Young Boys 3 - 5 Liverpool: Comedy of errors but Rodgers has last laugh

LIVERPOOL escaped with their 41-year unbeaten record against Swiss teams intact but a sloppy defensive performance almost cost them in their Europa League Group A encounter against Young Boys.

Young Boys - Nuzzolo (38), Ojala (32), Zarate (63)

Liverpool - Ojala og (4), Wisdom (40), Coates (67), Shelvey (76, 88)

Attendance: 31,120

That Brendan Rodgers’ second-string side, which included a trio of debutants – two of whom were teenagers – scored five times was something of a surprise considering the struggles of the first team this season.

They did get an early helping hand with a comical own goal from Juhani Ojala and 19-year-old Andre Wisdom scored on his debut after Raphael Nuzzolo had equalised following a Jose Enrique error. Ojala then headed in at the right end for Young Boys and Gonzalo Zarate made it 3-2 before the match turned around again when Sebastian Coates headed in and Jonjo Shelvey scored twice.

Rodgers wanted to give his younger players a chance to prove they were good enough and, while they may not have convinced him he will not have to make 11 changes for Sunday’s visit of Manchester United – having left the likes of Steven Gerrard and Luis Suarez at home – they at least displayed the character he was looking for. Despite concerns about the inexperience of the squad, having left eight senior players at home, the average age of the starting line-up was 24, although that was pushed up slightly by 34-year-old Jamie Carragher.

The comedy started in the fourth minute when the Young Boys’ defence got themselves in a tangle for no discernible reason. Stewart Downing’s right-wing cross did not look to be threatening but Dusan Veskovac headed the ball back across goal and his central defensive partner Ojala headed in. That was only the beginning as Wisdom’s inexperience at this level caught him out when he went to fetch the ball thinking he had a throw-in. While he was off the pitch a ballboy tossed another to Young Boys, who quickly restarted, leaving Wisdom – more accustomed to the reserve team where you fetch your own ball – running back on still carrying the ball he had chased. If that error was down to inexperience, Jose Enrique’s decision to dribble away from the hands of Brad Jones in the 38th minute was bad judgement as he passed straight to Nuzzolo who then drilled in a first-time shot.

Wisdom, however, came to his defensive colleague’s rescue two minutes later when he produced a huge leap to head home Nuri Sahin’s corner.

The second half was less than ten minutes old when Raul Bobadilla was given far too much room on the right to pick out the run of Ojala to head in at the far post.

When Bobadilla outmuscled both Carragher and Suso, another debutant, to send Zarate down right the Argentine neatly dinked over Jones. Liverpool needed a quick response and it came within four minutes as Coates’ looping header crept in at the far post with substitute Fabio Borini claiming a touch which was barely, if at all, there.

Young Boys: Wolfli, Sutter, Veskovac, Ojala, Raimondi, Zverotic (Frey 81), Spycher, Zarate (Gonzalez 65), Farnerud, Nuzzolo (Schneuwly 69), Bobadilla. Subs not used: Benito, Vitkieviez, Costanzo, Lecjaks.

Liverpool: Jones, Wisdom, Carragher, Coates, Jose Enrique, Henderson, Sahin, Fernandez Saez, Assaidi (Shelvey 66), Downing (Sterling 77), Pacheco (Borini 61). Subs not used: Gulacsi, Wilson, Yesil, Robinson.