REDS SUFFER
More home woe for Klopp as Alzate sinks champions
IT WAS the team’s deadliest weapon as champions, now Liverpool’s form at Anfield is fast becoming their Kryptonite.
The Reds were simply unrecognisable as the Supermen who swept every team before them here in two imperious seasons.
Brighton handed Jurgen Klopp’s men their second Premier League defeat on home turf in just a fortnight – and it surely signals the end of their title defence.
It is hard to fathom what has gone so drastically wrong for Liverpool.
One defeat by Burnley you can put down to bad luck, but two is pure carelessness.
And Brighton could have had more, the unlikely figure of Dan Burn spurning two amazing chances.
They won, though, thanks to a goal in the second half from Steven Alzate, the boy from Camden who plays for Colombia through his parents’ nationality.
Alzate produced one of the biggest moments of his career so far.
But it was Albion’s clean sheet that impressed the most – and the defensive resolve of the team managed by Graham Potter, above.
Brighton had kept three consecutive clean sheets coming into this game – only the second time they have ever achieved that feat in the Premier League – and on the evidence of the first hour, you could see why.
They had a supposedly fluid 3-5-2 formation but the only real fluidity was towards their own goal, as the three swiftly became five at the back.
When there was any sign of a Liverpool venture forward, they were then supported by a line of four in front.
It is hardly a surprise of course. Just about every team that comes here now to Anfield adopts similar tactics and that is because it has been shown to pay dividends. It makes for turgid football, though, with a lethargic Liverpool unable to muster the energy to move through those regimented lines, their endeavours in London against Tottenham and West Ham perhaps catching up with them.
Their best moment of the first period came with their first attack, when a Jordan Henderson ball from deep found Mo Salah darting into space on the edge of the box.
But Salah hurriedly lob over the bar.
Otherwise, Klopp’s outfit moved the ball from side to side looking for gaps that simply did not materialise, their passing not swift enough, or imaginative enough to produce even a sniff of a chance.
It encouraged Brighton to be bolder in their movement forward. Their one real moment before the break fell to 6ft 7in wing-back Burn after some dazzling footwork from Neal Maupay and a blocked shot.
It fell on Burn’s wrong foot and he prodded at it like it was a suspect device, the ball looping up and over the bar in an improbable arc from barely eight yards.
The visitors realised they could be more adventurous faced with such Reds indifference, and after the break they came out with a clearer gameplan to get their wing-backs further up the pitch to try and get into the space behind the Liverpool defence.
It worked like a dream in the 56th minute when a good deep ball from Solly March found Burn unmarked at the far post.
Burn’s header back saw Alzate, via a flick off the unfortunate Nat Phillips, loop the ball into the net for the winner. lifted his