Here is your Liverpool morning digest for Monday, January 30.
What happened after full time at Brighton shows Liverpool face most troubling question
First it was Mohamed Salah, then Darwin Nunez and Curtis Jones. Naby Keita and Fabinho followed on before Thiago Alcantara and Ibrahima Konate and the rest of the Liverpool team, one by one, joined them in trudging slowly down the Brighton tunnel.
To a man, they all looked vaguely downbeat and mildly unenthused, like they'd just seen the No.82 bus pull away from their stop after attempting an unsuccessful charge towards it.
For all the glum faces, however, they did not look like their defence of the FA Cup had just ended. Or like a bunch of players who had just suffered defeat through a stoppage-time winner. They certainly didn't appear like a Liverpool team who had just experienced their ninth loss of a wretched campaign. In fact, it just didn't appear like any of it hurt all that much.
Or perhaps, given the frequency at which all those setbacks have come this term, it is simply a sensation they are now used to feeling? Where has the fire, and the passion and the all raging against their fate gone? Has it all just been sapped out of this group of players once and for all?
To anyone who has followed Liverpool closely since things got underway in August, this 2-1 loss was no surprise in the slightest. Another Brighton win here at the Amex Stadium means the Seagulls have now registered eight goals against the Reds in three games. How Roberto de Zerbi must wish he could line up against this group of players most weeks.
That Liverpool used to be the team no-one wanted to play against was once the proud feather in Jurgen Klopp's baseball cap. He made them one of the most fearsome outfits in all of European football but right now, there can't be too many more accommodating sides around.
Klopp made just the one change from the goalless draw with Chelsea last week as Trent Alexander-Arnold returned in place of James Milner. It meant Stefan Bajcetic, fresh from his new contract earlier in the week, became the youngest midfielder to ever start three successive games for the Reds at just 18 years and 99 days.
READ THE FULL STORY HERE.
Jurgen Klopp admits Liverpool have issue they are 'not close' to fixing
Jurgen Klopp bemoaned Liverpool's inability to defend set-pieces as their defence of the FA Cup came to an end at Brighton on Sunday afternoon.
Klopp's team were beaten 2-1 at the Amex Stadium in the fourth-round tie as the Reds suffered their ninth defeat in all competitions this term.
The Reds took the lead through Harvey Elliott's first-half goal but were pegged back when Tariq Lamptey's shot from a half-cleared corner hit Lewis Dunk to wrong-foot Alisson Becker.
A replay appeared to be on the cards before the impressive Japan winger Kaoru Mitoma won it in stoppage time after Liverpool had failed to clear their lines from a Brighton free-kick that had been clipped into the penalty box.
Klopp said it was a step up in performance from the 3-0 defeat at the Amex Stadium two weeks ago but was left to rue defensive frailties against a team who have now scored eight times against them in three meetings this term.
"We obviously came here to go through to the next round with the game in mind a couple of weeks ago that was pretty much rock bottom of the performances we had in my time," Klopp said. "So that was better today, much better today.
"But in the end, we still conceded two goals from set pieces. We closed the gaps they passed through last time but around set-pieces, that doesn't help, so we have to do different stuff. So that is why we were not close to avoiding the goals. That's how it is.
"It doesn't feel great and it's not cool but we have to take it. As I said, the set-up in the first half was really good. Cody helped us massively with and without the ball in the centre and Harvey on the left, defensively we can really use him.
"But when we change them that is how it sometimes happens. Obviously with Darwin (Nunez) it is a bit more tricky to do all these kinds of [defensive] things, he is not used to it. And we have to work with him a lot to involve him in these moments and against a well-drilled team like Brighton, if not all positions are not working together they can play through that one gap.”
READ THE FULL STORY HERE.
READ NEXT:
- Jurgen Klopp apology and 'intense talks' have just led to huge Liverpool change
- Jurgen Klopp agrees with Pep Guardiola theory as Liverpool contract claim made
- Trent Alexander-Arnold is covering for new Liverpool issue that has emerged after World Cup
- 'Couldn't care less' - Jurgen Klopp responds to Liverpool legacy claim
- Liverpool legend rejects Mohamed Salah theory amid 'problem' causing recent struggles
