Liverpool dropped more points on Saturday afternoon during a thrilling 3-3 draw against Brighton at Anfield in the Premier League. Following the result, Liverpool boss Jürgen Klopp admitted that The Reds are under pressure.
Liverpool have started this season slowly, only picking up 10 points from their opening 7 fixtures. The Reds currently sit 11 points off league-leaders Arsenal, having played a fixture less, albeit their game-in-hand being a tricky trip to Stamford Bridge against Chelsea.
After the loss of Sadio Mané to Bayern Munich in the summer, many feared Liverpool’s attack would lose its potency given the world-class performances delivered on a consistent basis by the Senegalese International.
Although this has proven to be true, with Liverpool only scoring 18 league goals so far, half of which came against Bournemouth, it’s the Red’s defence that has been caught lacking for much of the campaign.
Right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold was slated online by many fans after his performance on Saturday, with Leandro Trossard countlessly getting the better of Trent on his was to an Anfield hat-trick, the first by a non-Liverpool player since Andrei Arshavin for Arsenal in 2009.
Liverpool showed great resilience to turn the game around after trailing 2-0 inside 20 minutes. However, the expectation was that they would hold out and claim all 3 points once they went in front, something Brighton had other ideas about.
Speaking in his post-match interview, Liverpool boss Jürgen Klopp expressed his concern at his side’s form, claiming they are under pressure and need to improve.
“I don’t know how many times today I saw their offensive players just turning between the lines, it was horrendous, really horrible to watch,” said Klopp.
“We are under pressure, we don’t ignore that. We don’t increase it every day but it is there. We want to do much better, have more points, improve in the table.”
Red’s centre-back Joel Matip echoed his manager’s sentiments after the game, stating his disappointment in the result and that Liverpool need to improve.
“Absolutely not happy,” Matip said in response to a question about the result.
“Not a good performance. Brighton played really well and made our life quite hard.
“It wasn’t our game and it started from the beginning. We have to improve.
“It was better but we are still not happy with our performance, especially at home. We expect more from ourselves.
“He [Alisson] was there to save our backs again and hopefully he does not have as many saves to make in the future.
“I don’t care who is coming, we just have to step up and do better.”
Liverpool will need to step up their game swiftly, particularly in the Premier League, if they’re to brush aside the claims of Klopp’s ‘Seventh-year Syndrome,’ as the Reds face a trip to current league-leaders Arsenal next weekend at the Emirates, followed by welcoming PL champions Man City to Anfield the week after.
