Liverpool have tasted their second defeat on the bounce in the Premier League as Leeds United's 89th minute winner handed them a 2-1 win at Anfield on Saturday night.
The Reds got off to the worst possible start, after Rodrygo gave Leeds the lead in the fourth minute before Mohamed Salah equalised for Liverpool soon after. Crysencio Summerville then scored an 89th minute winner to send Leeds home with all three points.
In a match littered with mistakes for Jurgen Klopp 's side, they were put to the sword late on as they failed to capitalise on points dropped above them in the league for the second week running.
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Plenty of national media outlets were in attendance to watch Liverpool's loss. Here is a round-up of what they had to say.
Andy Hunter, via The Guardian
" Jesse Marsch had wished for a show of unity and intent to lift the clouds hanging over his Leeds reign. The under-pressure manager got more than he could possibly have imagined at Anfield where Crysencio Summerville, on the eve of his 21st birthday, delivered Leeds’ first win against Liverpool in 21 years.
"The Dutch winger pounced in the 89th minute to condemn Liverpool to a first home league defeat since March 2021. He lifted the load on Marsch and his team out of the relegation zone in the process. It was no more than Leeds deserved as they savoured a first league victory since beating Chelsea in August. Illan Meslier was inspired in the visiting goal but this was a supreme collective effort that supported their manager’s belief that his team are on the right path.
"Leeds performed with an ambition that belied a run of eight league games without a win. Liverpool, despite spurning several good chances, were flat and unconvincing throughout. A second successive league defeat ended a run of 29 league games unbeaten at Anfield and left Jürgen Klopp conceding that Champions League qualification will be beyond his team this season should their inconsistency continue."
Chris Bascombe, via The Telegraph
"Are you a Premier League manager in dire need of a career-changing result? The fixture list can currently be no kinder than providing a meeting with Liverpool. Last week Steve Cooper’s bottom club Nottingham Forest regenerated against Jurgen Klopp’s flailing side. This time it was Jesse Marsch’s Leeds United escaping the bottom three with a notable victory.
"If Steven Gerrard was back at Anfield, he might have considered he would still be in the Aston Villa job had he had the fortune to face his old club in the last few weeks. For Marsch, this was a personal triumph as – after eight months in charge – he fully endeared himself to his supporters with a deserved win to rewrite several records, not least as the first Leeds coach to beat Liverpool since 2001. There was more for his players to relish.
"Not since Crystal Palace in April 2017 has a full Liverpool crowd witnessed a Premier League defeat in their own stadium. Only the misery of lockdown football inflicted such setbacks. Klopp’s last glimmer of light in this troubling period has been that Anfield has remained impregnable. Not now as Crysencio Summerville became the first player since Christian Benteke to be able to celebrate a winning goal in front of the visiting end."
Oliver Holt, via The Mail on Sunday
"The only way is up for Leeds. ‘We have to use this to launch ourselves,’ Marsch said afterwards. Liverpool’s path forward is more uncertain. They have now lost to the league's bottom two clubs in successive matches and are marooned in mid-table. They are closer to the bottom three than they are to the top four. It was the first time they had lost in the Premier League at home in front of a crowd since April 2017 and the first time Virgil van Dijk had ever tasted defeat at Anfield. And he joined in January 2018.
"The citadel is crumbling. As Liverpool’s fans stormed out of the ground, they smashed their fists on the walls in furious impotence. This is not the Liverpool of old. This is a Liverpool that runs down blind alleys and misplaces passes and loses its men and scuffs its shots and leaves gaping holes in its defence and searches for inspiration but cannot find it.
"And most worryingly for Jurgen Klopp, Leeds were hungrier than Liverpool. This is a Liverpool side built on hunger, remember, a team that runs on hunger, that prides itself on desire, a team that has won a title on hunger and a Champions League on hunger. They just looked tired. They looked all played out."
Richard Jolly, via The Independent
"The £64 million man seemed racked by indecision when found by Trent Alexander-Arnold with a glorious diagonal pass in the first half. When Salah latched on to a miskick by Liam Cooper, making a second major blunder of the night, and he gifted Nunez a glorious chance, the Uruguayan could not beat Meslier. It came amid a storm. The last half-hour felt a bombardment, as Liverpool ended with 22 shots, and yet only one went in. Meanwhile, Jurgen Klopp's search for a system that gives solidity continues. Liverpool were far too open. There was a frantic air to proceedings highlighted both sides’ commitment to high-speed football, but a shared shoddiness and a difficulty in defending.
"It began with a continuation of unwanted trends. For the 12th time in 16 league games, Liverpool conceded first. They only trailed for 10 minutes as Leeds extended their unhappy habit of losing leads.
"Each showed a self-destructive streak in an opening of two comically bad back passes, each leaving a goalkeeper stranded in no-man’s land, though only one brought a goal. Gomez seemed to have done the difficult part by dispossessing Aaronson, but he had not looked to see Alisson before passing; the goalkeeper slipped and Rodrigo was given an open goal. Liverpool, who should have conceded in the third minute to Ajax, did at the same stage to Leeds."
The ECHO's Liverpool correspondent, Paul Gorst in his match verdict.
"Where do Liverpool go from here? The Reds now languish in ninth - closer to the relegation zone than top spot - some 13 points behind leaders Manchester City and eight behind Newcastle United, who occupy the all-important fourth spot.
"That will be the most alarming aspect of what is now the table of horrors for Klopp as he looks up at an in-form Newcastle, who are now one of the richest in world football and no doubt ready for another big spending January. How the Reds manager can only dream of such a budget.
"His current crop look exhausted both from a mental and physical point of view and while injuries have no doubt cut deep across the campaign - most evident here as the Reds toiled up top without Luis Diaz or Diogo Jota in reserve - it goes further than just the unavailability of certain members of the squad.
"Having said that, a serious re-think about that FSG-imposed strategy may just be required in the Boston boardroom if Klopp is to salvage this campaign in any sort of way in the New Year."
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