Liverpool star Andrew Robertson says Jurgen Klopp’s squad have spoken about their lack of consistency. But he feels for each step forward they take one back after facing Brentford.
The Reds lost 3-1 at the Bees on Monday after a number of defensive mistakes let Thomas Frank’s side claim a deserved win. Their defeat in west London also meant Liverpool could not close in on the top-four spots in the Premier League table having played a game more.
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Liverpool sit fifth with a two-point deficit to Manchester United, who have a game in hand, in fourth place. Leaders Arsenal now hold a 13-point lead over the Merseyside natives, too. While Newcastle United are four points better off having, like the Reds, played 17 fixtures.
Brentford further dealt Liverpool their fifth defeat of the season in the Anfield outfit’s 17th game of the campaign. They have only lost more than five times in a single term once over the past four seasons. Klopp’s side lost nine times during 2020/21 as they finished in third.
Ibrahima Konate gifted Brentford the lead in Liverpool’s trip to the capital on Monday. The centre-half inadvertently turned the ball past Alisson and into his own net from a corner in the 19th minute. Bryan Mbeumo also brushed the Frenchman aside far too easily later on.
Yoane Wissa (42’) doubled the Bees’ lead before the break after Harvey Elliott turned over the ball while trying a dummy. Mbeumo (84’) then ended the Reds’ chances of a comeback after Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (50’) had replied when he beat Konate to the ball to strike.
Oxlade-Chamberlain struck straight after Klopp made a triple substitution at the break. He brought Robertson on with Naby Keita and Joel Matip as Liverpool looked for a way back at Brentford. Elliott, Konstantinos Tsimikas and Virgil van Dijk (due to an injury) all made way.
Liverpool’s display befuddled Robertson after struggling away to Brentford
Alisson did well to keep Brentford to just the one goal while Liverpool’s defenders failed to protect his net. But the Reds were also reliant on the VAR keeping them in the match after Wissa saw another effort chalked off. Ben Mee was in an offside position when Wissa shot.
Brentford had scored each of their efforts against Liverpool that the VAR would rule out at set pieces. While Robertson could only watch his teammates struggle during the first half from the bench. Yet it gave him a good view of where Klopp’s squad now need to improve.
“We’ve spoken about consistency and things like that but we’re not getting it,” Robertson said, via BBC Sport. “It feels like we’re [taking] one step forward and one step back at the moment, which makes it hard to climb the league table, unfortunately.”
He added: “First half, we were second to every ball, no real runs in behind. We have to be first to the ball in the box, we have to be more aggressive in our own box, we have to prevent the corners in the first place and we didn’t do that.
“That performance [against Leicester City] should have been a kick up the backside where we say: ‘Right, we’ve won but now we need to put in a better performance’. Three days later we put in another bad performance. It’s about consistency, we have to do it.”
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