LONDON: This time last year Liverpool were targeting a historic quadruple. Now manager Jurgen Klopp and his men may dream of only the Champions League. They ended last term with two cups. Now they have none.

The League Cup defence was ended by Manchester City before Christmas and the FA Cup vanished with a 2-1 defeat at Brighton.

Liverpool contributed in full measure to an exciting fourth-round tie but could have no complaints at the result. The statistics told a painful tale: Brighton had more possession (56/44pc), more shots (13/8), more shots on target (6/2), more corners (3/2) and endured more fouls (10/15).

Ahead of the tie, Klopp apologised for Liverpool’s erratic form this season, warned that his team may never reach their previous heights and laid much of the blame on the club’s perpetual injury crisis. He added: “I didn’t become a bad manager overnight. I was never as good as people probably said and not as bad as some people might think.”

His skills are now being challenged more than at any time since he arrived in October 2015 and began rebuilding an old ruin. Never mind Real Madrid next month in the Champions League. More important will be trying to scale the Premier League from Liverpool’s current ninth position to fourth.

At least they do not have to play Brighton again this season. Brighton drew 3:3 at Liverpool in October and won decisively by 3:0 two weeks ago. Liverpool led only briefly through Harvey Elliott after half an hour. Nine minutes later a shot from Tariq Lamptey deflected beyond Alisson off Lewis Dunk. Japanese World Cup winger Kaoru Mitoma struck Brighton’s winner in second half stoppage time.

Klopp said: “We came here after a game a few weeks ago when we weren’t even close to ourselves. Today we played a better game but we conceded two goals from set-pieces and that is not allowed in any way. We could have defended both goals better. It doesn’t feel great. In time we might see the positives but we wanted to get the next round. Congratulations to Brighton.”

The FA Cup holders have been eliminated in the fourth round in each of the last three seasons: Arsenal in 2021, Leicester in 2022 and now Liverpool.

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