Brighton & Hove Albion 0-1 Liverpool: 5 Talking Points, Premier League 2018-19

#2 Liverpool's long-ball confusion

Brighton were combative and contained Liverpool's attackers

It really was an open secret that Brighton's biggest and most-used weapon of choice is to build their attacks with long-balls forward for Murray to hold up and bring other players into play.

Liverpool dealt with that threat well enough, but they were lulled into playing the same way by a stout, thoroughly organised Brighton side. When, after the first 10-15 minutes, Liverpool realised it was going to be difficult to have too much combination play between the front players, they decided to go route-one whenever they could.

That was exactly what Lewis Dunk and Shane Duffy would've wanted Liverpool to do, as they were always going to be favourites to win aerial balls up against the much smaller Liverpool attackers.

The long-balls that Liverpool played weren't even those in behind the Brighton defence, allowing the pace of their attackers to get the better of Dunk and Duffy. It was truly perplexing that Liverpool chose to play that way, because Brighton weren't even playing a high defensive line.

Their tactic of going long in the first-half only played into Brighton's hands, and the Seagulls were only too happy to take it.