James Pearce noticed how one Liverpool player was raging at Anfield yesterday despite the Reds returning to winning ways against Tottenham.
The home side prevailed 4-2, although a careless five-minute period during which two Spurs goals halved their deficit led to a nervy final few minutes on Merseyside.
In reviewing the game for The Athletic, the journalist noted how angry Alisson Becker looked as the wait for a top-flight clean sheet at home was extended even further.
Pearce wrote: “From a position of complete dominance at 4-0 up, Liverpool clocked off. A bit of complacency crept in and the array of substitutions made it disjointed and allowed Tottenham to half the deficit.
“Liverpool still haven’t kept a clean sheet at home in the league since mid-December. Alisson’s displeasure at that wait being extended was clear for all to see.”
Alisson had every right to be raging over the manner in which the Richarlison and Son Heung-min goals were conceded, with Liverpool eventually thankful that they had a strong enough buffer to absorb those hits from Tottenham.
The statistic that Pearce mentioned now stretches back 10 games, and even our last Premier League clean sheet at home wasn’t one to celebrate, as it came in a draw against Manchester United where we dominated but somehow couldn’t score.
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There was a similar hollowness to our only shutout in 14 matches since beating Nottingham Forest 1-0 on 2 March, as it came in the second leg of the Europa League quarter-final against Atalanta when we still fell short of retrieving the deficit from the catastrophic game at Anfield a week previously.
Liverpool got away with switching off yesterday, and the results in our final two matches under Jurgen Klopp won’t matter hugely in the overall context of the season, but it’s still a far from flattering look if the Reds were to go more than five months without a top-flight clean sheet at home.
It’s one area of improvement for the games against Aston Villa and Wolves to close out what has overall been a very satisfying campaign.