Liverpool were guilty of a “criminal” lack of game management during their chastening defeat by Arsenal on Sunday, according to Jamie Carragher.
The Reds were beaten 3-2 by Mikel Arteta’s side at the Emirates Stadium in a game bursting with incidents. And while much of the debate has centred around the officiating, with Bukayo Saka’s decisive penalty and the non-awarding of a spot-kick for a Gabriel handball infuriating Jurgen Klopp, Carragher preferred to focus on Liverpool ’s shortcomings.
Arsenal opened the scoring inside the first minute through Gabriel Martinelli before Darwin Nunez grabbed an equaliser. But rather than going in at half-time with the score at 1-1, Liverpool contrived to concede another goal.
Centre-backs Virgil van Dijk and Joel Matip pushed up the pitch for a wide free-kick near the halfway line on the left-hand side in injury-time of the first half. Arsenal cleared the ball and within seconds Martinelli was running at a retreating and disorganised defence.
Martinelli’s low cross was tucked in by Saka at the back post and former Liverpool defender Carragher believes the goal could have been averted if the away side had been more cautious with their use of the set piece.
“I cannot believe what I am seeing here,” Carragher explained while doing a piece of analysis on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football programme. “Liverpool have a free-kick in an area where I think it is hard to score from, or even put a good ball into the box.
HAVE YOUR SAY! What did you make of Liverpool's defending against Arsenal? Comment below.
“Liverpool’s two centre-backs go up, which is alarming for me. If that free-kick is further down, I would say put it right on the penalty spot and get Van Dijk and Matip in there and they have a good chance of scoring a goal.
“What happens is that you can’t score a goal from the first header that far away from the goal. In terms of game management, that was criminal and almost kids’ football.”
Carragher went on to single out Trent Alexander-Arnold and Jordan Henderson specifically for their role in the goal, describing their efforts to stop Martinelli as “cartoon” defending, saying it looked like they had roller skates on. Fellow pundit Roy Keane was similarly scathing in his assessment of Liverpool’s naivety in the match.
“It’s no good having all that experience if you’re not going to use it. Some of the decision making for the goals there, from Liverpool’s point of view, was so poor,” he said. “It’s actually hard to believe what you’re watching. It’s really really bad positional play from such experienced players.”
Liverpool equalised once more through Roberto Firmino’s neat finish, but were second-best and were ultimately undone when Michael Oliver pointed to the spot for Thiago Alcantara’s foul on Gabriel Jesus. Saka tucked away the penalty coolly to send Arsenal top of the Premier League and leave the Reds floundering in 10th place, 14 points down the table.
