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Jurgen Klopp’s team could easily have conceded 10 to Aston Villa as defensive problems threaten to put the title defense at risk.
Sometimes it takes the words of Sir Alex Ferguson to really sum up what the world has just witnessed.
“Soccer, huh? Bloody hell. “
On a day when Ferguson’s former club Manchester United probed new depths with their nudity at the hands of Tottenham, Liverpool decided to take the pressure off their old rivals with a performance that was even more surprising and even more chaotic.
Where do you start with this one?
Jurgen Klopp’s team was smashed, destroyed by an Aston Villa team that exposed the reigning champions’ chin in a rather brutal way.
It finished 7-2, but it really could have been anything. Liverpool, a side that prides itself on its heart and its cohesion, its solidity and structure, were unrecognizable strangers, baffled with Liver Birds on their chests but with laces tied.
His display of the first half, in particular, was as bad as it gets. Never under Klopp had they looked so weak, so vulnerable, so utterly uncomfortable.
He would have seen a better and more compelling defense in the Liverpool Sunday League.
Liverpool had more shots and three-quarters of the ball, but conceded four times in the first 45 minutes, and it could have been more.
It also didn’t improve much after the break. More than five years after the horrors of ‘Stoke away’, and that ugly dark 6-1 loss, this was just as bad.
Worse, in fact. Brendan Rodgers’ side was broken, his career run. They were unbalanced and deprived of confidence. They were the Premier League champions, led to the cleanup by Ollie Watkins, standing up and admiring Jack Grealish, crushed to seven by a team that only managed to avoid relegation on the final matchday of last season.
Who really saw this coming? Sure, Liverpool haven’t been as solid as we expected – they conceded three against Leeds in the opening weekend, remember? But seven goals? Against Villa? Unheard.
And also think about how the week had started. Klopp had bristled when Roy Keane, in Sky sports, suggested that his team had been “sloppy” in beating Arsenal on Monday night. How dare you, after a 3-1 win that showed the (very) good side of this Reds team?
Keane wasn’t in the studio for this one, and it was probably for the best. God knows what he would have had to say if he was. Jamie Carragher, in co-comment, was speechless, and that doesn’t happen.
The errors were constant and incredible, individual and collective.
Adrian, substituting for the injured Alisson Becker in goal, gave Villa his first goal in four minutes. The lack of conviction of the Spanish with the ball at his feet is a real problem in a team like this, and the fear is that Alisson’s shoulder problem is no less.
Everton, the league leaders and Liverpool’s next rival, are sure to be licking their lips.
Watkins, Villa’s summer signing from Brentford, had never scored a Premier League goal before, but had three at halftime here, and Liverpool’s defense was clamoring for assists.
Joe Gomez, Trent Alexander-Arnold, and even totem Virgil van Dijk had nightmares. In front of them, Fabinho and Gini Wijnaldum were mirages, offering neither protection nor penetration. Naby Keita, the third midfielder, was hooked at the break, although he was far from Liverpool’s worst player. Klopp, really, could have replaced any of them.
Villa happily accepted his gifts. They had some luck with the detours, but they also missed a lot of opportunities. Every time the home team attacked, Klopp’s team seemed vulnerable. Dean Smith should be proud of his team’s performance.
Grealish, unplayable at times, scored twice, and Ross Barkley, the former Everton midfielder, added an insult to injury with a goal on his debut following his loan from Chelsea. In truth, he should have had his own hat-trick.
Villa, then, join Everton as the only teams with their 100 percent record still intact in the Premier League.
Meanwhile, Liverpool are the first reigning champions in England to concede seven goals in a top flight match since Arsenal in September 1953. Could, perhaps should have been the first team to concede 10 goals in a Premier match League.
And if that doesn’t sum up your evening, then what does?
