Liverpool’s injury woes increase but laughable Brentford offer Reds no resistance

Liverpool lost more players to injury but Brentford soothed Jurgen Klopp’s headache with a woeful defensive performance which was ruthlessly punished.

Premier League wins don’t come much more routine than Liverpool’s 4-1 triumph at Brentford. But the Reds leave west London with their title challenge in better shape than their squad after Jurgen Klopp suffered at least two more injury blows.

Neither Curtis Jones nor Diogo Jota made it to half-time and that was as far as Darwin Nunez was allowed to go before he was withdrawn for reasons as yet unknown. But only after a gorgeous opening goal from the Uruguayan merchant of chaos that provided the platform for Liverpool to establish a five-point advantage at the top of the table before Manchester City face Chelsea in what may – or may not – be a tricky test for the defending champions.

That is certainly never a tag you would give this particular Brentford side after another wretched rearguard showing from the hosts. Liverpool’s four made it 15 goals conceded in their last five home games. And few, if any, will match at least three of these on Saturday for catastrophe.

There was actually a lot to like about Brentford’s opening half hour. They created the better openings – most of them half chances – with the clearest sights of Caomhin Kelleher’s goal offered to Vitaly Janelt and Ivan Toney. Janelt pulled his fourth-minute attempt hopelessly wide, while Toney, with the angle closing, gave Liverpool’s stand-in stopper the chance to dirty his knee and fall on a tame shot.

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The Bees’ best work was coming on the counter, as it often does. They are similarly strong on set-pieces and when they loaded the Liverpool box for a 35th-minute free-kick from deep, they appeared to have a cunning plan. Cunning like Baldrick.

Ben Mee was the target and a loose ball landed closest to Virgil van Dijk. His clearance will go down as a pre-assist but it was no more than a hoik upfield, which somehow caught Brentford one-versus-two. And the one, Sergio Reguilon, offered no resistance. He did not have to win the ball, but allowing Jota an unchallenged header, dangling a foot rather than bodying the forward, was negligent. And Nunez is rapid, which feels like something the Bees ought to have considered.

As bad as the defending was, Jota and Nunez’s execution was sublime. Reguilon should have made it trickier but the difficulty level in Jota’s header, coming from well over his shoulder, was already as high as Van Dijk’s hoof.

And the finish: the Patrick Bateman ‘ooh face’ meme in football form.

Few would have staked big money on Nunez as he bore down on Mark Flekken’s goal. The Brentford keeper did what he had to do: closed space, narrowed angles and stood, daring Nunez to make the first move. With Flekken refusing to go low, Nunez’s dink may have been a questionable choice, but so perfectly was it flighted, the keeper’s presence was irrelevant.

Liverpool don’t lose leads. And once they established their advantage, never really did it look in danger, despite Brentford’s incoherent huffing.

Klopp’s biggest concern became the health of his players. Jones and Jota were both lost to injuries before the break, the pair joining Alisson, Dominik Szoboszlai and Trent Alexander-Arnold on the sidelines. Klopp had a half-time moan at the perceived physicality of their hosts – nothing to see there – and, evidently from Conor Bradley sticking his studs into Toney’s calf in the first 30 seconds after the break, the Reds boss urged his players to give as good as he felt they were getting.

Blow though any Jota absence would be, his replacement was tidy. Back from AFCON and a hamstring twang, Salah wandered on and his first touches around the box were undeniably rusty, especially when he went one-on-one with Flekken. Salah sought the far corner; he missed the near post by a mile.

That, though, was enough to blow away the cobwebs. Salah teed up Alexis Mac Allister for a second goal that Liverpool gladly took but did not seem to really need. Their third and fourth goals, finished ruthlessly by Salah and fellow sub Cody Gakpo, were the consequence of more defending that would shame schoolboys.

Frank being the glass-half-full fella he is will probably point to the positives of the first third of the game, and perhaps a penalty he will feel Toney deserved when he bundled over by Andy Robertson. Liverpool will counter with the denial of a spot-kick when Luis Diaz’s ankle was tapped in the box. Neither really mattered. Liverpool, once they established their authority, never looked in danger, especially while Brentford were such accommodating, defensively incompetent hosts.