Jamie Carragher was almost lost for words over the manner in which Liverpool fell behind to Crystal Palace at Anfield this afternoon.
Reds fans hoping for an emphatic response to the Atalanta thrashing on Thursday would’ve been left raging in the 14th minute when Eberechi Eze was left with all the time and space in the world to slot the ball past the returning Alisson Becker and put the visitors in front.
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Speaking on commentary duty for Sky Sports (14:17), the ex-LFC defender was fuming over the amount of room which was afforded to the 25-year-old to score one of the easiest goals of his career.
Carragher said: “The space there, you cannot believe. Another shocking start by Liverpool.”
Liverpool needed a strong start to dispel the negativity which stemmed from Thursday night’s Europa League humiliation, but instead they made it far too easy for Palace to draw first blood at Anfield.
Quite how Ibrahima Konate and Virgil van Dijk left Eze in so much room to pick his spot to score will have left Reds fans and Jurgen Klopp almost speechless with horror.
It could’ve been even worse just a few minutes later when Jean-Philippe Mateta beat Alisson, only for Andy Robertson to rush back and make a heroic goalline clearance.
That’s now 21 matches out of 51 matches this season that Liverpool have conceded the first goal. They’ve only been beaten six times so far, but that statistic could well rise if they don’t kick their atrocious habit of limping out of the traps and letting the opposition hit the front.
I am really getting tired of this nonsense now! When will this team wake up. They keep making the same mistakes over and over again. We have become too predictable.
Unfortunately I will have to agree. Shame. And still, missing close range chances, from Nunez and even Salah. This is so devastating. Also the stubbornness of our attackers to dribble past a tight defence and may be even the goalkeeper and go in the opponent along with the ball?
Eventually the defenders outside the ball will do the right thing and try the long distance shot. So then, why don’t the defenders train on shots for goal from outside the box? Why do they always try the difficult route?