Two Liverpool title fights ended painfully at Goodison Park and one forced Jurgen Klopp to apologize

Liverpool have certainly had the advantage over city rivals Everton over the last few years, but that doesn't mean they haven't left some scars.

In fact, two of their trips to Goodison Park ended in complete disarray, offering a stark warning ahead of this weekend's clash.

Arne Slot's side make the short trip into enemy territory with an impressive lead in the Premier League after a record-breaking start from the Dutchman.

However, the nine-point lead was reduced to seven last time out thanks to a 3-3 draw with Newcastle, and the Reds will be keeping an eye on what can go wrong at Goodison.

Overall against the Toffees, Klopp had a record of 11 wins, six draws and two losses in 19 games, but despite all those points, some of the tougher games were incredibly damaging.

At Goodison, which is about to will host its last Merseyside derby before Everton After moving to the 52,000-capacity Bramley-Moore Dock Stadium, Liverpool's record has been much less favourable, with two wins, five draws and one defeat, and it was one of those draws that left some damage that has long been lost. He feared they were irreparable.

On 17 October 2020, defending champions Liverpool headed to their rivals' empty stadium for a behind-closed-doors match during the Covid pandemic, and Jordan Pickford finished the match grateful there was no away end to abuse him.

Everton entered the match as league leaders under Carlo Ancelotti, but fell behind to a Sadio Mane goal just three minutes into the match.

Eight minutes later, catastrophe struck Liverpool when Pickford flew out of his goal to challenge Virgil van Dijk into a corner and clumsily made contact, pushing the defender's knee into a painfully unnatural position.

The defender was able to leave the field of his own volition, but it turned out that the incident had torn his anterior cruciate ligament and he would not play again that season.

Van Dijk then missed his first major tournament with the Netherlands that summer, and upon his return there were fears that he would never reach his challenging Ballon d'Or level again, although some would say he is now at his best once again.

However, in the short term it was bad news for Liverpool. The match also saw richarlison sent off for a horror challenge on Thiago, and what looked like a late goal Jordan Henderson The winner of the match was disallowed for offside.

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The match would end 2-2 and began a season of endless injuries for the Reds who somehow still saved fourth place and the Champions League, but their title fight was over.

Speaking after the game, Jurgen Klopp He said, “What can I say? “I can't find the words… I don't want to say that Jordan Pickford would want to do it… but of course it's not a challenge that a goalkeeper can make in the box because there's another player there.”

That party has also taken a turn in recent weeks given that David Coote was in charge of VAR That day, Liverpool fans cited his decision not to recommend a red card to Pickford amid his comments about the club and then-manager Klopp.

It was understood that Pickford avoided expulsion because the play was offside, something the referee did on the field of play. Michael Oliver later addressedsaying: “Everyone, including myself, hasn't thought about the challenge as much as we should have. We could still have committed an offside call and sent Pickford off.”

The 2020/21 campaign would truly turn out to be hell for Liverpool, but they would rally for a quadruple charge the following season and then do the same last time in 2023/24.

However, it was once again at Goodison where everything went wrong.

Liverpool started the campaign at an extraordinary pace on all fronts and took home the Carabao Cup in February to show they were serious.

Outside of the Champions League, it looked like the Europa League would be a cakewalk for them, but things started to unravel in March in dramatic fashion.

They were first knocked out of the FA Cup in the quarter-finals against Manchester United, but another surprise occurred in April when Atalanta also knocked them out of Europe in the round of 16.

With only the Premier League left in Klopp's final season, they headed to Goodison with five games remaining to move level on points at the top of the table with Arsenal.

For Everton, it was a chance to end their season on a high, and they did so by finally getting their first home win against Klopp with a surprising score of 2-0.

Goals by Jarrad Branthwaite and Dominic Calvert-Lewin He took the three points of the day and dismissed Liverpool.

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Two more draws in their final four games followed, enough to rule them out of the title race and leave Klopp apologizing.

“We weren't good enough, we have to admit it,” the German said after the match. “I really apologize for that.

“We need a crisis at Manchester City and Arsenal and we need to win football games because if they start losing games and we do what we did tonight, nothing changes.”

That crisis never came, and Klopp left Merseyside with his latest derby experience unforgettable, and perhaps a warning to Slot as he prepares for his first.

Everton vs Liverpool will be broadcast live on talkSPORT at 12:30pm on Saturday December 7

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