Jurgen Klopp has always said that the road to winning the Premier League title would be long and, at times, bumpy. But he probably did not see this particular pothole. Swansea had never won in the League at Anfield and Liverpool were unbeaten in 17 games at home before two goals just after half-time from Fernando Llorente set the Welsh side on their way to a famous victory.
Though the shock of going behind raised Liverpool from their lethargy, Roberto Firmino levelling the score with two fine goals, Gylfi Sigurdsson stunned Anfield and the Liverpool manager with the winner 15 minutes from time.
For the first time, Klopp began to feel the wrath of a disappointed home crowd and, though the frustration did not disintegrate into boos at the final whistle, the slow tempo of Liverpool’s passing and movement in a dour first half and their calamitous defending in the second half revived just the odd memory of life under Brendan Rodgers, Klopp’s predecessor.
Nothing, though, should detract from a masterly away performance by Swansea, who had barely 30 per cent of possession, nor from the obvious tactical organisation and spirit that the new manager, Paul Clement, has managed to instil into the Premier League’s whipping boys in a mere fortnight.
Taking a leaf out of Plymouth Argyle’s book, Swansea defended in numbers during the first half, reducing Anfield to near silence, before picking their moments to exploit the hesitancy in Liverpool’s central defence, first from a set piece and then a textbook cross from Tom Carroll on the run, and a powerful header by Llorente.
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Clement’s delight would have come from a near-perfect execution of a training ground plan and the never-say-die spirit within a team already consigned to the Championship by most pundits, but particularly from the performances of two of his new recruits, Carroll and Martin Olsson, who looked as if they had been playing together for years rather than being introduced in midweek. Carroll, who had not played 90 minutes for more than a month, covered every blade of the Anfield turf and had a hand in two of the goals.
“I’m a coach who believes in executing the basics well and getting players to know their job,” said Clement. “Anything is possible. We won’t look at the table, we won’t talk about how many wins we need, we’ve just got to deliver a performance. Against Arsenal, we delivered a performance for 37 minutes. Today, it was 90 minutes.”
Klopp’s frustration was evident, with much of his ire being reserved for his defenders who, not for the first time this season, lacked conviction and composure, notably in failing to win the first header from a corner for the opening goal by Llorente and in the panic caused by Carroll’s twinkle-toed foray into the penalty area which left Sigurdsson free to score the winner.
“The defending around all three goals was not good enough,” said the Liverpool manager afterwards. “This was a big opportunity for us to get three points and we gave them the opportunity to win the game. Damaging? How damaging, I don’t know exactly. In Germany, that’s a harsh word. It has to feel really bad. Now we need a reaction.”
Overturning a 1-0 deficit in the semi-final of the League Cup against Southampton on Wednesday would be an obvious way to erase the memory of this inexplicable lapse. Victory against Chelsea, also at Anfield, on the last day of a largely forgettable month would be an alternative.
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But Liverpool’s dynamism, their speed on the break, flair and incisive movement, has been missing since the New Year, the result of a plethora of fixtures perhaps or the absence of Sadio Mane at the African Cup of Nations. Philippe Coutinho, who made his first Premier League start for more than six weeks, cannot return to full form quickly enough.
But only when James Milner decided to stop the sideways passing and get the ball in the box, in a rather old-fashioned English way, did Liverpool exert some pressure on the excellent Swansea central pairing of Federico Fernandez and Alfie Mawson.
Firmino punished a momentary misjudgement by Olsson to haul Liverpool back in the game with a header, at the end of a spell of three goals in eight minutes, and fashioned a superb equaliser, taking a cross from Georginio Wijnaldum on his chest before swivelling to volley past Lukasz Fabianski with 20 minutes left.
Having got back on level terms, the momentum was all with the home team. “The crowd was finally there and there was an atmosphere for ‘winning Liverpool,’” said Klopp. Swansea, though, had one more trick up their sleeve, leaving Liverpool nursing a deflating loss and Klopp with a very small margin of error for the rest of the season.