‘Didn’t seem to be’: Roy Keane has one suggestion for Liverpool’s main problem at Fulham

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Roy Keane saw one possible reason that Liverpool struggled in their 2-2 with Fulham. The Reds started the season poorly.

Liverpool were not good against Fulham. In a lot of ways, they were lucky to get away with a point as they fell behind twice at Craven Cottage. The Reds just couldn’t get a proper hold on the game.

And that’s something of a shock. Liverpool beat Manchester City 3-1 six days prior with a wonderful win in the Community Shield. To then struggle against a newly-promoted team is nothing if not surprising.

So what happened? Roy Keane had one suggestion when talking with Sky Sports on Sunday. He wonders if Liverpool’s mentality was all wrong for this one.

“Yes, of course it did [surprise me],” Keane told Sky Sports. “You thought with the way Liverpool performed last week but the game yesterday, they just didn’t seem to be at it.

“Of course, lots of quality going forward but defensively, Liverpool were very, very poor. Fulham, expected to struggle, but Van Dijk there – it’s really clumsy, clumsy defending from such an outstanding player.

“So, maybe Liverpool thought it would have been an easy day and it was very, very tough for them.”

Liverpool’s 2-2 with Fulham

We don’t entirely buy the idea that Liverpool struggled because they were defensively poor. They were defensively poor, of course, but this was also a game where they couldn’t pass the ball properly.

Only once last season did Liverpool have a pass completion lower than they did on Saturday.

But Jurgen Klopp appears to agree with the idea that Liverpool’s mentality was wrong. He said in the aftermath of the draw that “we started actually exactly the opposite way that we wanted”. That suggests it wasn’t a fault of the game plan but a fault of mentality.

Fortunately, that’s easy to fix as this one was a wake-up call. Klopp even added that he was “happy for the punishment we got with losing two points”. With that kind of attitude from the boss, Liverpool don’t need to worry about much.

We even found a positive.