Michael Owen and Graeme Souness criticised Atletico Madrid’s negative approach against Liverpool (Picture: Getty)

Michael Owen and Graeme Souness were both hurting after Liverpool’s Champions League elimination at the hands of Atletico Madrid and joined Jurgen Klopp in taking swipes at the tactics used by Diego Simeone to reach the Champions League quarter-finals.

Georginio Wijnaldum’s 43rd-minute header and Roberto Firmino’s early strike in extra-time looked to have won the last-16 tie for Liverpool before goals from Marcos Llorente (2) and Alvaro Morata put the visitors out of sight at the end of a thrilling second leg on Merseyside.

The Reds found it near impossible to break down a dogged Atleti side at times at Anfield and Jan Oblak’s inspired display behind the impressive Felipe and Stefan Savic frustrated Klopp’s men all night long on Wednesday.

Simeone’s side produced a backs-to-the-wall display to beat Liverpool (Picture: Getty)

Many hailed the backs-to-the-wall performance as a tactical masterclass from Simeone but former Liverpool striker Owen was less than impressed as he discussed Atletico’s defensive approach in the BT Sport studio.




‘I don’t think there’s anything genius about setting your team up to defend,’ Owen said.

‘Everyone says [Jose] Mourinho’s a tactical masterclass, yet they win 1-0 away?

‘Genius is what Pep Guardiola does. Genius is what Jurgen Klopp does. Being expansive no matter what you face, that’s what genius is.

‘Putting loads of men behind the ball – great players at that – what’s genius about that? You can respect it, but I don’t think it’s genius.’

Owen later tweeted: ‘Please spare me all this inevitable Simeone masterclass nonsense.

‘There’s nothing genius about putting 11 top class footballers behind the ball. Liverpool absolutely pumped them throughout.’

Please spare me all this inevitable Simeone masterclass nonsense. Thereâs nothing genius about putting 11 top class footballers behind the ball. Liverpool absolutely pumped them throughout. — michael owen (@themichaelowen) March 12, 2020

Analysing the game for RTE, ex-Liverpool midfielder Souness claimed Atleti got ‘lucky’ in the tie and ruled out their chances of winning the competition.

‘Playing like that they’ve come up short time and time again,’ Souness said.

‘You will get the odd result like that when Lady Luck is with you and you have to say they were lucky tonight.

‘Liverpool were guilty of missing chances but I come back to the same point: if you continue to play like that you ain’t gonna win too many competitions.

‘That’s a real kick in the teeth for Liverpool tonight. Every other team in this competition has been lifted tonight because nobody wanted to play Liverpool.

‘Now PSG will fancy themselves, Real Madrid will fancy their chances, Barca… that team [Atletico Madrid] can’t win it. They can’t enjoy that luck from the start of the competition and all the way through it. I’d put a line through them but I think all the other big teams will go, “Wow”. [Manchester] City, it might just be their year.’

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Jurgen Klopp insisted he was pleased with the display his players produced and accepted he was a ‘really bad loser’ as he questioned Atleti’s defensive tactics.

‘I am completely happy with the performance. It’s so difficult to play a side like this.

‘I don’t understand with the quality they have that they play this kind of football. I don’t understand that. But the winner is always right.

‘When I see players like Llorente, Koke, Saul Niguez… they could play proper football but they stand deep in their own half and have counter-attacks.



‘But they beat us so we accept that and congratulate them.’

Klopp took a pop at Simeone’s negative tactics on Merseyside (Picture: Getty)

The German added: ‘We accept it of course but it doesn’t feel right tonight.

‘I realise I am a really bad loser, especially when the boys put such an effort in against world class players on the other side who defend with two rows of four.

‘We know in the last two years we had some lucky moments in the Champions League, you have to, to reach two finals, but today it was everything was against us in the decisive moments.’

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