If it was anybody but Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp there would be cracked badges.
Liverpool started the afternoon with a point to prove, but ended it with just one on the board. Their home match against Brighton & Hove Albion was something of a test. How would they react to a four-week Premier League break, considering that they had been showing signs of physical strain that stretch back beyond the start of this season?
It’s difficult to say whether fatigue is in the realm of an explanation or an excuse. There’s no question that Liverpool have had a more punishing schedule than most over the last couple of years, but that’s what you have to go through if you want to win the silverware. You don’t get the cups without the games. This year, Liverpool didn’t get the cups they wanted for their exertions, but that doesn’t make playing those games some sort of, or anything like that.
And against Brighton, things might have been worse. Liverpool were reliant on an extremely fortunate own goal to take the lead which they ended up losing anyway, while another fell just the right side of a VAR call. And Brighton’s goals were far from the only chances they created. This was no smash and grab visit to Anfield, and it speaks volumes that Alisson was Liverpool’s best player.
This does tie into a broader issue that Liverpool and other clubs have faced in recent years. How do you compete with clubs who have, to all intents and purposes, infinite money? Chelsea have made it clear they’ll spend heavily and aggressively. Manchester United, Real Madrid and Barcelona have the churn created by their vast commercial operations. Manchester City and Newcastle United have have access to the vast wealth created by our addiction to fossil fuels.
All of this leaves Jurgen Klopp very much where he was on Friday. Drawing at home to Brighton is not so dreadful a result as to push him closer to the edge of the event horizon that can do for the reputation of the greatest of managers, but it wasn’t a result from which he was claiming credit for coming from two goals behind in his post-match interviews, either.
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