Liverpool fell to a deserved defeat against Fulham on Sunday as their unbeaten Premier League streak was ended.
The Reds could have moved 14 points clear at the top of the table with a win at Craven Cottage but instead contrived to lose 3-2.
In reality, Liverpool had the chances to get back into the game, with Diogo Jota, Mohamed Salah and Harvey Elliott all feeling they might have got on the scoresheet in the second-half.
But the damage was done during a terrible opening 45 minutes in which the Reds gifted Fulham three goals.
The poor performance shone a light on Arne Slot’s team selection, with the Liverpool head coach deciding to continue with his experiment of playing Curtis Jones at right-back.
Jones did well against Everton on Wednesday, but with Fulham posing a completely different threat, former Liverpool full-back Steve Nicol said the decision to stick with the Scouser may have been fatal.
Steve Nicol fumes at Curtis Jones selection
With Fulham posing such a threat down the left side, it had seemed unlikely that Slot would go with Jones at right-back once again at Craven Cottage. But that’s exactly what he did.
Nicol won’t have been the only one to feel that was a mistake. And speaking to ESPN after the game, the Liverpool legend claimed it was an incredibly costly one.
“Curtis Jones playing at full-back again, I don’t understand this one,” he fumed. “You’ve got Conor Bradley, you’ve got Quansah on the bench, you’re away from home. You don’t play Curtis Jones away from home at full-back.
“You can get away with that at Anfield, which they did last week, but not away from home.”
“When you play at home and you play away they are two completely different animals,” Nicol added. “When you play away from home you have to be a touch more conservative, a touch more safe. You’re away from home, you’ve got the crowd against you, you know they’re going to be at it.
“So, you have to be somewhat conservative and that would mean straight off the bat you play a defender in a defensive position, you don’t play a midfielder who wants to go forward and ask him to defend and that’s what he did. I think he got it completely wrong.”
Nicol says Jones at fault for first Fulham goal
If Slot had his time again he surely would not have kept with the Jones experiment. As Nicol said, it looked like an accident just waiting to happen.
And although there were other factors behind the goal going in, the Scot said he felt Jones was the main reason Liverpool conceded the equalising goal to Ryan Sessegnon.
“Liverpool were 1-0 up and they lose a goal because Curtis Jones isn’t aware of what he should be thinking when the ball comes into the box, he completely shuts off,” he says.
“He’s not even next to Konate, he’s five yards behind Konate who just misses the ball. Any defender will tell you you have to think your teammate’s going to miss it. You have to have worst case mentality as a defender, he didn’t, it comes off his knee, a great finish from Sessegnon, but a defender deals with that a different way and that puts Fulham back in the game.”
It’s hard to argue with any of Nicol’s points, especially when Conor Bradley did so well after coming on. Still, you live and learn. With Bradley back and Trent Alexander-Arnold hopefully not far away, let’s hope this will be the last we see of this.
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