Liverpool's disappointing defeat
Eberechi Eze's first-half strike, which came after sloppy defending from the Reds, was enough to seal all three points for the away side, who picked up a big win on Merseyside.
Jurgen Klopp's side have now handed the advantage to Arsenal and Manchester City, who are both ahead of Liverpool on the same number of games played, ahead of the title run-in.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp
They will rue their missed chances throughout the game against the Eagles as the hosts racked up 2.87 xG worth of opportunities to score, yet failed to force the ball past Dean Henderson.
There were a number of disappointing performances across the pitch for the German boss and one player he must now ditch from the starting XI is centre-forward Darwin Nunez.
Darwin Nunez's shocker against Palace
The former Benfica star was tasked with leading the line for the Reds but typified the team's lacklustre performance with his wasteful display at the top end of the pitch.
His first key contribution, for the wrong reasons, came during the first half as he burst into the box and appeared to be one-on-one with Dean Henderson but failed to get a shot away and his attempted pass across the box evaded Mohamed Salah, who was there for a tap-in.
The second one came towards the start of the first half as Nunez missed a glorious opportunity to level the scores at 1-1. The ball dropped to him in the box and his effort went straight at Henderson, when it seemed as though it would have found the back of the net if the shot went either side of the shot-stopper.
Darwin Nunez
Vs Crystal Palace (14/04/24)
Minutes played
66
Shots
3
Big chances missed
1
Goals
0
Pass accuracy
67%
Key passes
0
Stats via Sofascore
As you can see in the table above, the Uruguay international did not do enough with the ball to drag Liverpool back into the match during his 66 minutes on the pitch, with zero chances created and three shots that failed to find the back of the net.
Nunez only had 23 touches of the ball in total, which was 24 fewer than goalkeeper Alisson's 47, and this further illustrates the lack of impact he had on the game as the Reds shot-stopper had a larger share of the possession than him.
GOAL reporter Tom Maston handed the wasteful dynamo a dreadful match rating of 3/10 and described his play when the ball came to him as "abysmal", which is backed up by the aforementioned statistics.
The 24-year-old attacker is not a reliable operator for Klopp at the top end of the pitch, as evidenced by his 25 missed 'big chances' in 21 Premier League starts this season.
Darwin Nunez for Liverpool
He, simply, is not ruthless enough when opportunities come his way in the box and that cost Liverpool on Sunday with his huge miss on the volley from close range.
This is why Klopp must now ditch the striker from the starting XI, after his shocker against Palace, and Diogo Jota could now take his place in the lineup for the coming matches.
The Portugal international has scored nine goals and only missed three 'big chances' in 13 league starts for the Reds during the 2023/24 campaign, and could replace Nunez next time out.
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