Liverpool came awfully close to another dreadful start in the English top-flight after Kai Havertz poked home from close-range whilst the Reds’ backline was caught napping.
Jurgen Klopp’s men were fortunate to avoid an early scare as VAR ruled the visitors’ opening effort to have been offside, though one writer, @_lfcleanne, spotted Trent Alexander-Arnold expressing his discontent with the quality of defending from the bench.
Trent’s shake of the head on the bench there says it all. That’s embarrassingly bad.
— Leanne Prescott (@_lfcleanne) January 21, 2023
The No.66 finds himself on the bench with James Milner retained at the right-back spot as Jurgen Klopp stuck with a raft of changes made for the 1-0 win over Wolves in the FA Cup.
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Given how insular we’ve become when conceding first, the biggest challenge for us here against fellow strugglers Chelsea will be finding that elusive first goal.
Should Liverpool continue to lack a creative spark going into the second-half, the German tactician may be forced to give the nod to Alexander-Arnold and push for a much-needed three points.
With the gap between ninth and the top four stretching, we can ill afford to drop yet more points against a similarly inconsistent opponent at L4.