5 times the Liverpool defence notoriously choked under Jurgen Klopp
A few years ago, a football fan would have linked a 3-3 scoreline from a Liverpool game to that famous night in Istanbul when the Reds came back from 3-0 down at halftime to go on and win the UEFA Champions League final on penalties against a might AC Milan side.
However, times have changed. Now the Reds know very well what it feels like to be on the receiving end of such a comeback and they’ve had that experience not once but twice since May 2014.
The first was against Crystal Palace back in May 2014 and the result virtually ended any hope the Reds had of lifting their maiden Premier League title. The second one was against Sevilla in the group stage match of the 2017/18 UEFA Champions League season.
Defensive frailties have been Liverpool's Achilles heel for many years now and under Jurgen Klopp, things have not gotten much better. Under Klopp, Liverpool have dropped points from a winning position in 21 games so far and that number is likely to increase further.
Under Klopp, on many occasions, the defence has choked and collapsed and here are the five worst performance by the Liverpool defence during the German’s tenure.
#5 Southampton 3-2 Liverpool, March 2016
This game was during Klopp’s first season in charge. The Liverpool defence was not spectacular by any means before this game but this was the first major collapse the fans would witness under Klopp.
A few months before the game, Liverpool handed Southampton a 6-1 thrashing at St.Mary’s in a league cup encounter and 22 minutes into this Premier League game, Liverpool were 2-0 up thanks to goals from Philippe Coutinho and Daniel Sturridge.
The score remained unaltered at halftime but Ronald Koeman’s introduced Sadio Mane as a half-time substitute and the game turned on its head.
Southampton won a penalty early in the second half and Mane stepped up to take it only for Mignolet to save the effort. However, in the 64th minute, the Senegalese man opened the account for the home side.
However, it looked like Liverpool would hold on to the 2-1 lead before Graziano Pelle fired one in from distance in the 83rd minute to make it 2-2. With the Reds rocked at the back, it only took Southampton three more minutes to score the winner and yet again it was scored by Mane!
This was also Mane’s fourth goal in three games against Klopp’s Liverpool and there is no surprise as to why Klopp signed Mane in the following summer.
Interestingly, this was the first time in Premier League history that Liverpool lost a game that they were leading by two goals at half-time having won 112 and drawn 3 of the previous 115 games.