Last 4 games we seem to have hit a brick wall, and it's being compounded by very poor goal keeping.
Karius' confidence is clearly shot and he hasn't gotten over his goalkeeping debacle at the Vitality stadium last week. He's under the spotlight and clearly isn't coping. Any keeper worth their salt would have managed to have saved Payet's free-kick. His starting position on that FK was naive as much as it was amateurish.
And his indecision for their second goal made it easy for their striker. For his own sake (similar to De Gea in his first season), the lad needs taking out the team, his supposed confidence and cocky-ness is still in the changing room and I've seen enough now to say that he is going to be a liability for the foreseeable.
Whether he is or not, there is no alternative at this time. It's either him or Migs, and right now, one is just as error prone as the other. Klopp isn't going to drop him, so you just accept that or call for Klopp to go, and I can't see that happening.
I wouldn't blame him a lot for the free kick. Maybe he should have saved it, but Payet is an expert at those free kicks, and we should have been aware of not giving him the chance, a and we handed it to him cheaply. We had all week to prepare for it, and what did the squad do? Go to Barcelona to watch them tear a pub side to shreds.
The second goal is in part, down to him. Too static when the ball gets to the penalty area, and not a great attempt to save it either.
He looks frail and fragile in goal, but right now, there's no competition for his place, Klopp is not a fan of changing goalkeepers every week, and as he's his own man and German, he's even more reluctant to do so. Compare him to a proper goalkeeper for the opposition, who denied us the three points with a stunning save from a great Hendo effort. But if it goes in, we obviously would have a different outcome and a different discussion here.
I warned about this game last week, that we would find it difficult to break them down, and we struggled to create a genuine chance after the first goal. For whatever reason, we struggle against Bilic, it's now 7 games since we last beat him, and that was on peno gate night. It's also one win in 7 against West Ham, so today was never going to be a cricket score, and anyone who thought so after 4 minutes, must have forgotten about last week already. Needing to score at least 3 against Randolph was always going to be a tough ask, and so it proved to be.
This is the one weekend where it's great to be at home, as it means you're at home on the final day of the season. 8 home teams won their games this weekend, and there were no away wins. To take advantage of being at home on the final day though, this is the time of year when the hard work gets done. We've taken 5 points since the international break (initially blamed for the results) which is not enough, and there's no let up. We have 5 league games in the next 3 weeks, and we need at least 12 points from them before we go to the toilet. If we don't take them, we really will have to settle for the original target, which is a top 4 spot. So it's now or never for this group of players to deliver.