Match Review: Liverpool 2-1 Brighton

At 2.50pm, 10 minutes before Brighton stepped out at Anfield to do battle with a Liverpool side who’d won 37 out of 39 points so far this season, we’d have taken a 2-1 defeat.

Going down by a single goal away at the reigning European Champions and the side who will surely end the campaign as Premier League winners would have been a decent result.

And yet here we are, disappointed. Why? Because Liverpool’s two goals came as a result of Sunday League defending. If the Albion could do what you expect an Under 11s side to do – namely, not allow an easy header from a set piece situation – then we could have won 1-0 at Anfield.

Twice in the space of five minutes, Virgil van Dijk rose highest to head past Maty Ryan. The fact that we had 55% possession, the fact that we had 12 shots, the fact that at times we outplayed one of the finest teams on the planet right now all counted for nothing because we couldn’t do the basics.

For the first, it was Adam Webster who was beaten to the ball by van Dijk from a Trent Alexander-Arnold free kick. For the second, Lewis Dunk couldn’t close enough to the Dutch defender from an Alexander-Arnold corner. Two set pieces, two goals.

There was quite the debate raging afterwards over whether Shane Duffy might have made a difference with his aerial ability. The Irishman had been dropped as Dunk returned from missing last week’s defeat to Leicester City through suspension, but many Brighton fans felt it should have been Webster who was on the bench at Anfield.

You could kind of see their point. Duffy is a better defender than Webster when it comes to the basics of blocking, heading and kicking anything that moves – a set of skills that would have come in very handy against a side such as Liverpool.

But that isn’t what Potter wants from his defenders. He’d rather have a player like Webster who can make a pass and step out of defence with the ball to fit the Potterball philosophy. So what if we lose the odd aerial dual when we can play out from the back?

We’ll never know if Duffy could have helped prevent van Dijk’s brace. What we do know though is that you can’t afford to concede two goals that simple against any team in the division – let alone the leaders.

That we didn’t concede anymore was largely thanks to Maty Ryan. He’s been in sparkling form throughout November and first half saves from Roberto Firmino (twice), Sadio Mane and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain meant that it wasn’t four or five to the hosts going into half time.

The Albion had chances up the other end. Davy Propper had a superb afternoon in the middle of the park and forced Allison – who for some reason had decided to play in goal wearing a wet suit – into an excellent stop at full stretch.

The resulting corner eventually found its way to Dan Burn out on the left. He delivered a testing cross which Yves Bissouma cleverly left for Dunk.

Brighton’s captain was now eight yards out from goal and completely free at the back post. Sadly, the opportunity went begging as he contrived to put the ball wide with the goal gaping. It was a huge let off for the hosts.

Bissouma was making his first start of the campaign, one of five central midfielders in the lineup. Propper we’ve already mentioned and those two were joined by Dale Stephens, Pascal Gross and Aaron Mooy.

Looking at the starting XI before the game, you could have been forgiven for thinking Potter was feeling the effects of celebrating his new five-and-a-half year contract with a few too many shandies.

Not only were half the outfield players central midfielders, but we also had 6’7 Dan Burn playing out-of-position at left back against Mo Salah and 19-year-old Aaron Connolly leading the line by himself. It looked like an experimental lineup on Football Manager selected by a bloke who’s been on the magic mushrooms all afternoon.

And yet in the second half, it began to come together. Dunk missed another glorious chance with a glancing header from a Gross corner and Connolly did well to spin away from van Dijk and hit a low shot goalwards which was gathered by Allison.

The Albion cause was given a real shot in the arm in the 78th minute when Liverpool went down to 10 men. Webster’s hoof up the pitch put Trossard in on goal and as he attempted to lift the ball over the top of Allison, the Reds’ number one was forced into making an excellent flying save as he hared out of goal.

The only problem with this was that Allison was about 10 yards outside his box when he used his hands. Referee Martin Atkinson was left with no choice but to dismiss the Brazilian for deliberate hand ball, with Brighton having a free kick some 30 yards out.

Allison’s early exit meant he could head off to the scuba diving lesson which he was dressed for. It also meant Adrian having to come on in goal for the final 12 minutes.

He didn’t get off the best of starts, taking an absolute age to organise the wall for the resulting free kick. Atkinson blew his whistle and Dunk showed some brilliant quick thinking to smash the ball low and hard into the bottom corner with Adrian stranded helplessly on the other post.

The goal meant that Dunk has now scored three times in six career appearances against Liverpool – it’s just a shame two of them were into his own net.

Jurgen Klopp of course wasn’t happy about the whole situation. The Liverpool boss tries to present this happy and jokey face to make supporters like him, a real man-of-the-people who is fair and respectful. Most can see though that he’s actually a bit of a twat.

Klopp reckoned the goal shouldn’t have stood because Dunk took the free kick before Adrian was ready. Funnily enough, the same Klopp was quick to praise Alexander-Arnold when he took a corner before the Barcelona defence was ready in last season’s epic Champions League semi final second leg at Anfield.

According to the Gospel of Jurgen, quick-thinking is okay in May when it’s a Liverpool playing doing it against Barcelona. But if it’s a Brighton player against Liverpool six months later, it’s cheating. Bless him and his double standards.

Dunk’s goal set up a nervy finale, which can’t have improved Klopp’s mood. Adrian saved well from Mooy and Gross but the biggest talking point came when Stephens’ ball put substitute Neal Maupay in on goal and the flag went up.

Replays showed that Maupay was being played on by Andrew Robertson. Given some of his finishing in front of goal this season, there are no guarantees that Maupay would have scored the opportunity, but wouldn’t it have been nice to find out?

In the VAR era, linesman are being slow to give decisions as they know that if they miss an offside, the technology can bail them out.

Yet we managed to find the one assistant referee who took it upon himself to actually make a decision. Predictably, he got it wrong and it cost us the chance of an equaliser.

Liverpool might have earned the nickname LiVARpool so far this season, but this time it was an official not giving VAR the chance to make a decision that’s earned them three points.

You could tell by the reaction around Anfield at the full time whistle that the hosts knew they’d been lucky to get away with a win. The buzz term after was that well-worn cliche of “Victories like that win you titles.”

It says much about how far we’ve come that the nailed-on Premier League champions are delighted to escape with three points against little old Brighton. Who knows what we could achieve if we marked from set pieces? Hopefully, we’ll find out at the Emirates on Thursday.