Liverpool must search for settled side amid mix of unhappy and unfit players after Champions League anti-climax

Steven Gerrard called it straight, declaring Liverpool’s Champions League elimination little more than they had deserved, but no one else was willing to stand up and be counted after a pitiful showing against Basel. Lazar Markovic headed out of the dressing room in a woolly hat and the rest did not even seek disguise as they left a freezing Anfield on Tuesday night. Their collective silence said everything. There can be no disguising the shattering anti-climax of the campaign Liverpool waited five long years to attain, which ended with the 1-1 draw against Basel. Six games, one win, five goals, extradition to the Europa League and possibly even a first continental clash with Everton. (Uefa rules governing intra-country fixtures mean that cannot happen until the last 16.) The obvious problem is the absence of a serviceable striker, though the malaise runs deeper. Liverpool have too many unhappy players and do not look as if they have a way to play now that they have lost the free-wheeling counter-attacking game that Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge thrived on. Consider some of the starting XI for the game against a Basel side whose fast, precise football, and possession of “a plan” as their manager Paulo Sousa kept calling it, was too much for them: Lucas Leiva – marginalised and so desperate to leave this summer that he tweeted a photograph of light at the end of a tunnel. Glen Johnson – openly unhappy about the fact he is being asked to halve his salary to stay. Dejan Lovren and Simon Mignolet – players whose weaknesses have been put under uncomfortable scrutiny.