Player Ratings: Fulham 1-3 Liverpool

Having played Liverpool four times this season, this felt like our weakest attempt to stop them. Liverpool showed their quality, winning every second ball and proving why they’re title contenders. This wasn’t helped by a poor refereeing performance, however. With that said, our second half showing didn’t match the intensity of the first, with certain players starting stronger than they finished.

Bernd Leno

Despite three goals getting past him, Bernd provided another reliable performance. But there are question marks over his keeping for their third goal. We have conceded 10 goals in all games against Liverpool this season, however, for these goals, the xG was only 0.76. This reflects the quality of their goals rather than Leno’s performances. Bernd did almost all he could, making an excellent save against Gakpo. 6/10

Timothy Castagne

Deservedly, Castagne got his first goal for the club. He did well to hold up Gakpo and allow Iwobi to track back and support him. This dampened their attack down our right-hand side. 7.5/10

Tosin Adarabioyo

Had some very sloppy moments throughout the game. Early on, he played risky passes that turned out to break their tough press, but it was Lukic who allowed the attack to flow. It was inevitable that one of these passes would be intercepted, and one crucial one was leading to the third goal. 5/10

Calvin Bassey

Had another excellent performance, acting like an absolute rock at the back. It’s hard to pinpoint a mistake that he made. Without his commanding presence, the result could have been a lot worse with Liverpool’s threatening attack. 8/10 – Man of the Match

Antonee Robinson

A very on-and-off performance. Most noticeably at the start, he struggled to contain Diaz. While he didn’t get much support from Bobby De Cordova-Reid, he was beaten far too easily. Giving credit where credit’s due, he was a big threat going forward and provided good pace in transition. 6.5/10

Joao Palhinha

This was not Palhinha’s best performance. His timing of tackles was not to his usual standard. He made some sloppy challenges including the one leading TAA free kick. This also caused him to pick up an early booking meaning he was not able to take as many risks which has a massive impact on his general performance. 6/10

Sasa Lukic

Played quite an integral role in alleviating the intense Liverpool press. With his short, first time passing he allowed us to make some breaks to put Liverpool on the backfoot. This was mostly the case in the first half where he found himself in good positions but was fairly quiet in the second. 6.5/10

Andreas Pereira

Unfortunately could not replicate his performance against West Ham. While being shut out of the game by a tough Liverpool midfield, he did manage to test their defence with some dangerous set pieces. 6.5/10

Bobby De Cordova-Reid

Bobby took on the captain’s armband and had a very good returning game. He showed good technical ability and caused the Liverpool backline some problems. He was arguably our biggest threat to them. 7/10

Rodrigo Muniz

As usual, Muniz’s hold up play was fantastic and was extremely useful in bypassing their press. Although he was a handful for defenders, he did waste a few chances. He found himself in good positions, bringing the ball down well but his finishing was off. 7/10

Alex Iwobi

Had a sloppy performance being responsible for their second goal through a miskicked pass. He had moments of brilliance in the second half where he had quick feet and he also had good energy when tracking back to help defend throughout the game. 6/10

Substitutes

Tom Cairney

TC has the ability to change a game and he did have an impact when he came on. He was composed and never lost the ball. He also had an opportunity late on in the game to test Allison. 6.5/10

Harry Wilson

Brought good energy coming on but not enough to cause them too many issues. 6/10

Adama Traore

Came on too late to really judge but did manage to create some excitement in a lackluster second half.