Defensive horror show costs Reds at "Sussex by the Sea"
Brighton 2 Liverpool 2, 8th October 2023.
BRIGHTON 2 (Adringra 20, Dunk 78)
LIVERPOOL 2 (Salah 40 and 45+1)
This afternoon’s showdown on the south coast of England or, as the quaintly old fashioned and traditional anthem doth proclaim, “Sussex by the Sea”, was supposed to be a footballing game of “cat and mouse” and two teams who revel in having possession of a constantly moving ball, slowly suckering their prey forward and out of shape for quick passes through the transitional lines of midfield into attack and then, with the pattern of the game set to their liking, stationing their central defenders with a high central defensive line to keep the play within the opposition’s half of the field. However, this was only really in evidence for a 20 minute second half spell when with the Reds leading 2–1, albeit a little fortuitously, Ryan Gravenberch (an impressive second half substitute), Alexis Mac Allister (another first half to forget for the Argentinian) and Dominik Szoboszlai (Reds star man and arguable “Man of the Match”) combined to carve out goal scoring chances and more importantly, keeping a control and tempo of a game the Reds didn’t start for 45 minutes and yet still entered the half-time break leading 2–1.
Costly mistakes were the order of the day in a sunshine filled Sussex by the sea with the Reds trailing 1–0 with 5 minutes remaining of a first half in which they simply hadn’t participated. Aside from an opening burst of repeated corners, Brighton were only marginally better in a forgettable half of football only to be remembered for the game’s opening goal, and a howling set of defensive errors that saw Reds goalkeeper Alisson Becker out of position and exposed as a weak forward pass from captain Virgil van Dijk was snaffled from under the nose of a lazy Alexis Mac Allister by Simon Adringra, who shot from distance into a largely empty net.
The home team “Seagulls” never threatened a second goal but for 40 minutes their visitors dressed in all Red never posed any attacking threat whatsoever and Brighton were rather caught cold and caught out by their own tactics as a stray pass forward became an interception from Alexis Mac Allister, a through ball from Dominik Szoboszlai became a brilliant turn and pass from Luis Díaz, an instant wall pass from Darwin Núñez was “dummied” by Harvey Elliott, and Mo Salah rolled home a gem of a team goal from the Reds first shot on target all game. From 1–0 down with 5 minutes of the half remaining, the Reds entered half-time 2–1 to the good thanks to another of those costly mistakes, two in fact, as Darwin Núñez chased and harried Brighton goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen into a rash forward pass pounced upon by Dominik Szoboszlai in the penalty area forcing Pascal Groß to haul the Hungarian captain to the floor, and Mo Salah safely dispatched an authoritative penalty into the corner of the Brighton net.
Liverpool hadn’t started this game at all and still led 2–1 entering the half-time break.
"Chasing the Impossible and a Sword of Damocles" - my self-published book on the Reds
As the second half was trying to find its sporting feet, Brighton posed the first attacking threat of the half following a delicious curling ball from Evan Ferguson that set first half goal scorer Simon Adringra free, but a little wide, on the right side of the Reds penalty area, and he forced a brilliant smothering and advancing save from Alisson Becker at his near post. From hereon in it was all Liverpool and had the impressive Ryan Gravenberch scored rather than rattling the Brighton crossbar on 53 minutes, increasing his side’s lead to 3–1, then who knows where the game would have taken us all from there? Instead, and from arguably the Reds best and most cohesive team move all game, Trent Alexander-Arnold found Darwin Núñez running at the heart of the Brighton defence before releasing a perfect pass into the run of Dominik Szoboszlai who’s square ball across the face of the Brighton goal defeated everyone except Gravenberch who rattled the crossbar from close range rather than burying the ball in the largely empty net.
From this period forward, although not creating a host of chances, the Reds had the game and 3 precious Premier League points in their back pocket until another defensive horror on a day of mistakes in the south coast sunshine cost them dear. Solly March’s free-kick on 78 minutes was a simple near post affair that Andy Robertson, Alexis Mac Allister and Ibrahima Konaté all watched pass by before Brighton skipper Lewis Dunk clearly couldn’t believe his good fortune and smashed home an unstoppable equaliser.
Alas it’s 2 points dropped and even in a game whereby the Reds didn’t feature for 45 minutes. As we enter yet another infuriating mid-season break for international football (whatever that may be!), Liverpool sit in 4th position in the Premier League with only last week’s VAR inspired calamity and defeat at Tottenham Hotspur blotting their seasonal copybook hence far.
I’ve long called this season one of reinvention and to use the Boss’ own words from the middle of last season, “evolution”, before a real assault on the major prizes from next season onward. So 2 points dropped today is a disappointment in a season, thankfully, empty of them. The form of Ryan Gravenberch is very encouraging, Joël Matip, over a decade the senior of the young Dutchman, continues to roll back the years, Mo Salah is scoring goals when not assisting in them, and Dominik Szoboszlai is a heaven sent “baller” and perfectly befitting of the wearing of the number 8 shirt.
2 points dropped.
Small steps forward.
A final word from The Boss
“One-nil, served on a plate, but similar situation for us; we forced them to make similar mistakes around our goals. Two-one up is a good result for half-time here because it is a really good team and it is difficult to defend them all the time. We wanted to do high pressing, it was the right thing to do, but in the same moment it caused the issue that they play out from time to time, we don’t win the ball and then the pitch is really big and we are chasing back. They do that well”.
“I think it is clear in the second half we should have scored for 3–1, there were one or two really good opportunities but because we don’t score there, we keep the game open and in this area where the free-kick happened we produced too many set-pieces, corners and especially free-kicks. I saw it back and if one of our boys touched the ball I think it was an own goal. That’s what a set-piece it was. Then Dunk was there and could score from there. It was intense for both teams, so I think it’s the right result in the end”.
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