Rumours of Liverpool’s resurrection may have been somewhat exaggerated.
esterday felt like the day when the number of horses in the title race dropped from three to two. This may sound unduly alarmist given that the Reds were suffering just their first defeat of the season.
But the loss to West Ham exposed the defensive weakness which sees Jurgen Klopp’s side lag behind not just their main rivals but their own Premier and Champions League-winning teams of recent seasons.
The firm of Mane, Salah and Firmino may have grabbed most of the headlines back then but Liverpool’s success was founded on defensive security. Three seasons ago they conceded just 22 goals in 38 games when finishing second to Manchester City. And while that total rose to 33 in their title winning season, this was largely due to a slackening off during the post-lockdown run-in when the title was already sewn up. The opposition only found the net 17 times during the 27-game unbeaten run which had left the outcome a foregone conclusion.
Last season’s slump saw the defence become more porous with 44 goals conceded. That pattern is continuing this term. Liverpool have conceded 11 goals from 11 games which is more than the combined total allowed by Chelsea (4) and Manchester City (6).
It’s just one goal better than 13th-placed Southampton and it’s why Liverpool only lie fourth in the table despite comfortably possessing the league’s best attacking record.
The main culprit for yesterday’s three goals was Alisson. Helping Pablo Fornals’ corner into his own net for the first goal, letting a weak shot by the same player squirm through his hands for the second and getting lost under another cross so that Kurt Zouma could nod home the third at the far post, the Brazilian had a game for the ages in reverse.
Alisson had been so consistently excellent that his disastrous performance against Manchester City in the game which rang the death knell for last season’s title challenge seemed downright unnatural. When another spectacular mistake followed against Leicester City, Klopp insisted this was just a temporary blip.
David James, who should know about these things, wasn’t so sure and warned at the time that such errors can have a detrimental long-term effect on a keeper’s confidence. That seemed a pretty prescient piece of analysis yesterday.
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The title-winning defence was founded on the rock of Virgil van Dijk. But while the Dutchman did some fine things yesterday, a superb tackle on the stroke of half-time to deny Jarrod Bowen, a 73rd-minute block on a rampaging Michail Antonio which would have made local hero Bobby Moore proud, he hasn’t yet regained his imperious pre-cruciate ligament injury form.
Injuries have also prevented Joe Gomez from fulfilling the potential he showed during the title-winning season and Joel Matip from recovering the form he showed as Van Dijk’s partner the year before that.
It’s also the case that while Trent Alexander-Arnold is the best footballer playing right-back in the Premier League, he’s not its best right-back. The magnificent free-kick Alexander-Arnold despatched past Lukasz Fabianski in the 41st minute, the superb cross-field ball which led to a great Sadio Mane chance with the scores still level and two fine injury-time deliveries which Mane and Divock Origi might have turned into late equalisers showed his enormous value to the team.
Yet Liverpool’s star is to tackling what Aaron Wan-Bissaka is to distribution, something underlined by the trouble Said Benrahma gave him yesterday. This flaw is easily outweighed by Alexander-Arnold’s contribution going forward but it’s badly exposed by the current defensive uncertainty. The euphoria surrounding the humiliation of Manchester United masked the fact that a putrid home team nevertheless created several goalscoring opportunities.
Contrast that with the way City shut down United on Saturday. Liverpool’s victory might have been the more exhilarating but City’s was the more efficient and it’s the latter quality which generally wins titles.
Klopp’s lack of options compared to other leading managers exacerbates the problem. Watching Ozan Kabak flail his way through Norwich City’s defeat by Leeds last Sunday, it felt almost surreal to remember that he did a stint at the back for Liverpool last season.
This isn’t just a defensive problem for Klopp. Seeing him once more recycling Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Divock Origi while City could leave Jack Grealish, Fernandinho, Raheem Sterling and Riyad Mahrez on the bench at Old Trafford shows the uneven nature of the battle between the Liverpool boss and Pep Guardiola.
Klopp and Liverpool will fight that battle with all their might but ultimately no amount of heroics by Salah will compensate for the kind of defensive incompetence witnessed in East London. Their vulnerability from corners could have yielded a further goal had Craig Dawson’s 49th-minute header not bounced over off the crossbar.
Clubs with title pretensions shouldn’t be undone so consistently by basic set-pieces. Liverpool’s next opponents Arsenal, who’ve already scored half a dozen goals from dead-ball situations this season, will have taken note. Van Dijk will get better as the season goes on but a key question is whether Alisson may be on the verge of the kind of prolonged struggle which has bedevilled David De Gea at Manchester United.
If that is the case, Caoimhín Kelleher’s time to shine may not be far away.
Some Liverpool loss might yet be Ireland’s gain.