Watford eventually were relegated to the Championship with a whimper, yet these calamitous Reds’ performances against teams fighting to stay in the league carried over into the new season. Liverpool have since 13 December 2020, drawn with Newcastle, Fulham and West Brom – the last two will both go down this year – and lost to Southampton, Burnley and now, also at Anfield, Brighton, which means this season the Reds only took one point out of six against the Amex outfit.
Tonight, Liverpool, as they have done so many times this year against the lower league teams, ditched their methodical passing game – tiring, frustrating and disorienting the opposition, who are forced to spend the majority of the game without possession – for hopeful crosses and chips into the box, which are meat and drink to centre-halves, who like nothing more than to get their head to the ball, block the shot or put their foot in. What centre-halves don’t like and what will always catch them out is balls down the side, forwards running at them, one-twos around them. None of which Liverpool managed to test them with this evening.
A strange selection from Klopp didn’t help matters. At West Ham on Sunday, it wasn’t until Divock Origi, Xherdan Shaqiri and James Milner were replaced by Curtis Jones, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Roberto Firmino that Liverpool managed to step on the gas and win the game; yet, of the three, only Firmino in place of Origi, started against Brighton.
After the match, Klopp said that after two difficult games in a week – against Spurs and West Ham – his players lacked mental freshness. True, but then why didn’t he start with Oxlade-Chamberlain and Jones?
Even more bizarrely from Klopp, when Liverpool were desperate for an equaliser, he made the decision to replace Firmino – looking more potent than Mo Salah – with Origi, whose main contribution was to take the ball off Andy Robertson on the edge of the area just as the wing-back was set to shoot, then try to chip in Mo Salah, only for the Belgian striker to badly overhit the pass and for the ball to go safely out for a Brighton goal kick. Salah's disgust at Origi's misplaced pass was evident – perhaps too evident. Unfortunately, whether starting or as an impact substitute, Origi has proved desperately ineffective and this will surely be his last season at Liverpool.
An enforced change saw Klopp bring in Kellerher for the unwell Allison Becker. The young Irish keeper made two outstanding saves to keep Brighton out; but he was at fault for the Brighton goal, staying on his line as the ball looped in from his left when he should have come to claim or punch the cross away. The ball ended up at the right edge of the six-yard area – where right-back Trent Alexander Arnold was nowhere to be seen – for Burn to head across the goal and Alzate to bundle the ball into Liverpool’s net.
Liverpool huffed and puffed in their effort to find their way back into the game and save their challenge to retain their title, but it was in fact Brighton who looked more likely to score a second.
Next up for the Reds is Manchester City, who cruised to a 2-0 away win against Burnley. This victory puts them seven points clear of Liverpool with a game in hand. Even if Liverpool were to win against Manchester City at Anfield in four days time, City’s lead, with only 16 games of the season left, would appear insurmountable, especially given the relative form of both sides.
Liverpool’s only hope for silverware this season will be the Champions League – a tall order given their torrid form and injury crisis – so a more realistic aim will be a top four finish, fourth spot is where Liverpool have dropped to after this defeat and Leicester's win against Fulham. The Reds are now only two points ahead of West Ham and four in front of Everton, who have two games in hand. Both Everton and West Ham had good away wins tonight against Leeds and Aston Villa respectively.
