Wretched Reds fall to new low
SIXTH STRAIGHT DEFEAT AT ANFIELD
LIVERPOOL 0 FULHAM 1
NO side defending a title has ever surrendered their aura quite so pathetically as Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool.
Their sixth straight home defeat – this time by a Fulham side who had previously won just once at Anfield in their history and had scored only once in their previous nine visits here – takes them into unprecedented territory.
Since they were top of the Premier League at Christmas after a 7-0 triumph at Crystal Palace, they have taken 12 points from a possible 42. They have never lost six straight home games before.
That is not just relegation form, it is the record of a side who would be adrift at the bottom when they went down. Taken over a whole season, that form since the end of December would see them collect just 32 points from 38 matches.
They have caved in. The collapse they have suffered is not just inexplicable but truly staggering. Mario Lemina’s goal gave Fulham a deserved victory – a win that could have been by even more than his fierce strike just before the interval.
Quite the most shocking aspect of a truly dismal afternoon for Liverpool supporters worldwide was the lame way they surrendered when Fulham scored the goal that had been coming for much of the first half. Their form is poor, it is true, their confidence at a low ebb.
But fans would at least want to see fight from their team and a reaction to yet another reverse on a ground where they were virtually invincible under Klopp before the turn of the year.
There was virtually none, apart from a brief flourish just after the break when Diogo Jota’s volley in the 48th minute was superbly saved by Alphonse Areola. They did not produce another shot on target to force a save from the visiting keeper after that moment, though substitute Sadio Mane did hit the bar with a looping header from Naby Keita’s cross. Indeed, when Lemina scored, having brushed aside a far too weak Mo Salah on the edge of the Liverpool box as the striker lazily tried to control Andy Robertson’s clearance, you knew Klopp’s side were defeated.
That is the story of their fortunes since the end of December. They are a team whose heads go down at the slightest reverse, one that lacks any spirit or fight, let alone creativity and threat. Fulham, urged on by manager Scott Parker, left, had the bulk of the chances, the impressive Josh Maja showing pace and strength to lead the line with the sort of verve the home side so desperately lacked.
Fulham played good football and exploited appalling weakness on the counter from a Liverpool team who do not know whether to stick or twist.
Wednesday’s Champions League game against RB Leipzig seems to be the Reds’ last chance of redemption in a nightmare season. But every time you think it cannot get any worse, it does.
LIVERPOOL (4-3-3): Alisson 6; N Williams 5 (Alexander-Arnold 75), R Williams 5, Phillips 5, Robertson 5; Milner 6 (Fabinho 75), Wijnaldum 5 (Mane 62, 6), Keita 5; Shaqiri 5, Salah 5, Jota 6. FULHAM (4-4-2): Areola 7; Tete 7, Andersen 6, Tosin 6, Aina 7; Decordova-Reid 7, Lemina 7, Reed 6, Lookman 7 (Robinson 67, 6); Cavaleiro 7 (Mitrovic 85), Maja 8 (Loftus-Cheek 67, 6). Goal: Lemina 45.