When the final whistle blew at the end of 90 minutes at Villa Park on Sunday, it marked the end of a disastrous outing for Jurgen Klopp’s star-studded site to the Midlands, a result which was largely reflected by the 7-2 scoreline the hosts, Aston Villa, enjoyed at the expense of the defending Premier League champions.
To say that the Reds were nowhere near their best against Dean Smith’s men over the weekend would be similar to praising last season’s title-winning side for not shipping more than seven goals on a Sunday afternoon, however, truth be told Liverpool FC were far away from their superior showings of the 2019-20 campaign, especially coming up against an opponent of Villa’s stature.
The Liverpool FC backline was, by all means, the weakest link on the pitch for Jurgen Klopp, despite having the Arnold-Gomez-Van Dijk-Robertson quartet, all four players who had enjoyed a comprehensive and convincing outing at Anfield just a week before in the 3-1 victory over Arsenal.
Gomez was perhaps the Reds’ worst player at Villa Park, and this criticism of the England international is made taking into account Adrian’s horrendous showing between the sticks for the Merseyside outfit. The centre-back was a shadow of his usual self, that is a composing figure at the heart of the defence alongside Van Dijk, with the 23-year old being eased past by the likes of Jack Grealish and Villa’s hat-trick hero of the afternoon, Ollie Watkins.
Van Dijk’s performance too was quite uninspiring when compared to the standards that have been set by the Dutchman ever since his arrival at Anfield in 2018. The 29-year old’s imposing figure in the four-man backline of Klopp’s side has been unrivalled by very few across world football, however, this sort of colossal showing was missing from the action when the Reds turned up to the Midlands to face Aston Villa.
The full-back duo of Arnold and Robertson, so often spoken about as crucial components of Jurgen Klopp’s setup at the club, were impressive in bombarding down the flanks but were equally unimpressive when asked to fulfil their defensive responsibilities, the 22-year old right-back Arnold being much more guilty of this crime than Robertson, who was Liverpool FC’s best player in the opening 45 minutes of the game.
As for the midfield, a department which was missing the pivotal presence of skipper Jordan Henderson, the triplet of Fabinho, Wijnaldum, and Naby Keita in the centre of the park, failed to meet expectations in what turned to be a shallow display of ball retention and creating attacks on the turn. The latter was the subject of censure made online by the ardent Liverpool FC supporters in regard to his poor tackling ability which was evident in the Villa Park showdown.
With the Reds missing Sadio Mane for Sunday’s game, Diogo Jota got his first start in the Reds shirt, filling in for the Senegalese star forward, who became the second player of the club to test positive for COVID-19 after Thiago Alcantara’s initial reports before the Arsenal fixture.
Jota was arguably a sparkling link in the forward trio for Jurgen Klopp’s side and the Portuguese international forced Villa’s No.1 Emi Martinez to make a couple of close saves at the near post to defy the visitors from taking an early advantage in the match.
A couple of goals from Mohammad Salah on either side of the two halves meant that Klopp’s men had a tiny bit of consolation in their hearts on their way back from Villa Park despite an embarrassing defeat at the hands of the Jack Grealish led Villa side, the heaviest loss suffered by the 19-time league champions since 1963.
It will be fair to say that things can’t get any worse for Liverpool FC than the events that unfolded over the weekend, and with a majority of the first-team stars heading into the international break, Jurgen Klopp has some time off his manager’s hot seat to plan what is ahead for the defending champions, with a visit to Goodison Park to face arch-rivals and most importantly, table-toppers, Everton, on 17th October looming for the Reds.
