Liverpool’s hopes of winning the Premier League are hanging by a thread.
No sooner had they dropped two points when failing to beat Manchester United away last Sunday, another wasteful performance brought a far more shuddering setback when losing 1-0 to Crystal Palace at home seven days later.
Jurgen Klopp’s men have gone from holding a three-point lead over Manchester City to trailing their old title adversaries by two points in the blink of an eye. What will really sting Klopp is that these problems have been self-inflicted.
And with just six games left to play, there is a danger the swing will prove decisive. Not even Arsenal’s own shock defeat to Aston Villa could shake the nagging concern that Liverpool ceded ground they might never recover.
Season over? Quite possibly given the 3-0 drubbing by Atalanta in the Europa League quarter-final first leg.
So here it is, a Premier League advantage surrendered in 10 misses…
Dominik Szoboszlai
Manchester United, 3mins
Difficulty rating: 3/10
xG value: 0.47
Liverpool’s world looked very different in the opening stages of last weekend’s trip to Old Trafford. There was a spring in their step and confidence that an FA Cup defeat to Manchester United three weeks earlier would be avenged.
That would eventually prove misplaced — but you would not have known it during a dominant first half. Liverpool cut United wide open on the counter-attack in the opening minutes, with Mohamed Salah sending a sumptuous threaded pass through to Szoboszlai.
The Hungarian was clear on goal but Andre Onana produced an excellent stop with his outstretched left hand. The harbinger of the wastefulness that would follow…
Dominik Szoboszlai
Manchester United, 18mins
Difficulty rating: 8/10
xG value: 0.27
Liverpool were refusing to let United settle in a first half of dominance that played out just as many had predicted. A ragged United defensive line that Brentford and Chelsea had picked apart in the previous outings could not contain Liverpool.
Andy Robertson’s advances down the left produced another big opening but, again, Szoboszlai fluffed his lines. A low cross was met on the run but fired harmlessly wide from the penalty spot.
United had not tracked the midfield run of the Hungarian, who could shoot without an opponent within a yard of him.
Darwin Nunez
Manchester United, 53mins
Difficulty rating: 4/10
xG value: N/A (due to Nunez crossing not shooting)
Nunez is the poster boy of Liverpool’s wasteful week and a figure that, for all his recent improvements, offers little reassurance he is ready to deliver consistently. Context was key for this miss, with Bruno Fernandes cancelling out Luis Diaz’s opener early in the second half. United were bubbling to life and should have had wind drawn from their sails.
Salah was again the architect of the opening when picking a pass that sent Diaz into the United box, and the choice to pick out Nunez at the back post soon proved unwise.
The Uruguayan was caught between two minds from a tight angle and dragged the ball back across the face of goal when the moment begged for him to rifle home, or square to the unmarked Szoboszlai.
Mohamed Salah
Manchester United, 79mins
Difficulty rating: 5/10
xG value: 0.16
Oh how Liverpool long for the Salah of old: that ruthless, unforgiving marksman that has punished defences year after year. He might have scored five goals since returning from injury last month but he has not convinced.
This opening summed up his current lot in life. Liverpool were pushing for an equaliser after Kobbie Mainoo’s wonderful goal gave Manchester United a 2-1 lead and Diaz’s shot from the edge of the box could only be palmed out into Salah’s direction by Onana.
Salah has taken far tougher chances, even under pressure. But this wild, uncontrolled finish was high and wide.
Liverpool’s top scorer would go some way to making amends when converting a penalty for 2-2 minutes later, but that was dependent on Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s challenge on Harvey Elliott.
Luis Diaz
Manchester United, 90mins
Difficulty rating: 6/10
xG value: 0.31
A chaotic game had swung from one team to the other but the man who started the scoring from close range should have ended it during stoppage time.
A United team that brings the guarantees of chances found time for one more in stoppage time after Robertson had won a back-post header, but Diaz could not produce the finish to make himself a hero.
There was space found between Diogo Dalot and Willy Kambwala, but not calmness. The finish was snatched and, leaning back, Diaz fired over.
Another chance as good did not arrive, no matter how hard Liverpool pushed at an open door.
Wataru Endo
Crystal Palace, 27mins
Difficulty rating: 7/10
xG value: 0.15
The significance of this miss was not altogether obvious there and then. Liverpool had time on their side to overturn Palace’s lead, as well as the muscle memory of a hundred comebacks.
Yet Endo, who has only one Premier League goal to his name, will know it might have been very different had he produced conviction inside a goalmouth scramble. A scuffed shot was hooked against the crossbar from six yards out before the ball was eventually cleared by Palace’s defence. Tellingly, it would get no better.
Darwin Nunez
Crystal Palace, 55mins
Difficulty rating: 2/10
xG value: 0.13
Liverpool’s king of chaos but also their prince of profligacy. On the same pitch where he had shanked wide a golden chance against Atalanta in a bruising Europa League defeat, there was another lamentable episode in a season that might have yielded double his 18-goal haul in all competitions.
Credit went to Dean Henderson for keeping out Nunez’s goalbound shot, but the Palace ‘keeper should not have been given a prayer when Nunez met Virgil van Dijk’s knockdown from a corner.
Klopp, justifiably, had seen enough and hooked Nunez 11 minutes later. Liverpool, he concluded, would be better off placing faith in others.
Diogo Jota
Crystal Palace, 72mins
Difficulty rating: 1/10
xG value: 0.45
Jamie Carragher recently made the bold claim that Jota was the most accomplished finisher of Liverpool’s Premier League era. Not on this evidence.
Szoboszlai had done everything right when bursting into the Palace penalty area and drawing Henderson from his goal but Jota, presented with an unguarded net, could only hit the former Liverpool defender Nathaniel Clyne.
Either side of the Palace man and it would have been 1-1 with ample time to push for a winner. Jota, only back from injury this week, can typically be counted on for more.
Curtis Jones
Crystal Palace, 75mins
Difficulty rating: 3/10
xG value: 0.52
On and on Liverpool went, still searching for the equaliser that would elude them. Palace were tiring and Jones, one of the few Liverpool players to drive forward, came as close as anyone to breaking the visitors’ resolve.
The dribble was perfect, taking Jones away from two defenders. There was time to steady himself and dispatch beyond Henderson. Then came the finish… wayward and regrettable.
The sinking feeling, by this point, was calcifying.
Mohamed Salah
Crystal Palace, 90mins
Difficulty rating: 3/10
xG value: 0.36
Seven minutes of stoppage time offered hope of an equaliser and maybe more, but Liverpool were unable to deliver another rescue act.
Salah, so often the hero, was on the end of a clipped ball into the box, but Tyrick Mitchell’s covering challenge from nowhere would spare Henderson from even having to make a save.
A poked effort was blocked from three yards out as Palace clung to the clean sheet that few had seen coming.
Mitchell — like his Palace team-mates — deserved enormous credit. Liverpool and Salah, though, only had themselves to blame in a first Premier League home defeat for 18 months.
(Top photo: Michael Steele/Getty Images)
