Liverpool took on Brighton on Sunday afternoon but Jurgen Klopp’s team fell behind after a good first-half start and Jamie Carragher blasted the Reds.
Micah Richards and Jamie Carragher pointed to the failures of Virgil van Dijk, Alisson and Alexis McAllister as the reason why Liverpool conceded their first goal against Brighton.
Pressure from the hosts left Jurgen Klopp’s team completely at sea, with Simon Adingra putting the Seagulls ahead after 20 minutes at the AMEX Stadium. After Brighton’s attack failed, Alisson cleared the ball in his own penalty area and passed to Van Dijk.
Alexander-Arnold moved to midfield and his goalkeeper took his place on the right side of the defence. Van Dijk played a pass to McAllister but the midfielder was swarmed by three Brighton forwards.
Jurgen Klopp’s surprise promise to sign Liverpool has left fans perplexed.
The Argentine lost the ball and Adinla ran forward and sent a shot into the bottom corner, but Alisson couldn’t get in to save. This led Richards to choose 3 stars out of guilt.
“From that position, Trent moves into midfield and Alisson almost creates a back four and tries to beat the Brighton forwards.” the former Manchester City star told Sky Sports. “Similar to what Brighton did to the Liverpool players, but he doesn’t want the ball there and Alisson was pushed out of position for making four defensively.”
However, former Arsenal star Theo Walcott credited the goal to Van Dijk. He criticized the Dutchman’s decision to play the ball to Mac Allister after seeing the midfielder surrounded.
He said: “What I liked about this goal was that they all tried to find the trap and catch Liverpool. They all have triggers for certain parts of their domain. “But as a player I’ve been in McAllister’s shoes and tackling the ball is a terrible thing to do and I think Van Dijk understands he doesn’t want to do that.”
Meanwhile, Reds legend Carragher has expressed his concerns about McAllister’s defensive skills. The former Liverpool captain praised Brighton’s pressure but said it was a sloppy goal for the visitors.
“They paid the fine,” he said. We talked about Mac Allister’s defensive problems but this is a fantastic display from Brighton. Virgil van Dijk’s sloppy pass, but did the keeper react quickly? Did he expect this? He shoots early, but he has to be better, Alisson.
Liverpool did get themselves back into the game when Mohamed Salah equalised five minutes before half-time as he fired in from Darwin Nunez’s squared pass. And the Egyptian put Klopp’s side ahead on the stroke of half-time by scoring a penalty, but Lewis Dunk was able to rescue a point for his side late on.
