Liverpool’s quite shocking inability to defend long throws cost them points again when they conceded a 95th-minute winner in a 3-2 defeat at Bournemouth. Mental fragility, a lack of physicality, poor game management, and individual errors are bedevilling a side who seem intent on passing up the opportunity for a top-five finish this season.
Having dominated the early stages on the South Coast, Liverpool fell behind when Van Dijk—looking anything but a world-class centre-half in recent months—made a terrible hash of clearing the ball in the penalty box. Instead, he gifted the ball to Brooks, who found Evanilson to score from close range. Gomez, in an attempt to spare his captain’s blushes, was injured when colliding with Alisson while trying to prevent the goal.
At a time when Liverpool are without Konate and already in dire need of defensive cover, Gomez’s absence will be sorely felt. A silver lining might just be that Liverpool will now put a stop to Andy Robertson leaving for Spurs—a decision that looked incomprehensible even before Gomez was injured yet again.
The injury to Gomez indirectly led to Slot’s men going two behind, as Liverpool took a full seven minutes to get substitute Endo on as a replacement. Why he wasn’t ready sooner, and just what the backroom staff were doing filling his head with instructions prior to him taking the field, made Liverpool look like bungling amateurs. The players on the field, however, should also take responsibility. Just how they don’t have the nous to recognise the need to stop the game in such circumstances is astonishing. It is not the first time this season a lack of game intelligence has cost them.
Van Dijk, already culpable for the first goal and whose previous apparent ease and calm demeanour now looks more like lethargy, also had a hand in Bournemouth’s second. He failed to push far enough up the pitch to catch scorer Jimenez offside. Kerkez, who had recently looked much improved, was beaten by the run on his inside; having a torrid time on returning to his previous club, he was later replaced by Andy Robertson. The travelling Kop serenaded the Scottish captain, who surely lays claim to being Liverpool’s greatest-ever left-back.
It looked like the visitors would trail 2-0 at half-time, but Virgil got his team back in the game in first-half injury time. The ball flew into the Bournemouth net off his shoulder as Liverpool scored just their second league goal from a corner this season.
Liverpool again dominated possession in the second half, but it frankly beggars belief that Slot persisted with Gakpo up front. Ekitike, meanwhile, sat on the bench until an hour had passed. The manager defended his decision by claiming the French striker’s minutes need to be managed, but the player must surely have been livid. With Liverpool desperately in need of Premier League points, and with the far more obvious and less risky option of the striker being rested for the midweek Champions League game, it is a managerial decision that looked wrong at the time and one that Slot, with hindsight, must surely regret.
The club must also be in endless regret over their inability to employ a set-piece coach who can instruct the players on how to defend a long throw. Whilst they’re at it, they might also encourage the players to occasionally put in a tackle. Shooting when in the opposition penalty area would also offer some variety to what appears to be an obsession with trying to walk the ball over the line.
Liverpool did though draw level. The largely ineffectual Salah rolled the ball to Szoboszlai from a free-kick. The Hungarian, hands down Liverpool’s player of the season, scored in the 80th minute as his shot found the net. With just ten minutes remaining, it looked as though Liverpool might win a league match for the first time in ten years after having trailed by two goals.
Yet, they were first denied by a brilliant save from a Wirtz effort before succumbing to another long throw. Whether it’s a failure to attack the ball, disorganisation, a lack of physicality, or a failure to put your body on the line, Liverpool simply cannot defend. An almighty scramble in the penalty box eventually fell to Ouattara (Dango), setting off scenes of wild celebration amongst the home support.
Having now surrendered seven points this season after the 90th minute, and seemingly turning up to games expecting the opposition to roll over, Liverpool are a shadow of the team that so comfortably won the title last season. Meanwhile, having dithered on the need to acquire defensive reinforcements, they look incapable of securing sufficient points between now and the end of May to secure Champions League football. Without that, or a trophy, Slot may not see out his contract.
