Roy Keane will have surely taken some pleasure in dissecting what has been an atrocious first-half of football from Liverpool in London.
The Merseysiders secured the opening goal in the Premier League contest with Fulham thanks to Alexis Mac Allister’s sensational 20-yard goal.
However, the Cottagers quickly regrouped and cut Arne Slot’s would-be champion team with three goals in the space of 14 minutes.
A defeat on Sunday afternoon would hardly be catastrophic for Liverpool’s title hopes – indeed, one should only expect a delay in the inevitable – but it’s hardly a performance befitting of title-winners.
Roy Keane savages Liverpool’s poor Fulham performance
Roy Keane eviscerated the Reds in his analysis of the first 45 minutes of action at Craven Cottage.
The former Manchester United favourite described us (and quite rightly so) as a ‘mid-table team’, whilst sparing us his exact thoughts on the state of our backline.
“Liverpool have looked like a mid-table team,” the Irishman spoke on Sky Sports’ coverage.
“Liverpool defensively, my goodness…”
Who can blame him? Ibrahima Konate was fortunate to not be punished for one early mishap in the opening stages of the tie, whilst Andy Robertson directly contributed to Fulham’s second goal with a bizarre sideways pass in our third.
To be clear: Liverpool haven’t been unfortunate; Marco Silva’s men have had the far greater share of momentum from the first half and have been cutthroat with the chances we’ve freely given them.
We can make excuses for Curtis Jones, who is ultimately playing out of position at right-back, but the less said about our Scottish left-back and Konate the better!
Liverpool’s fullbacks have been appalling in London
Sofascore awarded both Curtis Jones and Andy Robertson with 5.7/10 ratings (with 55 minutes gone in the tie), after both contributed errors leading to a goal in the first half.
If anything, we’d feel inclined to argue those scores should be even lower after truly abject showings from the pair.
Our young English midfielder, at least, will eventually be returned to the middle of the park.
Robertson’s latest display, however, will only further entrench the view for Arne Slot that he can’t be relied upon as our first-choice option at left-back going into the 2024/25 season.
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Have to agree with Roy Keane, the first half was utterly disgraceful from Liverpool. Yes, played like a mid table – or even worse – team. Totally unacceptable.
All season our forwards have bailed our defenders out. We should have strengthened when we had the chance. Robbo’s best days have gone. I think Konate’s been our best defender but was shocking today. Although not to blame for initial mistakes leading to the goals he was brushed aside like a feather by Fulham’s goal scorers,
Lost their first game away from home this season & first in 27 league games, 1 bad half of football doesn’t change that, more how good & how clinical were Fulham today, very! Really good team & hard to beat, not that bad a weekend with Arsenal only gaining a point, not a chance they get near Liverpool, not until that guard of honour in a few weeks at Anfield
Lucky Liverpool are so far ahead in the league otherwise I’d be really worried. Still got a few tough games to come including Arsenal and Chelsea. After losing to PSG Liverpool appear to have given up. Sloppy defence and Salah is not scoring either.
I had this down as a draw. To be honest Liverpool are just getting the jitters. The same thing happened when they won the Premiership in lockdown if I recall. They just need to block out all the noise and play the game they know will bring them success. Football matches are unpredictable… Curtis Jones should never have been played in defence. He was targeted all the game and was exposed. Konate has concentration lapses… The defence needs strengthening in the summer break. The attack at times is not good enough if Salah is having a quiet game.