There was a lot of negativity from the media after Liverpool’s 3-3 draw at home to Brighton on Saturday afternoon as more points were lost.
The Reds returned to Premier League action after a long wait, although many fans hoped the game would never have taken place!
Jurgen Klopp’s men found themselves 2-0 down after just 18 minutes at Anfield, but at least recovered to take a 3-2 second-half lead.
Unsurprisingly though, Leandro Trossard completed his hat-trick at the end, giving Brighton a deserved point on Merseyside and submitting the Reds to their fourth draw of the season.
This is how the media assessed Liverpool’s latest slip, with much frustration in the air.
Another screen was rated below average…
Goal’s Neil Jones is concerned Liverpool will finish in the top four:
“Forget the Premier League title for now. It’s Champions League qualification that should be on Liverpool’s minds, and there should be genuine concern given the way the campaign has started.
“While Arsenal and Manchester City fly, while Manchester United improve and while Chelsea continue to deliver results, the Reds continue to disappoint.
“They may have a game to play, but they are already 11 points off first place and seven behind Tottenham, who were beaten at the Emirates on Saturday. They and City were in a league of their own last season, but it seems the chasing pack has caught up with Klopp’s side since May.
“Based on this evidence, Brighton certainly has.”
This Is Anfield’s Mark Delgado feels big improvements are now required ahead of a busy series of matches:
“This was game one of 13 Liverpool must play in the next 44 days – a crazy schedule ahead of the World Cup and a defining one for how good (or not) our season can be.
“Not the best of starts, then.
[…]
“The next step in the Premier League is Arsenal, the current leaders of the league and a team with a lot of movement and speed in possession.
“A lot has to change in the coming week for us to have a reasonable level of optimism that a victory will be achieved in the Emirates.”
And the BBC’s Gary Rose shed light on another poor start for Liverpool, who need to rediscover their approach:
“It was another bad start that ultimately cost them all three points.
“Liverpool have now conceded the first goal in five of their seven Premier League games this season and figuring out how to get the Reds off to a flying start once again is the challenge facing manager Jurgen Klopp at the moment.
“The determination and character that brought Liverpool within a point of champions Manchester City last season are there, but they need to rediscover their focus before the title race slips away.”
Trent had a terrible day at the office…
The Mirror’s Daniel Orme focused on another poor performance from Trent:
“It feels extremely hard to support Liverpool defender Trent Alexander-Arnold after a difficult fifteen days on the international front. However, talk of his place in the England squad does not appear to have had the desired impact on his club’s form.
“The right-back did not cover himself in glory during the first goal after his poor, clear header was picked off before Trossard easily slipped away from him.
“Then he had to take a lot of the blame for the second after failing to control and then letting Danny Welbeck hide behind undetected.
“Now might be the time to move the academy grad out of the way to further avoid the unwanted glare of the spotlight.”
The Independent’s Richard Jolly was another to lament the right-back’s display, though he wasn’t the only problem:
“At the very least, it illustrated that costly defensive mistakes weren’t limited to Trent Alexander-Arnold on a penalty day.
“Gareth Southgate is most likely already decided, but this was not a convincing case to take him to the World Cup.
“Klopp had mounted a vehement defense of the Alexander-Arnold defence; an answer on Friday took five minutes and 40 seconds but, within four minutes of kick-off, Liverpool were behind. If there are times when Alexander-Arnold’s culpability has been exaggerated, he was partly to blame for Brighton’s first two goals”.
Meanwhile, Delgado was scathing in his criticism of Trent:
“Trent was rubbish in the first half.
“And let’s not have airs and grace about it being due to a high starting point or a ball behind him when he’s trying to fight back or anything like that — this was one-on-one defense, clearing headers, tracking down runners just a little bit. a few meters and choosing the right pass from the defensive third.
“The second half didn’t improve enough in this regard either, with the added bonus of passed and missed clearances.
“He was directly to blame for at least three really good starts for Brighton, including being involved in both of their goals.
[…]
“He’s capable of so much more, and so is this team as a whole.”
Ian Doyle of the Liverpool Echo also couldn’t help criticizing the Liverpool hero:
“Let’s do it bluntly. The right-back had an outright surprise here, the start of him in keeping with a terrible Liverpool opening that saw Jurgen Klopp’s side turned upside down by the visitors, playing their first game under new boss Robert De Zerbi.
An untimely slip allowed Leandro Trossard to hide the first goal for Brighton after just four minutes, and the same player capitalized again 13 minutes later after Alexander-Arnold’s lack of awareness saw Danny Welbeck come on and take possession. .
“The more Alexander-Arnold tried, the worse it apparently became, resulting in a passage of play in the second half when a succession of frantic punches and misguided kicks caused audible anguish from the agitated Anfield crowd.”
Finally, Jones mainly had negative things to say about the out-of-shape English:
“After a week of discussion about his World Cup prospects, this was not what the Liverpool right-back needed.
“Alexander-Arnold, one imagines, would have wanted a nice, uneventful afternoon here, a game to calm the nerves and turn off the lights. Surely he did not understand.
“Within five minutes, he had been left on the ground when the impressive Trossard opened the scoring, and when the same player doubled Brighton’s lead in the 18th minute, the goal came on a loose touch from Alexander-Arnold, who was caught. in possession trying to knock a long ball over his chest.
“There were signs of nervousness in the 23-year-old’s performance. Some rushing passes, errant headers and wild clearances.
“His corner kick was fine, one of them leading to the own goal that seemed to have won the game for his team, but there was going to be one last prick when Brighton overloaded their flank at the end, allowing Kaoru Mitoma to cross to Trossard. snatch a point off the back post.
