Daniel’s Debrief: Liverpool 4-3 Fulham

I love these ones.

Wigan in 08/09. Swansea in 13/14. Palace in 18/19. West Ham in 19/20. Norwich in 21/22.

Home games that you expect to follow the established pattern of home games against lower-table sides: a cruise to victory. Yet they end up being much harder than you expect, you have to come from behind, you have to fight.

And they get Anfield rocking.

One of them every season in a title-contending season. You need one. You always have one.

That was ours today.

My God, did anyone see that coming? The comeback? The win? The struggle?

We were all expecting a routine walk to a 2-0 win today. And when Trent Alexander-Arnold opens the scoring with a beautiful free-kick that smashes in off the bar, and then off the back of Bernd Leno. It’s an own goal but it’s the strike from the free-kick that does the damage.

What a hit it is. His free-kicks haven’t been on the money lately but this one is struck so nicely, so sweetly and with so much direction. It’s possibly his best free-kick for Liverpool and at this point you’re expecting the rest of the afternoon to be something of a stroll.

That is not at all how it transpires, though. The biggest issue today is that when in the lead at 1-0 and later at 2-1, Liverpool fail to exert control over the game. They don’t shut it down in the same way they do against Forest and Brentford earlier in the season.

Dominik Szoboszlai and Ryan Gravenberch start as the two 8s and both have arguably their worst games of the season. 

Even though it’s his trickery that wins the free-kick for the opener, Szoboszlai has looked goosed for a few games now. Earlier on in the season he was central to everything good that Liverpool did, but he’s struggling to have any telling effect on the game. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him rotated for Sheffield United in midweek.

Gravenberch’s use of the ball was incredibly frustrating at times, too often he was slack in possession and lost the ball, which perhaps came from a desperation to change the game. 

He also has a habit of going quiet for periods during games. 

The first Fulham goal is not pretty from a Liverpool perspective. Until this point, Fulham have completed just one pass in Liverpool’s half yet in their first foray forward, they find themselves level thanks to some dogshit Liverpool defending.

Virgil Van Dijk goes on a mazy run and has to get himself back, which doesn’t seem to register with Joel Matip. Andreas Pereira can feed Alex Iwobi and there’s some sluggish reaction from Szoboszlai, allowing Iwobi to find Antonee Robinson out wide.

The full-back drags a cross in and it’s turned home by former Red Harry Wilson. Alexander-Arnold perhaps could’ve done more to block the shot, but Matip’s positional sense is poor here, as is Caoimhin Kelleher’s goalkeeping. It goes through him at his near post with ease, and it’s the kind of goal I’ve seen him concede too many times.

It’s a first half that Liverpool just couldn’t get a handle of. It was being played at a breakneck speed and there was no evidence that this was a game between a title contender and a mid-table side.

Alexis Mac Allister had already been our best player by the point he loses his Liverpool goal virginity. He was the leader of the midfield, the one who was competing physically and technically.

Something that really stands out to me today is how poor Liverpool are in the scrap. They don’t win enough duels or tackles, or even react well to loose balls and second balls. There’s so much technical ability in that midfield but there’s still a lack of ability to get a grip on a scrappy game.

Mac Allister is the only one who is competitive in this department, and has another very good showing. His last few games as the 6 have been good, actually. 

We often think of a traditional 6 as a bruiser and a tackling machine, but I think Klopp wants one who can play too. Mac Allister can certainly do that and produces an incredible piece of magic to get Liverpool back in front.

Remarkably, he hits this first-time, after it sits up nicely for him, and with absolutely no backlift, gets an absolute bullet of a strike which flies right into the top corner, way beyond Leno’s reach.

He’ll be ecstatic with this, partly because of what an unbelievable goal it is, and partly because he’s not been among the goals for Liverpool yet, whereas at Brighton he was known for being a goalscoring midfielder - twelve last season.

Due to Alejandro Garnacho’s exploits last weekend, it probably won’t win goal of the season, but it’s good enough to be in the conversation. An absolutely breathtaking strike. Has any Liverpool player ever had a better first goal for the club?

I do think he’s doing an admirable job at 6, Mac Allister, but I’d love to see him get a run further forward as an 8. 

Leading again, but again there’s an alarming lack of control on display from Liverpool, and they can’t get a grip of the middle of the park.

One man who does win tackles, duels and battles is Fulham’s Joao Palhinha. I think he’s the best pure DM in the league and he has ball-playing abilities too. I’d love Liverpool to sign him in January and push Mac Allister further forward. Remember, it was his Gravenberch’s move to Liverpool that enabled Bayern Munich to move for Palhinha, only for that move to collapse late on.

Liverpool then concede an awful goal from a corner. Raul Jimenez wins a header, completely unmarked, before it’s stabbed home by Kenny Tete. There’s a VAR check as it is initially disallowed, but is then correctly given and it’s 2-2. 

Honest to God, the defending here is so bad. Matip again is slow from a set-piece and Kelleher is beaten far too easy from a relatively weak shot.

They have the ball in the net again moments later through Tim Ream, but he is offside.

It’s a first half that sees Liverpool score two worldies and threaten through a Mohamed Salah volley, but one that they lack cohesion in all parts of the field.

Defensively, they are all at sea. In midfield, they are not executing control. And up top, they are lacking fluidity and combination. Salah, Darwin Nunez and Luis Diaz all range somewhere between average and hopeless today.

Salah just isn’t at his usual Anfield level and Robinson looks after him well, though provides a few opportunities for Nunez and does eventually come up with a telling contribution later on.

Nunez has a very poor afternoon. Countless times, he makes the wrong decision in good areas and displays little footballing IQ. He’s not been great since the international break.

Diaz is all over the place and struggles to execute properly so many times. He’s our key player in transitions but messes them up in a very similar fashion to how he does at the Etihad last week, and a few Fulham counters start from his sloppy player.

At half-time, there’s only really Alexander-Arnold, Virgil Van Dijk, Kostas Tsimikas and Mac Allister who can hold their heads up high.

It doesn’t really improve much in the second half. Nunez has a couple of chances, both well set up by Salah, one of which he crashes against the bar, and another he puts wide after a weak connection.

Cody Gakpo and Joe Gomez come on, with Klopp shifting to a 4-2-3-1 system - Gravenberch and Alexander-Arnold as the double pivot with Gomez at right-back. These two make a big difference, eventually. 

Ibrahima Konate also comes on for the injured Joel Matip, and losing another player at this period isn’t ideal, though Matip did look like he’d played a game too far today.

Then, Liverpool concede one of the worst goals they’re ever likely to. A very tired Gravenberch - how he stayed on ahead of Mac Allister is a mystery - gives the ball away. Tsimikas is a bit slow getting out to Reid, but fortunately his delivery is wildly overhit.

Surely Liverpool can’t concede from here.

Oh, but they can. Gomez doesn’t show nearly enough urgency to go to Willian, and the former Arsenal and Chelsea man has all the time in the world to pick out Tom Cairney, whom Konate doesn’t even engage with. Reid then beats Tsimikas in the air and Kelleher is nowhere to be seen.

And Liverpool are facing league defeat at Anfield for the first time since October 2022.

From a truly stinking goal from Jurgen Klopp’s perspective. Like Erling Haaland’s goal last week, the three that are conceded today are completely avoidable.

This one in particular could’ve been stopped five or six times before it eventually is tucked away.

The defending is atrocious but the goalkeeping is appalling all day. Fulham forge less than 1.3xG yet have scored three times. Five shots on target and three goals.

A stat on Twitter tells me that Kelleher has conceded 27 goals from 23.7xG as Liverpool’s goalkeeper. Fucking hell. Look at those numbers.

Sorry guys, he’s just not good enough to be playing in the Premier League. He might be passable in the League Cup and the Europa, and even that’s a debate.

Alisson can’t come back soon enough and today’s game perhaps serves as a reminder to how reliant we are on the world’s best goalkeeper, because he protects a defence that has shaky moments in it most weeks.

Once Alisson is back, I don’t want to be seeing Kelleher again, really. We have a great chance in the League Cup and the Europa League and I don’t want our chances of trophies being jeopardised by a goalkeeper who has regressed hugely from two seasons ago, when he looked a very competent player.

Klopp finally recognises the need for control and Wataru Endo is brought on for Gravenberch. The Japan captain has a telling impact on the game in a huge cameo.

Before we get onto that, Liverpool look certain to equalise when Nunez’s header is parried by Leno, only for Salah to blaze over the rebound. And at that moment, you think it’s going to be one of those days, and the long unbeaten run at home is over.

And you wonder whether this Liverpool team are good enough. 

Then, Endo happens.

A well-struck shot from the edge of the box forces a corner and moments later, he gets Liverpool level. For once, we go direct through Konate and Nunez wins the flick-on to Salah. This is both of their best moments of the game, as Salah beautifully tees it up on the edge of the box for Endo to coolly stroke it home.

He’s improved a lot, lately, and having goals in his locker is something Liverpool will benefit from hugely. I think it’s time he got a few games in the league.

It’s a glorious goal and very reminiscent of Xabi Alonso’s at home to Arsenal in 2004. Sumptuous strike.

Then, there’s bedlam. There’s carnage. There’s anarchy.

Gomez, Endo and Gakpo combine well to win the ball in the right channel and the latter drives before unleashing a strike saved by Leno. Nunez does well to recycle the ball and it ends at the feet of Alexander-Arnold, who takes a second to control it, before lashing it into the bottom corner.

And in the space of 86 seconds, Liverpool go from 2-3 behind to 4-3 in front.

They go from being an untrustworthy ‘best of the rest’ team to one that is right in this fight.

It’s 86 seconds that could define this season.

And Alexander-Arnold is the one to produce the big moment. Having had the first goal taken off him and credited as a Leno own goal, he makes sure he’s on the scoresheet this time. In the celebrations, it may get forgotten how good a goal this is. When the ball drops to him, his first touch takes the ball a little behind him, and he really has to dig his shot out.

The shot, the celebrations, the run to the corner of the Kop…

Was this his Gerrard against Olympiacos moment? 

This may be a moment we look back on later in the season as 86 seconds where things changed. This may be the Villa away of this season. An almost miraculous comeback from a position that looked hopeless and a team that looked inadequate.

There’s some bottle in this team, though. We’ve gained ten of our 31 points this season from the 80th minute or later - wins at Newcastle, Wolves and Fulham, and points at Luton and Man City.

There’s another thing to be celebrated today, which is the spread of the goals. On a day where Salah, Nunez and Diaz fail to score, the Reds still hit the net four times, through three different players and an own goal. Having other contributors takes the pressure off the attackers a little. By the way, it’s eleven-and-a-half years since we scored four in the league without a forward bagging.

All four goals are top-class and all are from good distance. Mac Allister‘s goal simply wouldn’t have been tried last season - there wasn’t a midfielder at the club who would shoot from that area.

Liverpool are 2nd, two points from the top. December is a huge month. It’s started with a very alarming performance but a colossal three points. The type of game you remember forever.

I don’t want any more of them this season.

But I’m so glad we’ve had one.

Daniel