This is now officially Liverpool’s worst start to a Premier League season under Jurgen Klopp. Liverpool have come back from a long international break…to find themselves dropping more points as they drew 3-3 with Brighton at Anfield.
What a terrible start this has been for Liverpool. With this draw today, then now only have 10 points from their opening 7 games and have languished down into 9th place in the table. I don’t know if this team is too slow, complacent, or just terribly out of form.
Or maybe a combination of all three as Brighton scored in the opening three minutes of the game as Leonardo Trossard picked up the ball on the edge of the box, rolled Trent Alexander-Arnold back to West Derby, and slotted the ball past Alisson to give Brighton the lead to the shock of the Liverpool supporters.
This was a really nice goal, but Trent Alexander-Arnold’s defensive deficiencies really were at fault again as he never should have been fooled out of position that bad by Trossard .
I know Jurgen Klopp loves the guy, and he has been one of the best fullbacks in the world these past few years, but TAA’s play is getting indefeasible at this point. He’s a fault for at least one goal every game and has been one of the key reasons as to why Liverpool’s once indestructible defense is now, well, destructible.
And Brighton should have scored twice more, as Alisson pulled off two incredible saves on the 10′- and 12′ marks, before they did end up doubling their lead through the man of the hour, Leonardo Trossard.
Everyone on the Liverpool defense was ball-watching as Brighton played a few crisp passes to one another around the Liverpool box before Solly March sent Trossard through on goal, and he fired the ball over Allisson’s head for his second of the game.
Judging by how smooth and succinct Brighton played today, you’d never guess that this team not only lost their manager during the international break, but also replaced him a few days ago with a man who was coaching Ukrainian football only a few months back. It sure does look like Brighton have found another ‘diamond in the rough’ with Robert De Zebri.
Anyway, Liverpool must have realized that they were going to get Jurgen Klopp sacked with how bad they were playing as on the 30′-mark, Mo Salah ran in behind the Brighton defense for a loose ball over the top. The Egyptian outpaced Adam Webster, Joel Veltman, and keeper Robert Sanchez to square the ball over to Firmino, who had an easy empty-net tap in to half the Liverpool deficient.
Looking back on that goal, I’ve got no idea how Dunk or Veltman couldn’t reach that pass by Salah to Firmino. It seemed like they were easily going to be able to clear their line, but the ball rolled away from them at the last second and landed right in Firmino’s path.
I’m not sure what happened on that play other than that it psyched up Firmino to go on and score again in the second half.
Just ten minutes after halftime, Firmino tied the game for the Reds on the counterattack as the ball went from the Liverpool box to the middle of Brighton’s half with one killer pass from Thiago. Luis Diaz picked up the ball and drove at the Brighton defenders until he reached their box, which was when he dished it over to Firmino, who deked out Dunk (he literally went spinning in the wrong direction) and fired a low shot past Sanchez’ left.
If there’s one positive that Liverpool can take from this dreadful stretch of play it’s that Luis Diaz is probably their best replacement for Sadio Mane, while Roberto Firmino still has a few more years at the top level. The way Diaz can take on and beat defenders is simply amazing and Firmino’s goalscoring instincts are just as impressive.
Where would Liverpool be this season without those two?
Probably in the relegation zone as they were instrumental again for Liverpool’s third goal. Well, instrumental in the sense that they were standing in front of Roberto Sanchez as a Liverpool corner whipped into the box, where Sanchez completely missed timed his punch and the ball came ricocheting off Adam Webster and into the Brighton net.
To be honest, this goal was just Sanchez’s fault. He’s got to do better than to whiff on a corner that badly.
Still, when I thought that Liverpool had managed to pull off yet another miraculous win at Anfield, Leonardo Trossard comes up big for Brighton as he scored his third goal of the game from a cross. With the ball whipped into the Liverpool box with just eight minutes to go, Trossard kept his composure and wrapped his foot around the ball to send into flying past Alisson and into the top corner.
Milner and Diaz, who were the two closest Liverpool players, really should have been covering him more closely, but I’m not going to take away anything from the finish. It was excellent.
And that 3-3 score line was how the game ended as Liverpool were unable to rally from giving up that late Trossard goal.
In all honesty, I thought that losing Graham Potter was going to sink Brighton into a relegation fight. I thought that it was his coaching and tactics that elevated these players into the Top-4 position they currently hold. Yet, with Brighton not only scoring three at Anfield, but also showing the fight to comeback and tie the game late on, it seems that I was wrong, and this Brighton team are legit European place contenders this season.
As for Liverpool, if Manchester City win the Manchester Derby tomorrow (which I hope they don’t), then their involvement in the title race is all but over. They’ll be 10 points BEHIND City, albeit with one game played less. They can’t comeback from that big of a deficit this early on, right?
Nonetheless, seeing how they struggled to defend even the simplest of attacks, they should be worried about their Top-4 position as Manchester United, Tottenham, Arsenal, Brighton, Chelsea, and Newcastle all looked poised to battle them for their spot.
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