"Killing us..." - Oxlade-Chamberlain admits Liverpool failed to heed warning about Brentford "trap"

Liverpool midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has admitted his side failed to avoid a 'trap' during their 3-1 defeat to Brentford on Monday.

Jurgen Klopp's side kicked off 2023 in the worst possible fashion, going 2-0 down to the Bees before half-time.

Oxlade-Chamberlain gave them hope with a well-directed header to make it 2-1 in the second half, shortly after Darwin Nunez had seen a goal ruled out for offside after a superb finish.

But Bryan Mbeumo broke away for the visitors on 86 minutes and shrugged off Ibrahima Konate before finishing beyond Alisson to seal the victory.

After the game, Reds legend and Sky pundit Jamie Carragher expressed his concerns about Liverpool's performance.

He explained: "That has been a theme of Liverpool all season. As soon as the intensity of a game rises, they can't cope.

"They need to play a slower type of game because as soon as it goes fast, they are not at the races. They cannot keep up with it.

"Liverpool have had a problem all season against teams that are physical. This is a team, let us not forget, that prides itself on saying that 'intensity is our identity'.

"They cannot cope with it anymore at this time. It looks like an ageing team coming to the end."

Meanwhile, Oxlade-Chamberlain gave a frank assessment on what went wrong against Brentford.

Oxlade-Chamberlain make Liverpool admission

The Reds midfielder was the player put forward for the post-match press conference, and he did not shy away from describing the players' anger at their display.

He said (quotes via Liverpool Echo): "Brentford play their game and they play it really well. We fell into the trap of that a little bit but, overall, it wasn't good enough.

"We had enough information about those threats before the game. It's one thing hearing about it in our meetings before the game - and the coaching staff did everything they could to make us aware - and it played out differently.

"As a group of men, we didn't take that challenge on well enough, and maybe we weren't aggressive enough.

"The things we were warned about ended up killing us, and that's what is disappointing. In any fixture in the Premier League, when you're 2-0 down, it's going to be an uphill battle from there."

Liverpool are next in action on January 8, when they host Wolves at Anfield in the FA Cup third round. They are currently sixth in the Premier League table, four points off the top four places.