that he needs to be careful when picking from them over the next little while. The chemistry just isn't quite there yet.

Winning duels

Liverpool were horrendous all over the pitch here but they were particularly bad when it came to winning duels. They won roughly half of them on the night here - an embarrassing rate. At half time it was under 50 per cent.

Wataru Endo and Alexis Mac Allister were standouts in that regard. Both played the holding midfield role on the night, one after the other either side of half time. Neither could stop runs through the middle.

There are already plenty of calls for a new defensive midfielder. They'll only get louder after this.

Even the subs didn't work

Probably the most concerning thing here is that Klopp switched things up at half time to put on a more reliable XI and things got even worse. Trent Alexander-Arnold, Dominik Szoboszlai and Mohamed Salah should have helped get the Reds control of the game.

Instead, Liverpool conceded twice more after half time and their goal was scored for them. Does that suggest a mentality issue? Something was up because nothing worked here.

Goal, not goal

There's your talking point. Jarrel Quansah scored a stoppage-time equaliser for Liverpool - his first goal for the club. Then it might not have been a goal. Then it was, ref's pointing to the centre-circle. Then there's VAR. Then there's no goal.

It probably was a handball, it's easy to understand those who think it wasn't or that the ref went back too far.

In the end, the Reds should still qualify from the group with relative ease and should still top it. The real story here is that Liverpool conceded three to Toulouse and were relying on a stoppage-time equaliser.

The performance just wasn't good enough.