Jurgen Klopp stood in front of the away end after the final whistle, put his hands together and bowed his head.
It was a public apology for the most desperate performance of his Liverpool reign as this season of woe plumbed new depths.
The response from those who had stayed until the bitter end was compassionate. Klopp has turned dreams into reality over the past seven years and rightly has plenty of credit in the bank.
However, there was something striking about a man who usually radiates positivity looking so utterly despondent as he turned and walked off the field. Watching him on the touchline over the previous 90 minutes was a case study in someone perplexed by what was unfolding in front of their eyes.
How can a team that threatened to win everything just eight months ago suddenly look so pathetically lifeless? The speed of the decline has been startling.
“It was bad. Really bad,” the manager said. “I can’t remember a worse game.”
Make no mistake, this is the toughest challenge Klopp has faced during his tenure at Anfield. Yes, two years ago they endured a torrid run — losing six in a row on home turf — before rallying to secure Champions League qualification. But back then the mitigating circumstances were greater — all of Liverpool’s senior centre-backs had suffered season-ending injuries and the games were soulless affairs behind closed doors.
Now there is so much more wrong. Of course, injuries have played a part again with Darwin Nunez joining Roberto Firmino, Luis Diaz, Diogo Jota and Virgil van Dijk on the sidelines. But there’s no excuse for the paucity of what’s being served up. In every department there are glaring weaknesses. It’s so disjointed. Belief is non-existent.
After 18 Premier League games, Liverpool have collected fewer points (28), fewer goals scored (34), conceded more (25) and have a worse goal difference (+9) than at this stage of any previous full season under Klopp.
They have taken just eight league points out of a possible 27 on their travels and have shipped 13 goals in six games in all competitions since the World Cup. So much for that winter training camp in Dubai proving valuable.
You have to go back to 1993 under Graeme Souness for the last time Liverpool started a calendar year with successful league defeats.
Much of the current ire from supporters is directed at the owners and understandably so.
“The transfer market is not the solution for us. My job is to use the boys we have,” said Klopp when asked before the trip to Brighton about the possibility of further incomings following the £37 million signing of Cody Gakpo.
But if Liverpool don’t buy a midfielder in this window, it’s hard to see them rescuing anything from this wreckage of a season.
Liverpool turned in a terrible performance against Brighton on Saturday (Photo: Gareth Fuller/PA Images via Getty Images)
Klopp has pulled off miracles for Fenway Sports Group, achieving success while balancing the books, but it’s not sustainable. The manager has admitted he would like to take more risks in the transfer market and now is the time to get him back.
Uncertainty off the field remains an unwanted distraction with the owners’ ongoing search for new investment. FSG president Mike Gordon has taken a back seat in the day-to-day running of Liverpool to oversee that process, while outgoing sporting director Julian Ward and director of research Ian Graham are serving their notice periods. For a club that has prided itself on stability, these are turbulent times.
Klopp deserves better but he’s also not blameless. He had a full week on the training field to try to trigger a response and iron out the flaws that dogged Liverpool’s FA Cup tie against Wolves and the miserable defeat to Brentford.
Yet the same problems remained. Once again they lost so many challenges (44 per cent duels won) and once again they repeatedly lost the ball in dangerous areas (39 per cent possession). Vulnerable at one end, toothless at the other and so pedestrian in the centre.
The sight of Brighton, playing with such energy, swarming all over Liverpool and repeatedly forcing mistakes was a painful reminder of what Klopp’s side used to do to opponents.
“It was a very organized team against a not very organized team,” was Klopp’s damning assessment.
The scoreline flattered Liverpool, who were outfought and outplayed all over the pitch throughout. Hugely fortunate to still be level at the break, it was scarcely believable how capitulated they were in the second half. Brighton had nine shots on target.
Have the players stopped listening or are they simply unable to carry out what’s being asked of them?
“The week looked like everyone got what I said to be honest,” said Klopp. But the outcome was horrible to watch. I think the players listen, I’m pretty sure about that, but I know where you are coming from and I see that it didn’t look like it.”
The experienced midfield trio of Fabinho, Thiago and Jordan Henderson have repeatedly been overrun this season. Fabinho won 50 per cent of his duels at Brighton, Henderson 40 per cent and Thiago 37.5 per cent — that doesn’t include all the times when they were easily bypassed as gaps between them were exploited. They just don’t seem to have the legs anymore but Klopp has been loyal to a fault.
Why start them together again? And why when it was so clearly not working wait until midway through the second half to make changes? It comes back to the lack of other options he fully trusts.
Last summer, Liverpool missed out on the signing of French midfielder Aurelien Tchouameni, who opted to join Real Madrid instead. Where was the plan B? The answer certainly wasn’t the deadline-day panic-loan signing of Arthur.
Klopp is right that no one could have predicted the scale of the drop-off from last season, but he also should have been more ruthless when it came to refreshing the squad and off-loading some of those whose value and importance to the club had dwindled. Having built one great team, the transition to another was never going to be seamless, but the failure to start the midfield revamp has cost them dear.
“Low on confidence, low on energy,” said Henderson’s when asked about the mood in the dressing room post-match at the Amex Stadium.
Liverpool are in a rut. The collective malaise appears to be deepening. Both tactically and in terms of man-management, Klopp needs to find answers fast before an alarming slump descends into a crisis.
(Top photo: Sebastian Frej/MB Media/Getty Images)
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