Liverpool slump to a fourth straight league defeat after a frustrating experience at the GTech. Hoping to stem the slide and build on the positive experience mid-week against Eintracht Frankfurt, Liverpool were
unable to complete the comeback against the Bees and now drop to 6th place in the Premier League. Let’s take a closer look at what went down.
Winners and Losers
Winners
Brentford
The Bees under Keith Andrews had been feeling like they might have found their stride and it certainly looked it today. Their set-up managed to disrupt Liverpool’s movement and unlike other teams, they managed to maintain pressure throughout the match. Brentford have an interestingly constructed team but not one I’d expect to be a world beater. If the confidence that the Bees showed is indicative of a team that’s not only growing in its skill, but specifically born out of figuring out LFC’s weak spots, I’d be worried. Put differently: what if the rest of the league has sorted us out.
LFC Goalscorers
With all the talk swirling regarding the lack of output from Mohamed Salah and the ongoing concerns about Milos Kerkez’s integration into the team, both getting on the score sheet is a positive. And on a day that felt less straightforward than many expected going in, we’ll take the win.
Losers
Liverpool’s Defensive Structure
Liverpool’s key to winning the league last year was centered on a robust defense. This year’s iteration of the squad is certainly lagging behind that standard. We’ll talk a little bit more about observations later, but suffice to say that the squad’s troubles with keeping a cleansheet – Brentford’s xG was 2.21, according to Opta – is number 1 in terms of things that need fixing. With perhaps the most pressing phase of play being the seeming pattern of late that Liverpool can be caught by early goals.
Liverpool’s Finishing
Liverpool finished just shy of their xG, but you’d expect at least one more goal based on the quality of chances. Florian Wirtz had a solid if much less scintillating day today but he had a good chance that again went begging. And he wasn’t alone in being profligate either. Liverpool leaving chances on the table is a worrying trend during this stretch.
Officiating
This isn’t why they lost, but hard to ignore two penalty decisions that went against Liverpool. One the one hand, both calls are acceptable and correct. On the other, they are extremely brutal decisions that swung the match by two goals in favor of Brentford. In fact, if you remove the penalty, Brentford’s xG drops to approximately 1.6. That’s a significant shift and perhaps paints a more nuanced, if no less frustrating, picture of the day. Dropping points due to such a soft penalty is truly a tough pill to swallow.
Talking Tactics
This being a slightly more immediate review, please take these observations with a grain of salt, but an aspect of the tactical battle that is concerning is the fact that this feels like the third match I’ve seen in succession where the opposition’s front-press managed to stifle Liverpool. Brentford’s shape when losing possession wasn’t simply to remain compact – which they were – it was to trigger the press into passing lanes meant to isolate Liverpool’s most preferred outlet target.
On more than one occasion, I noticed that Brentford’s attackers were happy to sag defensively if Ibrahima Konate received or carried the ball. But players would fly in to apply pressure in order to deny balls to midfielders, namely Dominik Szoboszlai (who I believe they identified as one to deny even when they moved to right back). I remember noting during the match that this made it feel like Liverpool couldn’t build the overloads they preferred and, most worryingly, caused the backline to look uncomfortable.
There’s lots of problems in the structure of the team – including the aforementioned penchant to concede early. But Liverpool’s wobbles building out of the back today feel of a pattern and, again, it feels like teams have sorted exactly how to stifle Arne Slot’s foundation.
Lastly, we obviously need to note that all of this is within the context that Liverpool were without Ryan Gravenberch, Alexander Isak, and Jeremie Frimpong. Slot’s ability to change things within the flow of the match is severly hampered at present. Here’s hoping folks return from injury soon.
Giving Credit to the Opposition
Brentford’s overall game plan feels like it worked to perfection, even if I’ve got caveats (see my note about the penalty above). But this isn’t the space for those caveats. Especially when they continued to spring attacks, remain competitive, and display an impressive defensive commitment. It’s hard not to find the approach and execution to be admirable while also noting that I definitely would prefer never to experience a match like this again. Fair play to Brentford, they pushed us and did enough to make it feel like a draw would have been acceptable.
What Happens Next
Arne Slot will need to figure out a way to right the ship. Luckily, this week’s matches – a League Cup match midweek against Crystal Palace and Premier League action at Anfield against Aston Villa on the weekend – provide an opportunity to try to sort things out before big tilts against Real Madrid at home (and all of the narrative that will contain given the return of Trent Alexander-Arnold) and then a visit to the Etihad to face Manchester City. None of them are easy, but a proper title-defense never is. Here’s hoping Arne Slot can sort things out soon.
