Joel Matip
Talk about setting the tone for a match. At kick off here, Naby Keita rolled the ball back to Matip, and the rest of the Liverpool team pushed up, en masse, into the Wolves half. The aim, one presumes, was for Matip to ping a diagonal deep into enemy territory, allowing his team-mates to fight for the first and second ball. Instead, the Reds centre-back made an awful connection, skewing his pass straight to a Wolves man. In an instant, Liverpool were on the back foot, and by the time they’d come to their senses, they were 2-0 down. Matip scored the first of those goals, inexplicably failing to react to a ball played into the penalty area and then deflecting Hwang Hee-Chan’s cut back in off the far post. Dawson made it two soon after, and had Matheus Nunes been as ruthless with his finishing, then Matip would have cost Liverpool another goal when dawdling over a long punt in behind the Reds’ backline. There were some impressive forward raids, in fairness, but when you're playing as a defender your job is to defend. Matip, and partner Joe Gomez, did not do it nearly well enough here. Virgil van Dijk's return cannot come soon enough.
Darwin Nunez:
The Andy Carroll chants are getting a bit old now, but this was not a good day for Liverpool’s centre-forward. Selected, correctly, to play down the middle, with new boy Cody Gakpo out wide on the left, Nunez knew he would be in for a battle against the strong defensive pairing of Dawson and Max Kilman. He lost the battle. Too often, he failed to hold the ball up and allow his side to get up the pitch, and when he did receive possession with space to run into, his decision-making was suspect to say the least. He should have squared for Salah at 2-0 but went for goal himself, shooting too close to Jose Sa, and a wildly overhit cross on his left foot soon after summed up his first 45 minutes. There was a big chance after the break, too, when Alexander-Arnold played him in behind. It had to go in, if Liverpool were to mount a salvage job. It didn't. Sa saved, and soon after Neves punished the Reds at the other end, compounding Nunez's misery.
Jurgen Klopp:
If he can find a way to sort this mess out, then Klopp really should be considered the best manager in the world. The Liverpool manager looked traumatised at times here, unable to comprehend what was going on in front of his eyes. He knows things have been bad, but they couldn’t get worse, surely? There had to be an improvement, didn’t there? Yes they could, and no there wasn’t. For half an hour here, Liverpool were as bad as they have been all season, including the defeat at Brighton which Klopp labelled as his worst in management. And though they inevitably improved, the mere fact that they can plumb such depths, and are doing so so regularly, is frankly absurd. This is a team that was on the brink of immortality last May, but they're an absolute rabble at the moment, broken in every single area - perhaps beyond repair. “You’re getting sacked in the morning,” sang the home fans after Wolves’ third goal. He won’t, but boy does he need things to start turning around soon. Liverpool’s next game, remember, is the Merseyside derby. On this evidence, Sean Dyche and his boys will be licking their lips.
