Liverpool battle ‘fatigue’ with Man City test more about consistency than the title race

This is certainly not the season to make proclamations, especially when remembering Tottenham and Chelsea have been considered certified title favourites at a juncture.

Mix in the wisdom that Liverpool would again storm the league when they scorched Crystal Palace 7-0 on December 19 and that hardens the point.

At the end of each matchweek, this Covid-shaped campaign has made concrete statements look rather daft. And yet, there can be certainty in saying it would be some shock if Manchester City do not close this season as champions of England.

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As the holders of that title succumbed to their second consecutive top-flight defeat at Anfield, with Brighton worthy 1-0 victors on Wednesday night, it is difficult to see them unseating Pep Guardiola’s charges from the top spot, with City posting elite numbers since November.

Liverpool have too many injuries - Virgil van Dijk, Joel Matip, Joe Gomez, Fabinho, Diogo Jota, Naby Keita, Alisson, Sadio Mane - and are counting the performance and mental cost of those multiple absences.

Even at full strength, it would have been an intense fight to match City’s 13-game winning streak, which has seen them score 33 times and only concede three.

Right now, Guardiola’s side are opposition to Liverpool on the weekend, but not in the wider context.

There is more immediate danger around staying glued in a Champions League spot, where the good news is that no other side are enjoying close to City’s form.

Liverpool posted a solitary shot on target against a supremely organised Brighton, and despite lionising the ball, they only managed five shots inside the box while affording the visitors 12.

Bar Mohamed Salah’s chance inside three minutes, they did not cause Graham Potter’s men great discomfort.

“The better team won, Brighton were better at pretty much everything,” was Andy Robertson’s succinct assessment. “They pressed us, won the ball back and created chances.

“First half was OK, it was a nothing game and you got the sense that one goal was going to be enough to win it. In the last three games at home we have been really disappointing and we have to get back to it. We are a long way off it.

“We have been disappointing. We are not finding the way to win.”

Jurgen Klopp admitted Liverpool “looked – and it’s long ago we looked like this – fatigued, mentally fatigued” and that is an accurate reading of a group that has had to absorb so many injuries, with the expectation of mirroring last season’s efforts.

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He stressed it was in a freshness sense rather than feeling sorry for themselves, but it is psychologically taxing to ask players to go again, go harder and take on more when their teammates are packing the treatment room en-masse.

Not allowing the Van Dijk injury to be the team’s kryptonite was already quite a demand, but the misfortunate with setbacks has been ceaseless since then.

Victories over Tottenham and then against West Ham were the anomaly since the end of December, but the impressive nature of them could not be overplayed given the circumstances.

It is not beyond Liverpool to string a run of those kind of displays together, but the flat, predictable showing against Brighton has been the more familiar picture.

“The gap to City… I know, I'm manager of Liverpool and I have to say because you always ask and we were champions last year, so I have to say, ‘Yeah, oh my God, we want to be champions…’ Yes, we want [that], but you need the games for it, you need the performances for it, and we don’t have [that right now],” Klopp conceded.

“So, that's the truth as well. We fight for other things, we fight for three points. It is not decided yet who will get the three points on Sunday, so we have to play better and we will try as well. Then we will see.

“These gaps are not interesting in the moment because they are the result of the results we had already. What we can influence is the next games and we will try for that.  

“Against Brighton, it was not enough – we saw that, we know that and we have to change that.

"I know and you know as well how much better football these boys can play. There might be two reasons: one is they don't want to, and I think even you would agree with me that that's probably not the case.

"So then why didn't it work? These are the things we have to figure out."

Time is of the essence with City next - and not even for the sake of the title, but for consistency and, as Robertson noted, rectifying being a long way off from their capabilities.