Liverpool’s away form is becoming a problem – so what’s going wrong?

In the hours leading up to Liverpool’s 3-2 defeat against Toulouse, Jurgen Klopp knocked back any questions about whether the raucous atmosphere inside Stadium TFC would affect his side.

Respectfully, Klopp said his players’ experience in European competitions would equip them well for the white-hot noise and hostile environment in southern France.

Yet, for the second successive away game, Liverpool fell flat. And by the end of the night, the fan noise that Klopp had been so certain would be easily deflected was driving him to distraction.

“Who had the idea to do the press conference here?,” he barked, before cutting short the session, in a gazebo outside the stadium that was serving as a temporary media room, due to continual interruptions by boisterous locals banging on the walls.

“Who had the idea to do the press conference here?” 🤔

Jurgen Klopp was left furious after his post-match press conference was interrupted by Toulouse’s celebrations 👇 pic.twitter.com/YGMOf5gzso

— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) November 9, 2023

The organisation was as shambolic as Liverpool’s defending had been, and only rubbed salt into the wounds after a miserable night that also featured the obligatory VAR controversy, as Jarell Quansah’s last-gasp equaliser was ruled out by an alleged Alexis Mac Allister handball earlier in the move, with the midfielder claiming the ball actually struck his chest.

Not that Klopp was using that as an excuse.

“We need to defend better. There were too many situations where we gave the ball away and we needed to be more aggressive,” he continued. “We can’t concede goals in the way we did. The performance was not good enough. We have to change it and we will. I would have loved to get a point but I would have said the same. We have to be better.”

The defeat in isolation is hardly a huge headache for Klopp. Liverpool remain top of their Europa League group with two games to go and are well on the way to qualifying, even if any hopes of resting the majority of their senior stars for the visit of LASK in three weeks were probably dashed here.

The bigger problem is that this lacklustre performance was not a one-off.

Liverpool’s away form, which now runs to just one win in five games, is starting to become a concern.

Some of those have had mitigating circumstances. The Tottenham Hotspur defeat came in the last few seconds and was heavily influenced by controversial refereeing decisions. Similarly, though the 2-2 draw with Brighton & Hove Albion was frustrating, Roberto De Zerbi and company are now one of the Premier League’s sterner tests.

More concerning was the failure to beat either Luton Town on Sunday or Toulouse here. Premier League new boys Luton began that day in the bottom three with one win and seven defeats in the first 10 games, while the French club are 14th in 18-team Ligue 1. These are teams Liverpool should expect victories against, and both this week’s matches have pointed to deeper problems that need to be quickly fixed.

At Kenilworth Road, the problem was a lack of counter-pressing and profligacy in front of goal. Last night, it was carelessness at the back, summed up by the performance of Kostas Tsimikas, who was replaced at half-time with Toulouse 1-0 up, although he was not alone in being sloppy.

That much is evident by the fact that Liverpool lost 59 of the 105 duels they contested, many of which came down Tsimikas’ left flank.

There was also an alarming absence of control, a point acknowledged by Joe Gomez, who captained the side for the first half. Harvey Elliott was equally underwhelmed. “We can play much, much better, but we weren’t really there around the pitch,” Gomez said.

That point is underlined by Liverpool’s carelessness with the ball in the final third, where their pass completion rate fell to just 77 per cent.

Clearly, Toulouse — without a win in their previous five games, so hardly flush with confidence — learned from their mistakes in the reverse fixture at Anfield two weeks ago, where they were trounced 5-1. Instead of throwing players forward, they opted to sit deep, remain organised and select their attacks carefully.

With poise and purpose, they cut Liverpool open and went on to record only their third home win of the season in seven attempts. The others came against LASK, who sit bottom of the Europa League group, and Metz, another team fighting relegation in Ligue 1.

And without Virgil van Dijk (left at home because of an illness), Alisson and Ibrahima Konate, Liverpool’s defence wilted under pressure.

The first goal came after an error from Tsimikas, who has struggled to fill the big boots left vacant by Andy Robertson’s injury a month ago, and the third, conceded just three minutes after a comical own goal from Cristian Casseres had halved the deficit, was a shambles.

Kostas Tsimikas struggled badly in Toulouse (Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images)

Caoimhin Kelleher was far from commanding in goal, Joel Matip had a night to forget, Wataru Endo was fortunate not to be sent off and lasted just 45 minutes before also being substituted and Mac Allister again showed moments of petulance in defensive midfield, a position that still looks to be a concern.

That there hasn’t been a Liverpool performance like this one all season is the only real silver lining to take, plus the fact that wholesale changes to the starting line-up — and a return to Anfield — will mean that the visit of Brentford on Sunday should see Klopp’s side in better shape.

But it is what awaits them on their travels that will concern him more.

The next away game, after the international break that begins after the Brentford match, is Manchester City, a daunting enough game at the best of times. That is followed in early December by back-to-back awkward, albeit less ominous, trips to Sheffield United and Crystal Palace in the space of four days.

But as Liverpool’s fixtures flood in with barely time to take a breath, Klopp will know that he will need to balance resources carefully to ensure he remains in the hunt for trophies in 2024.

What he saw in France last night will not have reassured him.

(Top photo: Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images)