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Danny Welbeck has not given up on making England’s World Cup squad and showed exactly what Thomas Tuchel is missing with two goals to dent Liverpool’s Champions League hopes.
The Brighton striker moved past Dominic Calvert-Lewin – selected ahead of him for England’s upcoming friendlies – with his 11th and 12th league goals of the season, making him the Premier League’s highest-scoring Englishman. At 35, this is the most prolific campaign of his career.
Could he really warrant a place in the England squad this summer? It seems a stretch, but with players extending their elite years longer than ever, there is at least some logic in taking an experienced forward – one with 16 goals in 42 England games – to the US as Harry Kane’s understudy.
After he was left out by Tuchel on Friday, Brighton’s head coach Fabian Hürzeler told Welbeck to “control the controllables” and he duly responded.
“Even more important for a team is how he functions as a connector,” Hürzeler said after the game. “He’s always there to connect the different ages. To connect the different cultures we have in our team. To be there as a social leader. If you want to achieve something in a World Cup that’s an attitude that definitely helps. Therefore we keep pushing him, we keep trying to support him and hopefully one day he gets the rewards for what he’s doing on and off the pitch.”
If this was a reminder to Tuchel of what Welbeck can still offer, it was equally a reminder of the challenge Liverpool face to qualify for next season’s Champions League. This was their 10th Premier League defeat of the season; you have to go back a decade to find the last time they lost that many times in the league.
In the four days between this fixture and the emphatic win against Galatasaray in the Champions League to overturn a one-goal deficit, they lost Mohamed Salah and Alisson to injury and when Hugo Ekitiké limped off in the eighth minute they never recovered.
Arne Slot said the defeat started in “the lead-up to this game” with injuries straight after a strong performance. “As has happened so many times this season, after we’ve played a good game, we couldn’t bring that level again,” the Liverpool head coach said. “That has happened so many times to us this season.”
The manner of Brighton’s goals summed up Liverpool’s problems: disjointed, out of sync, error-strewn. In the buildup to the first, Curtis Jones misplaced a pass intended for Jeremie Frimpong out for a throw-in. Moments later, the Liverpool goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili – drafted after Alisson pulled out on Friday night – overhit a pass to Ibrahima Konaté and the defender let it run under his foot. From the resulting throw-in, a deep cross was headed back across goal by Diego Gómez, and Welbeck was given freedom to head in from close range.
Brighton took advantage of more defensive disorganisation for their second goal. When Yankuba Minteh crossed, nobody tracked Jack Hinshelwood at the back post and – once again – Welbeck was left completely free to turn the ball in.
Mamardashvili looked uncomfortable in possession. His shot-stopping was sharp – anticipating well to snatch the ball before it reached Welbeck for a tap-in, diving sharply to keep out a Gómez free-kick he saw late, flinging himself in front of Minteh’s shot when he ran through on goal. But with the ball at his feet he struggled. And it said much about Liverpool’s performance that their goalkeeper was quite so busy. They had only been kept in the game by a gift from Lewis Dunk while trailing 1-0.
Brighton 2-1 Liverpool key facts
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• Liverpool have lost 10 Premier League games in a season for the first time since 2015-16 (also 10), while it’s the seventh time the reigning champions in a Premier League season have lost 10+ games after Leeds United in 1992-93 (15), Blackburn Rovers in 1995-96 (13), Manchester United in 2013-14 (12), Chelsea in 2015-16 (12), Leicester City in 2016-17 (18) and Chelsea in 2017-18 (10).
• Danny Welbeck’s double for Brighton took his tally of Premier League goals this season to 12, his outright most in a single campaign. His second goal (pictured) meant he had scored more than once in a league game for the third time this term, the outright most times he has done so in a season.
• Virgil van Dijk made his 265th appearance for Liverpool in the Premier League, all of which have been starts; it’s the outright most appearances for an outfield player at a club while starting all of them in the competition’s history, overtaking Des Walker’s 264 appearances at Sheffield Wednesday. Opta
Photograph: Glyn Kirk/AFP
Mamardashvili sent a long ball forward and rather than clear Dunk decided to head the ball backwards – without checking – to his goalkeeper. Unfortunately for Dunk, Milos Kerkez had made a hopeful run beyond him and was perfectly placed to flick the ball over Bart Verbruggen.
At least Ekitiké will not be out for too long to help their push for a top-five finish – likely enough for Champions League qualification. Slot revealed that the striker had a “dead leg” and that “Hugo could play tomorrow if he needed to”. Nonetheless, the scale of the challenge facing Slot continues to grow.
