- Matthew Henry
- BBC Sport
Yoann Wissa has scored more goals for Liverpool than any other team in the Premier League
Scottish left-back Andrew Robertson said that Liverpool’s performance in the match lost to Brentford “wasn’t good enough”, after a series of defensive mistakes that missed the Reds’ opportunity to approach the first four places in the English Premier League table.
Brentford achieved a deserved victory over Liverpool, with three goals to one, in the match that was held at the “Brentford Community” stadium.
In the first half, Ibrahima Konate scored a reverse goal against Liverpool from a corner kick, and the result could have become much worse than that, as the referee canceled two Brentford goals from two set pieces for offside after returning to the assistant referee technique.
Liverpool conceded a second goal after Harvey Elliott made a mistake that allowed the ball to reach Matthias Jensen, who made the second goal for Yuan Wessa.
Liverpool coach, Jurgen Klopp, made three substitutions between half-time, and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain managed to reduce the score, but Konate made another mistake that allowed Brian Mbeumo to score the third goal for Brentford.
If Liverpool had won that game they would have moved within one point of fourth place, but after this loss they have lost 23 points this season – one more than the total number of points they lost during the whole of last season.
“For the fans who watched the game from home, or who watched the game from the stadium and on the bus back to Liverpool, that wasn’t good enough,” Robertson said.
He added, “We talked about the need to introduce fixed levels and other things like that, but we did not succeed in doing that.”
And he continued, “It seems that we are taking a step forward, and then we are taking a step back, as happened at the present time, which unfortunately makes it difficult to climb the league table.”
Meanwhile, Brentford have gone unbeaten in their last six matches – the team’s best result in the Premier League for more than 80 years – and climbed to seventh.
Another bad performance for Liverpool
Liverpool’s defense was bad in a way that reminds us of what the team presented last week against Leicester City when it won with two goals to one goal, but its defense was very bad on many occasions.
Konate was unlucky in the first goal when the ball hit his foot and entered the goal, but the corner kick that came from the goal came after a very dangerous counterattack from Mbiumu, which was brilliantly saved by Reds goalkeeper Alisson Becker.
All of Liverpool’s players were very disoriented in the next two corner kicks, and luckily for Liverpool, Wesa’s goal was disallowed for offside.
A few seconds later, Elliott made a fatal mistake when he lost the ball in his own half at the start of the second half. Liverpool improved somewhat at the start of the second half, and Virgil van Dijk was one of the players to be substituted after suffering a hamstring injury, but in the 84th minute Konate should have been stronger when Mbeumo knocked him down, took possession and slotted the ball home for Brentford’s third. .
Speaking to Sky Sports, former Reds defender Jamie Carragher said Liverpool needed to spend “£200m” to be able to compete for the league title again, while Robertson criticized the performance of the entire team.
He said, “In the first half, we lost all the struggles over the ball, and we did not succeed in truly launching into the empty spaces.”
He added, “We have to be the first to reach the ball in the penalty area, and we have to be more aggressive in the penalty area for our team, and we must prevent corner kicks from being counted against us in the first place, but we did not do any of this.”
He continued, “We could have conceded three goals in the first half.”
He said, “Our performance against Leicester City should have been a wake-up call, so that we say to ourselves: Well, we won, but now we need to perform better.”
He added, “After three days, we had another bad performance. It is about providing consistent levels, and we must do that.”
Tony’s absence has not been a problem for Brentford
It was another extraordinary night under the spotlight for Brentford, who beat Liverpool, having previously managed home wins against Manchester United and Arsenal since returning to the Premier League.
It was also Brentford’s first victory over Liverpool since 1938.
The victory was all the more impressive because it came in the absence of top scorer Ivan Toni, who missed the game after being injured in Brentford’s 2-0 win over West Ham on December 30.
It was only Brentford’s second Premier League win without Tony since the team’s promotion – and it took a massive collective effort on the part of all the players to get the win.
After the end of the match, Brentford players and fans celebrated this victory, which made them wonder how far this club can continue to rise!