Liverpool's campaign has not transpired as expected, with the results secured by the Reds somewhat underwhelming so far this season. The club's rocky start to the campaign continued on Saturday afternoon as they were held to a frustrating 3-3 draw by Brighton at Anfield. The Reds fought back from 2-0 down to lead 3-2, but Leandro Trossard struck seven minutes from time to earn his side a point.
However, despite the recent struggles, the Reds’ heaviest defeat happened when Jurgen Klopp had almost a full squad at his disposal and Liverpool were the reigning Premier League champions.
On this day two years ago, Liverpool, according to their boss, created the 'wrong type' of history as they were thrashed by Aston Villa at Villa Park. The Reds lost 7-2 and became the first reigning champions to concede seven goals in a league game since Sunderland beat Arsenal 7-1 in September 1953.
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Ollie Watkins scored a first-half hat-trick and Jack Grealish netted a second half double to hand Villa a remarkable win, with Mohamed Salah scoring twice for the Reds. It was the first time Liverpool had conceded seven goals since 1963.
The result sent shockwaves through the world of football, and came just hours after Manchester United had been beaten 6-1 at home by Tottenham Hotspur. Klopp himself claimed that his side 'lost the plot' after going behind when asked what went wrong post-match.
He said: "It looked like we lost the plot after it went to 1-0. Who wants to lose 7-2? Years ago we told ourselves we wanted to create history. That was history but obviously the wrong type. We had big chances which we did not use, but when you concede seven I'm not sure you can say it would have been 7-7.
"We made too many mistakes and massive ones obviously. It started with the first goal and around the goals we made massive mistakes.
"We lost balls in the wrong area and did not protect properly. It looked like we lost the plot after it went to 1-0. It is not an excuse.
"Normally you can be 1-0 down and do the stuff you want to do. We created but did not protect ourselves properly so each ball we lost was a massive counter attack.
"That is why we conceded and three goals were deflected. It's unlucky but it is not a coincidence because it means it was not a proper block. There is nobody to blame apart from me and us."
Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher was equally scathing in his post-match assessment on Sky Sports, the former centre-back couldn’t believe what he had witnessed from Klopp's side.
He said: “I was almost laughing. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. You don't really associate this with this Liverpool team. It's a shocking result and performance. Certainly the worst under Jurgen Klopp no doubt about that.
“It seemed very early on Liverpool did not start this game well. In the first few minutes there was danger there for them and it was interesting listening to Ollie Watkins saying they worked on Liverpool's high line.
“For me, even though Liverpool have got a good defensive record, I don't like them trying to catch teams offside. I don't agree with it.
“Being a defender and having played that position myself, this team play a lot higher up the pitch. They almost sacrifice one big chance a game with the opposition going through on goal.
“When someone beats your press around midfield and they're not far from your back four, you've got to get ready to go back. I just couldn't believe that it was Virgil van Dijk at the back to actually say 'listen boys the game's gone, it's 5-2, let's just step back. Let's not make this any worse'. It did get worse.
“They were fortunate it wasn't eight or nine. You think of the chances [Ross] Barkley had in the first half, Watkins hit the bar in the second half.
“Listen, you can't be too critical of what this team have done and Jurgen Klopp - it was one of those mad results that happen - but I think you go back to the first game [a 4-3 win over Leeds], conceding goals.
"They started conceding goals at the restart at the end of last season - we put that down to having already won the championship so I just think in the next couple of weeks we come back to the Merseyside derby.
“Big game, Everton top of the league and I think you can really look at that and ask is it a freak or more of a trend that's been happening over the last 10 to 15 games.”
And if Liverpool thought the next day was going to get easier then they were massively mistaken as, to the surprise of nobody, all the backpages were dominated by the scoreline. Here at the ECHO, we ran with the headline: “SHAMBLES” on the front page and “seven and HELL” on the back. While writing in his Daily Mail match report, Ian Ladyman couldn’t resist comparing the result to the defeat United had suffered a little while earlier.
He wrote: “Typical Liverpool, stealing Manchester United's headlines. After United's surrender at Old Trafford, this was even more astonishing – even more embarrassing - down the M6 at Villa Park.
“By the time the Tottenham coach sped by en route back to London after dissembling Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's United, Liverpool were already 4-1 down – brought to their knees by young Villa forward Ollie Watkins and the ineptitude of their own malfunctioning offside trap.
“What is it about Liverpool and defending this season? Last year it was so often their failsafe. If their front three didn't function, the chances are that their back four would.”
Ian Doyle was on match verdict duty for the ECHO that night, and he wrote: “Embarrassing. Humiliating. Inept. Witless. Weak. Woeful.
“We could be here for a long, long, long time running through the thesaurus and plucking words to describe this Liverpool defeat, their worst in the league since a similar 7-2 reverse at Tottenham Hotspur in April 1963.
“Liverpool went through the whole of last season without conceding a deflected goal then shipped three inside 90 minutes. None of that, though, can excuse the awful defending – from front to back – that contributed greatly to Liverpool’s downfall here.
“They have now conceded 11 goals in four Premier League games, a total it took them 12 games to leak last season. More than sloppy, as Roy Keane might say.”
Liverpool would fail to retain their Premier League crown, however, despite a disastrous run of results at the turn of the year, the Reds would secure a place in the top four thanks to eight wins from their last 10 games of the season. The result, however, will live long in the memory for all the wrong reasons.
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