Another frustrating, disappointing and unsatisfactory performance from Liverpool saw them come away from Elland Road with a 1-1 draw when they badly needed three points to retrieve what has been a terrible season, exiting early from all competitions they were involved in.
What made the performance even more annoying was that the Reds had deservedly gone ahead after 31 minutes with a Sadio Mané goal – set up by Trent Alexander Arnold after a cross-field pass from Diogo Jota – and looked in complete command of the game throughout the first half.
Even in the first 10 minutes of the second half, Liverpool were on top and should have gone further ahead, but Jota’s header from the edge of the six-yard-box went over the bar when it should have ended in the back of the net.
From that point on, inexplicably, Leeds came back into the match and created several presentable opportunities – Alisson Becker saved excellently twice from close-range efforts, once with his legs, the other with his chest, while Patrick Bamford saw his clever lob from the edge of the area strike the face of the crossbar.
Liverpool were relying on the counter-attack to score the second and finish off the game – Mo Salah, who’d started on the bench came on for Mané after an hour for precisely this purpose – but the Reds were sloppy in passing and possession breaking out and didn’t create a serious scoring chance.
Inevitably, and deservedly, Leeds equalised.
On the 85th minute, a corner from the Liverpool left was appallingly defended by Ozan Kabak and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who left the United centre-back Diego Lloronte to leap unchallenged from three-yards out to score a simple header. Horrific defending, but quite typical of Liverpool’s season. Again, we ask the question why, when Nat Philips was declared unfit with a hamstring injury, he wasn’t replaced by the January signing Ben Davies but by Fabinho, depriving Liverpool of their best midfielder? This tactic of dropping Fabinho into defence has been a disastrous innovation and it was asking for trouble when Jurgen Klopp reverted to it against a side known for unrelenting pressure and never giving up. A defender, brave in the air, capable of the last-ditch tackle, was what Liverpool required tonight and the fact that they didn’t have one is what ultimately cost them, with the softest of set-piece goals.
Oxlade-Chamberlain had the chance to score a winner in the 92nd minute after being set up by a mazy run from Roberto Firmino, who found the England international on the edge of the area with the net beckoning but the hapless ex-Arsenal man, epitomising his undistinguished Liverpool career, couldn’t sort out his feet quickly enough and the chance went begging.
Liverpool’s dropped two points leaves them in sixth place, behind Chelsea, West Ham and Leicester in the fight for the 3rd and 4th spots. All of these teams have a game in hand over the Reds and it’s not so much that the games are running out for Liverpool to climb the table; it’s that the performances remain so weak that there’s nothing to suggest that the Reds are capable of putting a winning run together to qualify for next year’s Champions League – assuming it goes ahead after today’s announcement of a European Super League, in which Liverpool would be a founding member and guaranteed a place in any elite competition.
