Peter Crouch has highlighted Liverpool’s struggles with missing players this season as being a major reason behind the poor 1-0 defeat to Brighton yesterday evening.
The Reds remain in the top four, though have allowed Manchester City the opportunity to create some distance between themselves and their rivals; should Pep Guardiola’s men win their next tie, a considerable gap of 10 points will be forged.
While we wouldn’t encourage the use of excuses to dismiss results of the kind we’ve witnessed against Brighton and Burnley, the fact of the matter is that Jurgen Klopp was missing quite a number of key stars on the night.
It doesn’t necessarily excuse the result but it does go some way to explaining the performance, particularly as far as fatigue is concerned.
With Diogo Jota back on the training pitch, and Sadio Mane and Alisson Becker likely to return in the near future, we can only hope that Liverpool’s previously remarkable standards will make a speedy return.
You can catch the clip below (from 8:18), courtesy of BT Sport: