Positives were few and far between for Liverpool on yet another sorry night for the Premier League champions, but they weren’t completely lacking either.
The Reds have now lost four top-flight matches on the bounce after going down 3-2 away to Brentford, making it seven successive defeats in London for Arne Slot’s side when including the penalty shootout disappointment to Crystal Palace in the Community Shield.
The Merseysiders were again made to pay for shoddy defending in crucial moments at the Gtech Community Stadium, and although they had claims for a penalty when Cody Gakpo went down under a challenge from Nathan Collins, LFC got what they deserved overall – zilch.
It was another night when too many Liverpool players were shockingly adrift of their best, although Slot will have been satisfied with the performance of one member of his team in west London.
Szoboszlai impressed; Liverpool didn’t
The defeat ruined Dominik Szoboszlai’s 25th birthday, but the Hungarian is one of a very select few who can hold his head up high with what he produced against Brentford.
The Reds’ number 8 claimed the assist for Mo Salah’s stupendous late goal, which set up a frenzied finish at the Gtech; and aside from one inexplicable pass out of play in stoppage time, his match statistics were largely positive.
As per Sofascore, the Liverpool midfielder – who was again reassigned to right-back duty for some of the game – won a team-high 11 duels out of 15 contested and also made more tackles (six) and completed more passes (73).
In addition, he recorded two successful dribbles and two key passes, made four clearances, took 119 touches and played eight accurate long balls out of 10 attempted.
Szoboszlai praised for his performance in Liverpool defeat
His match rating of 7/10 from the Liverpool Echo was the joint-highest in Slot’s team tonight, with Ian Doyle writing: ‘Attempted to drive Liverpool forward during opening quarter and got through so much work, and stepped up where others did not. Good assist for second but spent time at right-back again – a clear waste.’
That’s an accurate summary of the Hungarian’s performance – on a night when too many of his teammates underperformed dismally, he at least tried to make a difference for the Reds, for whom he’s been arguably the best player in what’s turning into an atrocious season.
Szoboszlai’s display deserved the three points which would’ve provided the perfect birthday present. Unfortunately, his team’s overall showing merited nothing more than a fourth straight league defeat and a long, miserable journey home from the capital.
Szoboszlai was our best player, he was in midweek in the champions league game. But is he a natural defensive midfielder? No. Neither is Jones. They’ll do their best trying to protect the defence but they are players who are attack minded, creative and making runs forward. It’s not their natural game to track back win tackling duels in midfield and spot the dangers without the ball. The team last night had salah and wirtz in the team these two offer nothing without ball defensively. We have too many attack minded players and not enough physical players who can dig in and grind out a result. Too many small lightweight players that’s why we can’t defend set piece’s. January can’t come quickly enough desperately need a central defender and a quality defensive midfielder, the question though is will slot still be Liverpool manager by then. Keep losing there is only one outcome.