“After watching a sleepy and hollow performance against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge earlier this month, Liverpool fans boarded their coaches home from London with a familiar feeling. … Disappointment and frustration have been recurring feelings for Liverpool fans on the road this season. They have watched their team lose eight times but only seen three wins. A stark contrast to Liverpool’s past four seasons, where they lost nine times and won 50 games in total. …”
The Athletic – Liverpool’s poor away form: ‘You always fear for them now’

“Imagine, for a second, that Liverpool hadn’t appointed Jurgen Klopp in late 2015 and were instead forced to settle for an inferior manager who only marginally improved the club. In that world, the past few years in English football would have been very dull. Rather than Manchester City winning four of the last five titles — already a huge level of dominance, although two of them were only clinched on the final day ahead of Liverpool — they would presumably have coasted to five in a row without any serious challenge. …”
The Athletic (Video)
The Athletic: Liverpool’s whole defensive structure is struggling – it’s not just Virgil van Dijk

“Newcastle’s meeting with Liverpool always had the look of the game of the weekend, and it duly delivered the drama to justify that status. A 2-0 win for Jurgen Klopp’s side reignited their previously fading hopes of securing a place in the top four, but of arguably more significance was a red card to Newcastle goalkeeper Nick Pope that leaves Eddie Howe desperately short of goalkeeping options ahead of next weekend’s Carabao Cup final. …”
The Athletic

“When Mohamed Salah finished joint top of the Premier League’s scoring charts with Tottenham’s Son Heung-min in May, it earned the Liverpool attacker his third Golden Boot in five seasons. In the absence of a major international tournament, Salah then had an extended summer break and his contract saga was resolved when he signed a new three-year contract worth more than £350,000 per week — making him the highest-paid player in the club’s history. …”
The Athletic

“Jurgen Klopp said he could not recall a worse performance in his career as a manager than Liverpool’s defeat to Brighton on Saturday, adding on Monday that it “shouldn’t be that difficult” to play better against Wolves in the FA Cup replay on Tuesday evening, but how can he improve his team quickly? Klopp said they need to ‘go back to basics’, putting an emphasis on improving their defending. Having lost only twice in the league in the whole of 2021-22, Liverpool have already been beaten six times this season. …”
The Athletic

“Strikers dwell on misses, but the time you worry and the time that sleep deserts you is the time chances don’t come. Big moments can linger and you replay them in your mind — nothing stays with you like a penalty gone awry — but they’re rarely symptoms of sickness in your game. That’s why I have few concerns about Darwin Nunez and his form for Liverpool because his ability is obvious and the rest he can learn. If he wants to improve, he will. …”
The Athletic

“‘It’s not a Jürgen Klopp team.’ Jamie Carragher isn’t the first person to say something like that about Liverpool this season and we can’t imagine he will be the last. The Reds saw their four-game Premier League winning streak come to an end against Brentford last week, with the Bees winning 3-1, and are now seven points off a top-four spot. There is a real danger that the 2022 Champions League finalists will have to settle for a Europa League berth next campaign. …”
The Analyst

“If you open the Oxford English Dictionary and search for “set piece”, there is a chance there will soon be a picture of Brentford’s badge alongside the explanation. This is because the London club are becoming increasingly lethal from them. For a couple of years, Brentford have focused on set pieces to give them an edge in an era of football where marginal advantages make the difference. The fact their previous set-piece coaches, Gianni Vio and Nicolas Jover, have gone on to transform Tottenham and Arsenal’s set pieces in the past two years is an indication of how progressive Brentford’s thinking is in this area. …”
The Athletic

“It turns out there was no need to panic. The build-up to Brentford’s incredible 3-1 victory over Liverpool was dominated by fitness concerns around Ivan Toney. The forward had to be taken off on a stretcher in the final minutes of Brentford’s 2-0 win over West Ham United just four days earlier with a nasty-looking leg injury. He fell awkwardly trying to clear the ball from a corner and the initial fear was that he could be out for months. …”
The Athletic (Video)
The Athletic: New year, same problems for disjointed Liverpool