Jamie Carragher didn’t hold back in his assessment of Liverpool’s latest kamikaze act in their floundering bid to salvage Champions League qualification for next season.
In a script which feels all too familiar for Reds fans, a flat performance was punished with the concession of a result-changing late goal, and it was our old nemesis Richarlison who inevitably did the damage with a 90th-minute equaliser to secure a 1-1 draw for Tottenham Hotspur.
Arne Slot’s paid the price for failing to capitalise on a position of strength, and also missed the opportunity to leapfrog Aston Villa into fourth place, with the point to move us above Chelsea into fifth coming as scant consolation.
Speaking on co-commentary for Sky Sports after Spurs’ late equaliser, Carragher fumed: “It was coming! I’ve been saying all half that Liverpool have been sleepwalking into this. Liverpool were all over the place but I can’t say that Tottenham don’t deserve it. This has been coming. So obvious.
“This is an absolute disaster for Liverpool in terms of their Champions League qualification. They have actually made Tottenham look like a decent team.”
The former Reds defender then blasted shortly after full-time: “It was an awful performance. No disrespect to Tottenham but they are the worst team in the Premier League now, probably for the last couple of months.
“They are exactly who you want to play, playing at home, the incentive of your results this weekend and to put in performance like that…but it’s been like that all season.”
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Here’s a statistic which should have Slot and his Liverpool players crimson with embarrassment – of the 12 Premier League matches we’ve played against the current bottom six teams this season, we’ve won only six (just two at Anfield), drawn four and lost two.
In those dozen games alone, the Reds have left five points behind them with goals conceded in the 90th minute or later. That’s not to mention the numerous other instances in which that’s happened in the current campaign.
As Carragher rightly says, it wasn’t as though Richarlison’s equaliser today was a bolt from the blue. Spurs had tested Alisson Becker on a few occasions before they drew level, and Igor Tudor’s much-criticised outfit were ultimately good value for the point they secured.
Another free kick goal for Dominik Szoboszlai and a dazzling full Premier League debut for Rio Ngumoha offered some positives for Liverpool, but those are far outweighed by yet another display of self-sabotage from a team who didn’t do nearly enough to press home their 1-0 lead.
To lose a late goal once can happen to anyone. To do so twice is careless. To do so with the regularity that the Reds have done is symptomatic of a major attitude problem which needs resolving if we’re to somehow salvage Champions League qualification from here.
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