Liverpool coach, Jurgen Klopp has expressed his concern over his side’s shambolic display in the 3-0 loss to Brighton at Amex Stadium.
Brentford’s win at home to Bournemouth on Saturday evening saw the Reds drop to ninth in the table, 16 points behind league leaders Arsenal having played a game more.
Following a 3-1 loss at Brentford and a disputed VAR decision that kept them from losing in the FA Cup to Wolves, Liverpool put up a terrible performance.
The Reds’ chances of finishing in the top four are dwindling as they occupy eighth place in the Premier League.
Klopp couldn’t believe his eyes as Brighton drove his players ragged in a way he hadn’t seen since taking over in 2015.
“Bad. Really bad. I can’t remember a worse game. It was a very organised team against a not very organised team,” Klopp said.
“Massively frustrated. We gave the ball away, the spaces were too big and we couldn’t push up. That is obviously not good, especially against a super well-drilled side like Brighton. They got more confident and we did the opposite.”
Klopp said he had tried to switch Liverpool’s tactics in a bid to halt their poor run, but conceded the players did not handle the changes well.
“I had an idea to change the formation which was to try help the team. That was the idea. But we never did it properly,” he said.
“We need to be creative with the options we have. What I saw today from my team was that they were not really convinced by it. That’s it.”
Klopp was hired manager in October 2015, but after 18 league games, Liverpool has scored less goals, allowed more goals, gained fewer points, and has a worse goal differential than at this time in any prior full-season top-flight campaign.
They have lost 26 league points this year, four more than they did in the entire 2021–22 season.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain played behind Mohamed Salah and Cody Gakpo in Klopp’s 4-3-1-2 configuration on Saturday, but there was an imbalance in their play that Brighton were only too eager to take advantage of.
