All Jurgen Klopp could do was smile ruefully. There may still have been a half hour remaining, but as soon as Liverpool’s lame excuse for a defence left as much room as possible for Dominic Calvert-Lewin to head Everton into a 2-0 lead, he knew it was all over.
The home fans did too. “You lost the league at Goodison Park,” they joyously sang when the full-time whistle blew. By that stage, Klopp was simply trying to ensure that Liverpool left the field with what little grace they had left.
He had to save Darwin Nunez from any further embarrassment by getting involved in any afters. If the Uruguayan had aimed any blows or barbs at Everton players, he undoubtedly would have missed. Just as he had all evening.
Of course, Nunez wasn’t the only culprit on a night when so many players performed as pathetically as Trent Alexander-Arnold had attempted to challenge Calvert-Lewin.
Salah’s slump proves costly
Just like Nunez, Ibrahima Konate cast serious doubt on his long-term future at the club with a (now wholly expected) error-strewn display. But, in a way, perhaps the biggest let-down was a Liverpool legend.
Mohamed Salah once again performed nothing like the club’s record goal-scorer in the Premier League. As he mishit shot after shot, it was hard not to wonder if the Reds have been the victims of some elaborate ruse; that maybe the real Salah had never actually returned from the Africa Cup of Nations in the Ivory Coast in January and Liverpool have been unknowingly fielding a look-a-like for the past five months.
The simple truth is that injury has probably just robbed one of the game’s most prolific players of his sharpness, and the same probably goes for Dominik Szoboszlai and Curtis Jones, two midfielders that were immense for Liverpool when fully fit – yet just as unrecognisable as Salah after returning to action in recent weeks and months.
And who knows how many points the Reds would have right now if other key players such as Alexander-Arnold, Diogo Jota, Alisson Becker, Andy Robertson and Joel Matip had managed to stay fit for the entire campaign?
