Defensive work needed as Liverpool stumble to defeat in the capital

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Liverpool suffered their first defeat in seven months on Sunday as West Ham earned a 3-2 victory at the London Stadium.

Since the 3-1 defeat at the hands of Real Madrid at the beginning of April, Jurgen Klopp’s men have not had to deal with coming away empty handed and a combination of poor defending and a lack of attacking inspiration saw the Reds surrender their unbeaten record.

It would be unwise for this to be described as a one-off or isolated performance. This defeat has been coming.

To put it simply, Liverpool are conceding far too many goals. In the league, they’ve been breached 11 times, seven times more than table-toppers Chelsea. They have blitzed their Champions League group so far but an average of more than a goal per game has still been conceded.

In particular, Liverpool’s attack and Mohamed Salah have been doing a lot of heavy lifting to make up for the defensive deficiencies. When the attack isn’t quite at its best and comes up against a brilliantly organised defence like West Ham, problems can occur.

Liverpool gave up good chances even in the 5-0 victory over Manchester United at Old Trafford a couple of weeks ago. Bruno Fernandes could have put United ahead early on and that may have changed the whole complexion of the game.

Instead, Salah and Diogo Jota found a defence willing to give them the freedom and that’s how the destruction happened.

West Ham were not so accommodating. Kurt Zouma was outstanding at the back to go along with his goal as Liverpool struggled to break down a side that defended in numbers.

Klopp’s decision to have Trent Alexander-Arnold operate from a central position didn’t really work either as the Reds lost so much thrust and threat from the right-hand side where the full-back is usually roaming around.

Jordan Henderson instead helped to support the flank but the skipper’s best work comes centrally and he had very little influence on proceedings.

The defence will get the criticism but Liverpool’s midfield has not been functioning at a high level for a number of weeks. Virgil van Dijk and whichever partner is alongside him have been left exposed with players running towards goal and into space.

The absence of Fabinho could be used as an excuse in recent weeks but the Brazilian was back on Sunday and had a rare off-day in the holding position.

This leaves a lot of pressure on the backline and in particular Van Dijk, who has yet to get back to his best following his ACL injury. The Dutchman showed glimpses of his brilliance in denying Jarrod Bowen but struggled on other occasions.

Alexander-Arnold also had difficulties defensively, although he did get Liverpool back into the game with a brilliant free-kick in the first half.

Alisson has been fantastic throughout his time at Anfield and has bailed out the defence countless times this season but even he came unstuck on Sunday, failing to command his area from set-pieces and letting Pablo Fornals’ shot go through him alongside a horror own goal.

The international break now comes at a good time, giving Klopp the chance to have a look at the frailties and find a way to fix things.

It was definitely a bad day at the office but it wasn’t a terminal blow to Liverpool’s title hopes. Failure to learn from it and do something about it however could change matters entirely.

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