Brighton 3-0 Liverpool: Solly March scores twice as the Seagulls thrash Jurgen Klopp’s side

Under angry skies and before a simmering manager, Liverpool slipped ever deeper into that dark place with which they are growing a little too familiar.

What once felt like a rut in a peculiar season is now taking on the appearance of a hole. And the problem with holes? Digging in is rarely the smartest answer.

Jurgen Klopp’s problems go far beyond the need for hard work. Of putting a shift in. Not that Liverpool fought the good fight here. No, they were fairly spineless in the fluorescent company of Brighton, actually.

Solly March scored twice in the early stages of the second half to put Brighton in command

His second goal was a stunning striker that flew past Alisson into the bottom corner

The greater issue is of personnel. Of a midfield that is starting to smell of decay and decline and just doesn’t cover the yards the way they once did. Of a defence that for the second league game in succession left spaces so big they presented as an invitation to party. Of head-to-heads being lost all over the pitch. Of an attack so under-serviced that Cody Gakpo’s league debut barely involved a touch of consequence.

No small wonder that Klopp wore that look of incredulity most often reserved for his recent press conferences. Sure, he has a rotten roster of injured men to contend with – what manager could easily swallow the loss of Virgil van Dijk, Darwin Nunez, Luis Diaz, Diogo Jota and Roberto Firmino?

But even in their absence, this team is falling short of the sum of its parts, and to boot a long way shy of the top four. Numerically, the 26 points dropped through 18 matches is four worse than they lost in the whole of last season; on the eye, the slip seems even more severe, particularly in the curious case of Trent Alexander-Arnold, a magnificent talent whose struggles were encapsulated by the butchering he received here by Kaoru Mitoma.

But to isolate one man would be unfair. And to overlook Brighton would be a grotesque injustice. Roberto De Zerbi inherited a fine team from Graham Potter, built on it, and in this fifth win in seven delivered a masterclass in one-touch passing, in creative expression, and also in fine finishing, with two goals from Solly March and a third by Danny Welbeck. They encountered a team in a hole, yes. But the dumping of cement into the void has never looked so stylish. They were immense and from the first minute to last, they dominated.

Danny Welbeck volleyed home from close range to put the result beyond doubt late on

Welbeck was congratulated by his team-mates after coming off the bench to score

That maligned Liverpool midfield could neither make chances nor prevent them, given it was simultaneously outnumbered and outdone by what it faced. When De Zerbi’s side are tuned in, they can do that to the best of them and for a prolong while now Klopp’s bunch haven’t quite met such a description.

At the heart of it were the quick switches and deliveries from Moises Caicedo and Alexis Mac Allister, the latter back in Brighton’s starting XI following his enjoyable trip to the World Cup with Argentina. 

Between them, that pair near enough smothered Jordan Henderson, Thiago and Fabinho and served as a regular spring of service to the wings, where March initially found success on the right against Andrew Robertson, before Mitoma extended his strong recent form by repeatedly getting the better of Trent Alexander Arnold. Twice in the first half Mitoma simply obliterated the England right-back for speed for guile.

Alexis Mac Allister was back in the Brighton starting XI and ran the show in midfield

Brighton winger Kaoru Mitoma caused Trent Alexander-Arnold problems all afternoon

The chances to come from such control didn’t yield anything tangible, though Alexander-Arnold was forced to rescue Liverpool in the eighth minute by clearing a March shot off the line, and Adam Lallana was a fraction off beam with a squared pass for Evan Ferguson, when a better delivery would have teed up a one-on-one.

There were further opportunities of merit for March, Ferguson and Mitoma, who after one of his surges past Alexander-Arnold poked his finish wide. It was his only blip.

And Liverpool? Mo Salah and Gakpo had half-chances and the rest of the efforts didn’t warrant any detailed description.

Unlike the Brentford debacle, where they lost 3-1 and Klopp hooked three men at the break, he resisted what may have been a strong urge for changes. In the circumstances it felt like a roll of the dice; within a minute it had backfired.

Joel Matip, standing in for the injured Virgil van Dijk and looking vulnerable from the start, made a gaff with a weak pass that was intercepted by Mac Allister and from there Mitoma bought space from Henderson before rolling to March. Alisson perhaps should have intercepted, but in failing to do so March knocked in the opener.

Seven minutes later, the move was even slicker and so was the finish. It commenced with a rotation of passes between Pervis Josue Tenorio Estupinan and Ferguson and the threat level increased when the latter cut out Ibrahima Konate with a threaded pass to March. At that stage, the forward was heading away from goal but with a clip off his left boot routed the most lovely of strikes back across Alisson and inside the far post.

Klopp reacted by swapping off four men in one go and De Zerbi made two of his own – par for the day, it was one of the Brighton substitutes, Welbeck, who flicked past one of the Liverpool replacements, Joe Gomez, on his way to drilling the third goal.

The kindest thing to be said for Liverpool is that is was only 3-0.

Follow Sportsmail’s live blog for the Premier League clash between Brighton and Liverpool.