Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk questioned whether his teammates “really want to win the league” after their 2-0 defeat to Everton on Wednesday night left their Premier League title hopes hanging in the balance. Goals either side of half-time from Jarrad Branthwaite and Dominic...

Liverpool lost the Merseyside derby but Everton supporter chants are wrong about Jurgen Klopp's team

Liverpool lost the Merseyside derby but Everton supporter chants are wrong about Jurgen Klopp's team

Вирджил ван Дейк высказался о поражении от «Эвертона» (0:2) в 29-м туре АПЛ.

«Мы должны действовать гораздо лучше. Если будем играть так, как сегодня, то не сможем считать себя претендентами на титул», – сказал капитан «Ливерпуля» Вирджил ван Дейк в интервью Sky Sports.

«Ливерпуль» занимает 2-е место в турнирной таблице с 74 очками, отставая от «Арсенала» на три балла. «Сити» с 73 очками имеет две игры в запасе.

Каррагер о «Ливерпуле» после 0:2: «Конец их чемпионской гонки. Сегодня вечер «Эвертона»

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Goals from Jarrad Branthwaite and Dominic Calvert-Lewin earned Everton a deserved and crucial Merseyside derby victory

• Report: Liverpool’s title hopes sink after Everton win

Gary J Byrne: “With Liverpool’s penalty taker Mo Salah back in the starting line-up, I’m naturally disappointed Ashley Young has been left out of the Everton team.”

For the record, here’s the officials: Referee: Andy Madley. Assistants: Harry Lennard, Nick Hopton. Fourth official: Simon Hooper. VAR: David Coote. Assistant VAR: Lee Betts.

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Virgil van Dijk questioned the desire of his Liverpool teammates after a 2-0 defeat at Everton dealt a hammer blow to their Premier League title hopes.

Goals from Jarrad Branthwaite and Dominic Calvert-Lewin saw Everton claim a historic first win over their local rivals at Goodison Park since 2010. It leaves Liverpool three points behind top-of-the-table Arsenal and just a point ahead of Manchester City, who have played two less games.

Van Dijk was among many Liverpool players who struggled with both goals coming from set pieces, the first after a number of errors as Reds stars attempted to clear their lines, while Darwin Núñez missed a golden opportunity at the other end in the first half. At half-time, Reds legend Jamie Carragher suggested Alexis Mac Allister had failed to follow two unwritten 'rules' of playing at Goodison Park and not allowing the crowd to get into the game.

Speaking to Sky Sports at full-time, Van Dijk did not hold back in a damning assessment of their performance as he asked if his teammates "really want to win the league?".

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Van Dijk said: “Listen, very disappointed in so many ways and I think everyone has to look in the mirror and look at their performance, if they really gave everything and do they really want to win the league?

“Obviously we’re fighting, and we still have games after tonight, but to play like we did, overall, in the game like today and not winning challenges, giving the ref and opportunity to give a free kick, like he did many times, then we have no chance to win the title.

“It’s a tough one, and we need to do much better against a side that’s playing against relegation and it’s now to focus on the 12:30 kickoff again.”

Asked if they had simply ran out of ideas, Van Dijk added: “I think you try to force things and I think we gave so many crosses where they can just clear it quite easily, and I still think we had, in the first half, clear cut chances that we should have scored.

“But eventually we weren’t good enough and it starts with the fight. Like I said, we all have to do much better and we can’t let the season go out like tonight. We have to do much better, in every sense, and it’s a tough one.”

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Latest Liverpool news as Jamie Carragher provided his assessment after the Reds lost 2-0 to Everton in the Premier League clash at Goodison Park in the Merseyside derby

Latest Liverpool news as Jamie Carragher provided his assessment after the Reds lost 2-0 to Everton in the Premier League clash at Goodison Park in the Merseyside derby

Everton take a giant step towards safety and deliver a huge blow to Liverpool's title aspirations with a thoroughly deserved victory.

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp admits they weren't good enough on the night as a 2-0 defeat at Everton harmed their title hopes.

Liverpool’s league title hopes slipped away, much to the delight of the home fans in Jurgen Klopp‘s final Merseyside Derby at Goodison Park

Everton 2-0 Liverpool

Premier League (34), Goodison Park
April 24, 2024

Goals: Branthwaite 27’, Calvert-Lewin 58’

Taking chances — or not

It’s been a familiar tale for Liverpool in front of goal. Normally they end up creating enough chances that they can afford to miss a few, but when none of the strikers are finishing, it becomes a problem.

Sadly, it’s become expected that Darwin Nunez will miss an easy chance or two in each game, but that has become even more of an issue as taking or missing chances is the difference between winning a trophy or not.

In order to win the league, a team needs clinical forwards putting chances away, and firing in goals they wouldn’t be expected to score.

Nunez has his obvious strengths, but the finishing issue has become even more pertinent as Liverpool become desperate for goals as they challenge for trophies.

The Reds created two big chances in the first half, and their xG after the first 45 minutes was 1.29, per FotMob.

Mohamed Salah and Luis Diaz also missed good opportunities in the opening period, and this kind of wastefulness looks like it will ultimately cost Liverpool a last tilt at the title under Jurgen Klopp.

It’s not all on Nunez, and Salah, as the team’s star player — someone Klopp has described as the club’s best finisher by some distance — has been disappointing in key moments.

Andy Robertson mis-kicking a volley in an offside position summed up the lack of threat.

You might expect it from a left-back who rarely scores, but the forwards were no better.

Liverpool’s lost momentum

Players coming back from injury should always be a good thing, but this Liverpool side has looked disjointed as several players have all returned to the team at the same time.

Just as Caoimhin Kelleher was rusty in his early starts deputising for Alisson, Liverpool’s No.1 has not looked at his usual world-class best since re-taking his place between the posts and made an error for the first goal.

Trent Alexander-Anold has returned and been an obvious asset, but Liverpool did look like a more orthodox, maybe even more reliable, threat when the playmakers were further forward, as Trent might be were he bombing down the right rather than dropping in.

There was a togetherness about the patchwork version of Klop’s side that doesn’t seem to be quite there since players have returned.

The two sides of Mac Allister

Alexis Mac Alister was far from the worst player in red, but his position in midfield can affect so much of the dynamic of Liverpool’s play.

He was second to things in defence, sometimes resorting to fouls, and his long balls were hit and miss in this game.

This is as much a tactical issue as it is a Mac Allister one. Liverpool spent much of the game with their playmakers too deep.

By the time Wataru Endo came on in the second half, in an attempt to remedy the situation and push Mac Allister further forward, the game felt like climbing a mountain.

Endo’s first touch led to an Everton chance, which summed up the atmosphere into which these substitutes were arriving.

Failing to silence Goodison Park

It was an atmosphere in which Liverpool wilted. The games against Man United and Everton always looked potentially awkward in this run-in, and they proved to be so.

Ultimately, the first impressions of this game were what set the tone, and Liverpool’s wasn’t good enough to silence the Goodison crowd, and gave Everton too much hope.

When their team are under the cosh and making mistakes, the Goodison crowd can get on top of their own team in a negative way.

But when the opposite is true, when the opposition give Everton a chance to not only stay in the game but take the lead in it, the old stadium can be a cauldron.

Once that happened, Liverpool struggled to silence it. In fact, the mistakes and misses, the annoyance and the complaints from Klopp’s players, only gave Everton and their crowd more to cheer.

“You lost the league at Goodison Park,” sang the Everton fans at the end of the game, and though Liverpool lost the league through a string of bad performances and results, this game will in many ways define the end-of-season collapse.

What next?

Manchester City, with two games in hand on Liverpool and Arsenal, still have the league title in their hands but Arsenal have looked solid in the run-in.

All Liverpool can do is win their remaining games, but on this display that in itself looks like it will be a huge challenge.

Games that once would have been looked at and points totted up to see how many they would get in the title challenge, now look more difficult.

West Ham could pose a similar threat to Everton, while Spurs, Villa, and Wolves have some really good players who could cause Liverpool problems.

It is safe to say Liverpool’s season has petered out, but the players owe it to Klopp to end on a high, even if it won’t end it with the trophies they wanted.

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Liverpool should only be blaming itself after crashing out of the Premier League title race in the worst possible manner, with a loss to Everton at Goodison Park. In truth, the host deserved to win, simply looking more ready for the fixture.

Perhaps that's got something to do with Liverpool's physically and emotionally draining season, which since January has been billed as a grand send-off for manager Jürgen Klopp. Whatever the reason, this team has looked spent for weeks, and Sean Dyche made sure Everton punished that.

But there were fine margins at play too. Once again, Liverpool will rue some poor finishing, with Darwin Núñez, Luis Díaz and Mohamed Salah all missing good chances.

READ MORE: Arne Slot could take four lessons from Liverpool loss at Everton as Dominik Szoboszlai snaps

READ MORE: Gary Neville identifies VAR 'problem' after Liverpool penalty let-off vs Everton

Meanwhile, Liverpool got one early let-off at the other end, when an offside call meant a penalty against Alisson was cancelled. But there was nearly a second reprieve for the Jarrad Branthwaite opener, as VAR went back to check a possible offside in the build-up.

Gary Neville predicted there could be a 'riot' at Goodison Park if this one was also ruled out. But the predominant emotion in the stands was joy rather than outrage, as the goal stood.

When the graphic was shown on-screen, a single green line was shown, in line with Branthwaite and final Liverpool defender Ibrahima Konaté. A single line being drawn means that the offside is extremely tight, and falls within what is known as the 'tolerance level' of the current technology available for offside calls.

In other words, Branthwaite may well have been offside, but it was too tight for technology currently in use to know for sure. And from next season, we will know more quickly and with more accuracy, with the Premier League set to introduce semi-automated offside technology.

The Premier League has been under increasing pressure to introduce the technology. Under this system, there will be no tolerance level, meaning that even if Branthwaite was beyond Konaté by the finest of margins, the goal would be chalked off.

Liverpool.com says: It's just one more thing to be frustrated about. Perhaps if Liverpool had got a second let-off, the game might have gone differently.

But in truth, that's hard to imagine. Liverpool looked rattled from the outset, the finishing has been a recurring problem, and clean sheets have been a rare commodity lately. If it wasn't the Branthwaite goal, the breakthrough would have come from somewhere else, such was the nature of the match.

Still, more accuracy from next season in the Premier League will theoretically be good, especially with those decisions being made more quickly. Delays have been a huge problem since the introduction of video technology.

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Virgil van Dijk fumed at Liverpool's performance after losing 2-0 to Everton in the Merseyside derby.

Jamie Carragher criticised Darwin Nunez's finishing as the Uruguayan striker missed a golden chance against Everton during Liverpool's 2-0 loss in the Merseyside derby.

24 апреля состоялся матч 29-го тура Российской Премьер-Лиги между «Эвертоном» и «Ливерпулем».

Latest Liverpool news and gossip as Jurgen Klopp's side lose 2-0 to Everton in the Merseyside derby in the Premier League to deal a blow to their title chances

Latest Liverpool news and gossip as Jurgen Klopp's side lose 2-0 to Everton in the Merseyside derby in the Premier League to deal a blow to their title chances

The final Merseyside derby of Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool reign might well be remembered as the final blow to his dream of signing off with the Premier League title. For the first time in 14 years, and the first time against Klopp, Everton were triumphant against their local rivals at Goodison Park. Victory tasted all the sweeter for Sean Dyche’s team for almost certainly securing their top-flight status at the expense of Liverpool’s title shot.

“You lost the league at Goodison Park,” the home crowd bellowed as they rejoiced in a deserved Everton victory, an outstanding Everton performance and the best night of Dyche’s often-troubled reign. The imperious Jarrad Branthwaite and Dominic Calvert-Lewin scored the goals that consigned Liverpool to a hugely damaging defeat.

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"You lost the league at Goodison Park," the Everton fans delighted in singing as time ran out for Liverpool. That is not quite true, of course, for the Reds, but they will need a miracle from here to win the Premier League.

With another Merseyside derby out of the way, it means there are only four matches left of the Jürgen Klopp era at Anfield. All of those are in the Premier League but the chances of the Reds sending him off on the biggest possible high are now almost zero.

Up next for Liverpool, with a quick turnaround from this game to the next, is a trip to face West Ham United in the early kick-off slot on Saturday. Klopp hates the short turnaround but that match would only have moved to Sunday this weekend had Arsenal beaten Bayern Munich in the Champions League. Once that didn't happen, it was confirmed for the earlier slot.

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Liverpool faces West Ham next, and then finishes the season with matches against Spurs and Wolves at Anfield with a trip to Aston Villa to take on Unai Emery's side at Villa Park in between. All of those fixtures could be tricky for different reasons.

While the Reds need perfection from their own games, they also need multiple favors from elsewhere for the campaign not to peter out with a whimper. Manchester City, the current leader in the Premier League title race relative to the number of matches that it has played, faces Brighton (away) tomorrow.

After the trip to Brighton, Manchester City is away at Nottingham Forest on Sunday. Still with another four matches after that double-header thanks to its games in hand, Pep Guardiola's side then faces Wolves (home), Fulham (away), Tottenham (away) and West Ham United (home). Out of the Champions League, it only has the league and the FA Cup final to focus on.

Arsenal, meanwhile, has the North London derby next. After beating Chelsea comfortably earlier in the week, the Gunners are away at Spurs this weekend and then will have played the same number of matches as Liverpool.

Mikel Arteta's side finishes the season with Bournemouth (home), Manchester United (away) and Everton (home). After demolishing Chelsea, it moved 13 ahead of Liverpool in the goal difference stakes. That looks much less important now Liverpool has lost important ground at the worst possible time.

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Liverpool player ratings and scores after the 2-0 Merseyside derby defeat to Everton