Liverpool’s Daniel Sturridge has point to make after being left on the bench

Striker is struggling for a role and, even in a team that is marked by absences up front, he still could not get on the pitch against Villarreal

“Yes, we can!” chanted the Villarreal fans and in the end, the very, very end, they could. This may not have had the drama of the last round but it did have drama and in the last minute. Finally, on 92 minutes, someone found a way through when Denis Suárez entered the penalty area on the right and rolled the ball across for Adrián López to score. Liverpool’s unbeaten record in this competition ends at 12; Villarreal’s extends to 12. And so to Anfield, where the task will be far from easy.

Twice the ball had hit the post, one for each team, but as the second half progressed and the end drew nearer, it appeared that neither side would find a way through in a game that intrigued and often impressed but only occasionally excited until the final minutes. If Anfield in the last round was out of control, the Madrigal was marked by the control that appeared to be a priority for both teams. The problem with control is that it is never complete; it is never over. And so it proved.

Liverpool know that better than anyone and this time it happened to them. They were on the verge of a useful draw; that they did not get it naturally raises questions. For some players it raises significant ones. At the end of what was ultimately a disappointing night, personally and collectively, Daniel Sturridgestood with friends beneath the concrete stand at the end where the winner had been scored. He had seen the goal go in from the bench. Not only did he not start; he did not get on.

A game that was marked by absentees for Liverpool had looked like ending in a 0-0 draw that seemed to suit both teams; the 1-0 suits only the Spanish, although here was another example that it is never over until it is actually over.

Divock Origi, who scored in both legs against Dortmund, was out with the ankle ligament injury provoked by that stamp in the Merseyside derby; Emre Can too has ankle ligament problems, while Jordan Henderson suffered injured knee ligaments in the first leg of the last round. Danny Ings remains unavailable, still unseen by Jürgen Klopp. Christian Benteke was back on the bench and was introduced in the second half. “We could talk about Emre Can, Divock Origi or Hendo if you want, but they’re not here,” Klopp said.

Nor was Mamadou Sakho, and his was a bigger, more troubling absence after he tested positive for a banned substance following the second leg of the last 16 match against Manchester United at Old Trafford. Reports in France pointed at him having taken a banned fat-reducing substance and he chose not to request that his B sample be analysed before Tuesday’s deadline. Having already been left out against Newcastle, in agreement with the club, he did not travel to Spain. The central defender now faces a 30 day suspension while Uefa conducts its investigation.

A lengthy ban may follow but the initial 30-day one takes Liverpool to the end of the season. Martin Skrtel, another struggling with injuries, was on the bench and so it was Kolo Touré who replaced Sakho and impressively so. Afterwards Touré was rightly pleased with his performance. Ever the optimist, he was also convinced that there is a way back into this tie for Liverpool.

For Sturridge, there should be too – next week, at least. Beyond that seems less clear; his role in this team remains ill-defined. It is limited, too, away from Anfield. Even without Ings, Origi and Benteke, Klopp did not start him here. When it came time to make a change, late, he chose Benteke.

Sturridge started on the bench for the third European game in a row and remained there too. His absence was more striking still for the injuries, his part in the 4-3 in the last round and his side’s lack of goals in this round. Villarreal’s Cédric Bakambu is this tournament’s second top scorer on nine. No Liverpool striker has more than two, although perhaps that concerns them rather less when they are a club who can go behind to Dortmund after 246 seconds and, four goals later, go ahead after 5,450.

Liverpool have six strikers in the squad; it was the least strikerly of the six who started, Roberto Firmino. Klopp called it a “difficult decision”, insisting he had thought “a lot” before opting for stability and flexibility, but it is legitimate to wonder if he is not entirely convinced by Sturridge. Perhaps he does not see in him the intensity he seeks. When Sturridge scored against Newcastle, his manager praised the work not the goal. There was a message there. There may have been a message here too. Next week Sturridge has the chance to deliver one of his own.

Without an out-and-out striker Liverpool’s best chance fell to Joe Allen early on, arriving on the penalty spot, only for him to shoot straight at Sergio Asenjo. Relatively little followed. Firmino’s presence was a flitting one but he did hit the post in the second half. That seemed to suit everyone until a game that was slipping into stalemate entered the final minutes.

Bakambu was suddenly through but he could not finish, the shot saved by Simon Mignolet. Then Alberto Moreno was dashing up the field, all alone, but nor could he finish, striking wide. Adrián could. The game ended with fans launching into another chant, leaping up and down to: “Let the Madrigal jump!” The Yellow Submarine followed and then more chants of “Yes, we can”. They had been right after all.

Claudio Ranieri: from inveterate tinkerer to do-nothing tactical master?

In his darkest Chelsea days the Leicester City manager’s need to tamper seemed almost out of control. Now he is proving that doing nothing is sometimes the thing to do

Everybody had known the end was coming for Claudio Ranieri at Chelseabut the moment at which the decision seemed made – and, more than that, was made to seem justified – came in Monte Carlo in April 2004 when he presided over a substitution that appeared baffling at the time and proved disastrous in retrospect. It is easy to pick fault with hindsight but this was one of those rare occasions when everyone reacts as one. After 62 minutes the board went up: Mario Melchiot off and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink on. What was he doing?

As the Champions League semi‑final began, there was still perhaps a thought that Ranieri might save himself if Chelsea could win the competition. The path had opened up for them: Monaco, Porto and Deportivo La Coruña did not represent the most imposing semi-final lineup.

Dado Prso headed Monaco into a 15th-minute lead but Hernán Crespo levelled six minutes later after a prone Eidur Gudjohnsen had forced Frank Lampard’s cross on to him. Seven minutes into the second half Chelsea seemed to have been put in complete control when Urs Meier sent off Andreas Zikos for a gentle push to the back of Claude Makélélé’s head. And then came the fateful substitution.

Hasselbaink, Gudjohnsen and Crespo got in each other’s way. Jesper Gronkjaer had gone off for Juan Sebastián Verón at half‑time which meant there was no width. Monaco were able to pack men in the centre and Chelsea, with few options to stretch the play, ended up trying to batter their way through.

Worse, Monaco still posed an attacking threat, something Ranieri acknowledged seven minutes later with another substitution, bringing on Robert Huth for Scott Parker. It was not enough. As Chelsea desperately chased a goal to take advantage of the situation, Monaco hit them twice on the break, through Fernando Morientes and Shabani Nonda.

Nobody was in any doubt whose fault it was. “Ranieri can rarely have exerted so great an influence or done such harm with it,” said Kevin McCarra in this paper. Glenn Moore in the Independent spoke of “a series of substitutions that destabilised his team so badly they threw away a winning hand”, while Henry Winter in the Telegraph bemoaned Ranieri’s “bizarre second-half tinkering”.

In his post-match press-conference Ranieri seemed disgusted with himself. “It was my fault,” he said. “After 30 years in football I know I have to accept that. With one player more I wanted to win the match. Everybody wanted to do something more, to run with ball and not to combine with the other players.”

With the prize within reach he had snatched at it – perhaps even been tempted into an eye-catching substitution to emphasise his agency – and been caught off-balance. Under pressure, he had made a terrible tactical error.

One mistake should never be allowed to colour an entire reputation but that game seemed emblematic of a wider problem. Ranieri’s tinkering in those days seemed inveterate, almost out of control. Rotation is one thing but it seemed as if he had no idea what combinations would work in what circumstance.

Contrast that to this season, where Ranieri has made only 27 changes to his starting lineup. He is older now and perhaps wiser. Certainly he is under less pressure and so probably able to think more clearly. Or perhaps it’s merely the environment: Leicester’s squad is smaller so there are fewer options. Whether for reasons of luck or the efforts of their medical department, Leicester have had very few injuries this season. With no European football, Leicester’s title charge has been uniquely unburdened by midweek fixtures.

There was a temptation earlier in the season to think Ranieri was reaping the harvest Nigel Pearson had sown but, while he has certainly benefited from Pearson’s preparations, this is now discernibly his side. The back three has been replaced by a tight back four. The defence has improved immeasurably: from no clean sheets in the first nine league games of the season to 12 in the past 17. “He understood the way we avoided relegation and wanted to keep the formula,” said Wes Morgan. “He’s just tinkered a bit in terms of tactical positioning.”

If not doing anything is the right thing to do, doing nothing is just as worthy of praise as a conspicuous statement of intent. And when there has been a need for an adjustment, Ranieri has made it. On Sunday against Swansea City, with Jamie Vardy suspended, he was forced to bring in Leonardo Ulloa. But Ranieri also made one other change, leaving out Marc Albrighton, who had started 33 of 34 league games this season, for Jeffrey Schlupp.

Without Vardy, the Italian felt he needed pace elsewhere in the side to ensure Leicester still offered the same threat on the counter, to prevent Swansea’s defence pushing high and pressuring his midfield. It was a decision that had been thoroughly vindicated even before Schlupp laid on the third for Ulloa.

Perhaps Monaco 2004 and Swansea 2016 demonstrate nothing more than that it is easier to make good decisions when things are going well. Perhaps Ranieri’s decisiveness this season when set against his apparent dithering at Chelsea is evidence he is better suited to a club with fewer egos to satisfy. Or perhaps Ranieri is simply a better tactician than he was ever given credit for in that tumultuous final season at Chelsea.