Yeesh. I had quite high hopes for this game with the Albion coming off some excellent performances against the top four teams and a solid win in the Conti cup on Wednesday night. This was a humbling defeat and perhaps a suggestion that Brighton are not where we thought they might be.

The Seagulls actually had the better chances in the opening 25 minutes. They looked good on the counter and Pauline Bremer stung the palms of Teagan Micah early on. There were several threatening set pieces too, but sadly with no end result.

Then one of our old nemeses reared its ugly head again. In what I believe was Liverpool’s first corner of the game, Gemma Bonner went unchallenged as she glanced a header across the box and into the bottom corner of the net. Another game, another set piece goal conceded. It came from almost nowhere, but it sure was an omen of things to come.

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Unfortunately, instead of Albion battling back and the Reds defending their lead, Liverpool actually appeared to gain momentum and looked far more likely to add a second than Brighton were to reply with an equaliser.

Speaking of old nemeses, I noted in the game against Arsenal that Jorelyn Carabali needed to work on her decision making. I wrote the same thing in my pad again in the first 10 minutes of this game and on 43 minutes what had been prophesied came to pass. A loose pass exposed the entire team to a counter attack, Sophie Roman Haug slipped in Shanice van de Sanden and nobody was going to catch her as she raced through and tucked the ball past a helpless Sophie Baggaley. It was an awful time to concede a second, and it felt like unless the Seagulls came out firing on all cylinders after half time, it was going to be a long road to the Wirral and back with nothing to show for it.

Carabali was replaced at the break, and the team converted to a back four to accommodate Lee Guem-min in an attacking role. Whilst I wouldn’t say much changed in terms of momentum, Lee was having success in the sense that she was willing to run at defenders, an attribute we sorely lack in at the moment. The difficulty was, by strengthening the forward options, we weakened the back line, and Liverpool looked to take advantage of that.

A relatively simple counter move and pass in behind once again had us under pressure, but a goal could have been prevented if Guro Bergsvand had cleared the ball on the touchline, or even just diverted it away from the onrushing Haug. Instead she completely missed it, I’m not sure how, Haug then managed to chip a cross into the box before it went out for a goal kick, and Ceri Holland was on hand to nod in the Red’s third from close range.

To say the writing was on the wall at 3-0 down would be an understatement. Brighton lost all cohesion and shape as they desperately tried to create goal scoring opportunities, and though they couldn’t find one, Liverpool found another in additional time. Leanne Kiernan waltzed down the right wing with the defence all at sea (pun intended) and played the ball across the six-yard box where Haug was on hand to score a deserved goal and seal the deal at 4-0.

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Were Brighton really that bad? I’d lean towards no, but if you have chances to score and you don’t, and allow the opposition to have chances and they do – you will not win games – it’s just maths. I think unfortunately after those matches against the ‘big four’ where we held our own, the fans, and maybe even the players, perhaps looked at this as an opportunity to make a statement, to get some points under our belt, and lost sight of the fact that Liverpool are actually a very good team. Sadly, this very much resembled the Albion that lost at home to Spurs and West Ham, not the Albion that drew with Manchester United and beat Manchester City.

As it stands in the WSL Brighton have 7 points and no team has less than 4. That puts us in real danger of another relegation battle. However, the two teams above us, Everton and Leicester have just 8 points. Our next game happens to be against Leicester at the Broadfield on December 10th – which now becomes all the more crucial. 3 points puts us into double figures and likely mid-table, but anything less, with just Villa to come before the winter break, will have the fanbase asking which direction this team is really travelling in.

Notes

• Top billing this time – the five/four at the back is not working. We’re continually exposed on the wings, particularly down the right (our left) and other teams are taking advantage of our inability to cover balls in behind consistently. The difficulty is that Emma Kullberg is seen as a better defender than Poppy Pattinson, but the latter offers more dynamism in her movement. If only we could create one perfect defender from the attributes of both. I do think being a wing-back is more challenging than just telling a full-back to be a bit more attacking, and this will be an ongoing issue if not resolved, perhaps in the January transfer window.
• The passing was again an issue, particularly in the middle area of the pitch. An accuracy mark of just 69% underlines this. I still believe we need a holding/sitting midfielder to develop from, but I’m not sure we have that player currently in the squad. My hopes were that Dejana Stefanovic might suit this role, but she hasn’t even been named on the bench this season as far as I’m aware. Injury issues? Would be nice to know.
• We were relatively dangerous going forward in the opening quarter, but the Liverpool defenders seemed to solve the challenges posed by our attack very quickly. Whilst our forward line has a lot of skill, they lack unpredictability, that off the cuff move or run that really troubles a back line and makes them ask questions continually whistle to whistle. Conversely Haug, Holland and van de Sanden had us in knots most of the game. I’d like to see Sarri and Lee start a game together and just see if that might make us a little bit harder to read. How I’d sum it up is that we played entirely in front of Liverpool’s defence, whereas they were desperate to get behind ours – and the result speaks for itself.
• I absolutely love Katie Robinson and she’s for sure a massive part of our team going forward, but game after game I see her cross it in to a box full of defenders from barely past the halfway line and wonder where that player who used to drive into the box, use her skill and pace to confuse defenders, has gone. Who are these crosses for? I’m not sure what’s behind it, but Katie, we got you, we’d just rather see you try and occasionally fail than just pump balls into the box.
• It’s hard to think of anything good to say because I’m just a bit sad. The classic parent line ‘I’m not angry, I’m just disappointed’ comes to mind. Shoulda, woulda, coulda, of course – BUT – two of the goals conceded were clear individual errors, which you hope those involved learn from. The final goal came because the cause had become desperate. So is there reason to panic? No I don’t believe so. Should we be a little concerned? Perhaps. So let’s revisit after the Leicester game. Same time, same site? As Eddie Hearn once said ‘Oooh go on then’.