Liverpool’s luck ran out at Selhurst Park. Crystal Palace were always going to present Arne Slot’s side with a stern test, and their unbeaten start to the campaign continues at the champions’ expense.
It was a poor performance from the Premier League champions, who arrived in south London with a reshaped system, and that was quickly foiled by Oliver Glasner’s eagle-eyed tactics. Slot made the requisite changes at the interval, but Liverpool found themselves on the receiving end of last-minute heartache this time.
Slot might have suffered a rare off-day on the tactical front, but there were any number of Redmen who left with their tails between their legs, producing poor individual performances in the capital.
Liverpool's worst performers vs Palace
Ibrahima Konate has endured a tough start to the season. Out of contract at the end of the year and with Real Madrid hot on his tail, the centre-back has lacked his usual clarity and robustness at the back, and against Palace, Sofascore record that he made two direct errors within half an hour as the Eagles ravaged the visitors’ backline.
Both of the full-backs, Conor Bradley and Milos Kerkez, left plenty to be desired, and the boss will know that chinks in the tactical make-up need to be smoothed out soon if Liverpool hope to start playing with more fluency and control, from start to finish.
Also toiling was Mohamed Salah, who has hardly been himself across the first phase of the campaign. The 33-year-old won the full gamut of individual awards last season to sit alongside his second Premier League gold medal, but he’s struggling at the moment, anonymous and out of sorts against Palace.
However, there’s a glaring spotlight on another of Slot’s stars, and it’s a new recruit. Indeed, one of Liverpool’s new additions is beginning to take the shape of a former title winner in Darwin Nunez, and Slot will hope to change the narrative swiftly.
Liverpool's new Darwin Nunez
Alexander Isak, on his full debut in the Premier League for Liverpool, missed a gilt-edged chance to restore parity with plenty of time left on the clock. However, the Sweden international is one of the most accomplished strikers in Europe, dominant in the English game over the past few years.
It is not the 25-year-old who is at risk of becoming Liverpool’s new version of Nunez, but Florian Wirtz, who broke the British transfer record when swapping Bayer Leverkusen for Anfield this summer, before Isak’s deadline-day arrival.
It’s not the first time the Anfield side have broken the bank in recent years. Nunez was signed from Benfica for a deal rising to a club-record £85m fee in 2022. The striker never maximised his financial potential, largely because his own deficiencies precluded it.
Across three years, Nunez missed a litany of chances and routinely lacked the composure and quality in the big moments. He won some silverware, sure, but he failed to repay the faith with individual performances.
It’s early into Wirtz’s time at Liverpool, but already he is struggling for form, having yet to score or assist across seven appearances in the Premier League. Against Palace, his fortunes did not change.
Minutes played
74′
Goals
0
Assists
0
Touches
57
Accurate passes
37/44 (84%)
Key passes
1
Possession lost
10x
Dribbles
2/4
Tackles
0
Duels won
3/7
The 22-year-old is billed as one of the most talented footballers in the world, and there will remain every confidence in the FSG offices that he will come good. But all of a Liverpool persuasion will be hoping that that will be sooner rather than later, for a continuation of these middling returns would only raise the volume around his sub-par start to life in England.
Agonising misses became the Uruguayan’s currency on Merseyside, and there’s no denying Wirtz missed a golden opportunity of his own on Saturday afternoon.
Still, it’s worth noting that the Liverpool Echo handed the German a 6/10 match rating, acknowledging his impetus and tenacity, albeit drawing attention to his lack of quality on the ball too.
Nunez will be fondly remembered by the Liverpool fans for his efforts and his affable personality, but the plain truth is he arrived for a significant sum and, on an individual level, fell by the wayside.
There is hope, such hope and confidence, that Wirtz will not head down the same track, but with every passing performance, the £116m man has yet to show the Premier League what he is about.
Journalist Mark Ogden said before Liverpool’s defeat to Palace that Wirtz is “struggling to make an impact”, and that narrative has not changed now that Slot’s side have been sent packing.
There were times last season when Slot was said to have been riding on the coattails of his predecessor Jurgen Klopp’s success. He wiped such claims away.
However, the Dutchman has since pieced his own super-team together, and now, the new system needs to join as one and prove that the Reds have what it takes to defend their Premier League title.