I’ll keep this brief for all our sakes. There’s not much to be said that wasn’t already discussed at length in previous home games. We've seen this movie before. In fact, it's been on a loop since 2021 started.
Maybe coming off the back of those two good away wins this defeat was somewhat unexpected, but really this had “trap game” written all over it and there was very little difference between this and Burnley a couple of weeks ago.
None of us really wanted this game did we? City this weekend was the big one and this game was almost an inconvenience. Brighton were just in the way and we needed to find a way to brush them aside and take the points whatever way we could. It’s not that easy though, especially with the team so depleted and disjointed at the moment.
Being at Anfield isn’t any kind of advantage anymore either. They may as well change the sign over the tunnel to say “This is NOT Anfield” because it isn’t the same. We’ve lost twice at home in as many weeks but no-one was there to witness it so they may as well not have happened. Not having fans in stadiums changes everything.
I’m sick to death of it. I want to be back at the match. I want to feel like I can be a part of it, to contribute in some small way (even if it’s only shouting myself hoarse abusing the Main Stand linesman). I’m sick of watching on telly every week. It’s not even so much about me not being there though. I could live with that if others were there. But this empty stadium thing is wearing me down now. I hate it.
In recent seasons visiting teams have often been beaten before they even got off the bus, but with no fans, no centre backs and now no unbeaten home record, nobody is scared of coming here anymore. Why would they be? The likes of West Brom, Burnley and now Brighton have all had success here so the fear factor has gone completely.
We’ll probably lose more home games before the season is out (quite possibly this weekend), not to mention some away ones too. We’ll win plenty as well, but there will be no long winning streaks this season, I think that’s now obvious.
I didn’t feel much at all watching this. Just a bit sad and extremely demoralised. I wasn’t the least bit surprised though. This was never going to be easy, although we made it more difficult than it should have been by playing like shite. Villa aside, this was probably the worst we’ve looked all season.
Brighton know how to play against us. The stat nerds will tell you that. They’ve had the better of us in both games this season in virtually every meaningful statistic. They’re a superbly coached team and we always find it difficult when we play them.
Klopp knows this. He is probably more complimentary about Potter's Brighton than he is anyone other than City. They’re not a great team because they don’t have great players, but their style doesn’t mesh well with ours and it’s a slog when we play them.
It doesn’t help when we have so many players throw in a stinker on the same night but Brighton deserve credit for that too. They stopped Salah while Firmino stopped himself. When those two are giving you very little and Sadio isn’t even on the pitch then it’s going to be difficult.
I don’t want to single anyone out for special criticism as it was a wretched team performance, but what I will say is when Firmino plays like this we have virtually no chance. Wretched. He was great at Spurs a week ago but then he plays like this? It seems to be who he is now. He hasn't shown any consistency for about two years.
We started quite well, didn’t score and then just plodded our way to half time. The second half also started brightly and for ten minutes it looked like we’d upped the tempo and might score. When we didn’t get one in that spell I knew we were in trouble. You could smell it a mile off.
Brighton defended well and in numbers but they also got men forward when they could. It’s a bit galling that a fucking nine foot tall left back threatened more than all of our players combined though. We had a couple of half chances and that was it.
Not having Alisson isn’t an excuse. Kelleher did nothing wrong and Alisson wouldn’t have stopped that goal as it was a complete fluke. Still, it must be mentally draining for the team to constantly be having these injury setbacks thrown at them. Every week it’s someone else, and eventually it catches up with you.
We were never getting back into this after we conceded. You could see the lack of belief in everyone other than Hendo and maybe Thiago, who was always looking to play passes forward even if they were constantly being miscontrolled by those ahead of him. We can’t get Jota back quickly enough.
The title is gone. I made peace with that after Burnley, although there was still a lingering hope after the impressive back to back wins. That hope has gone now. Even if we won every game it still might not be enough, and there is not a chance in hell we will win every game.
Given all that we’ve had to try and overcome this season I’d say that finishing second would be an achievement. You can’t finish above City with half a team either missing or having to play out of position. There’s no shame in finishing below them and I’ve accepted that fate.
Finishing below anyone else would be tough to take though. There’s an argument to be had that as long as we ensure a top four spot then we can take that and forget this season ever happened. I’m not ready to go there yet though because finishing below United isn’t an option as far as I’m concerned. I thought we were past that and if it turns out that we aren’t then that’s going to be difficult to swallow.
Them winning 9-0 and us losing the next night? What the fuck? Have we time travelled back to the fucking 90s? Not having this at all. Finishing below them isn't a fucking option.
If you offered me a point on Sunday I’d snatch your hand off right now. City’s record at Anfield is awful but this is no longer Anfield and they’ll never have a better chance to end that hoodoo. I’m fucking dreading it now.
There’s no star man but I thought Phillips and Hendo were fine, and Kelleher can also hold his head up.
Team: Kelleher; Alexander-Arnold, Phillips, Henderson, Robertson; Wijnaldum (Oxlade-Chamberlain), Milner, Thiago; Salah, Firmino (Jones), Shaqiri (Origi):
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