3 things that went wrong for Liverpool during their 2-2 draw against West Brom

Liverpool relinquished a two-goal cushion away from home to drop two points against relegation-threatened West Brom ahead of their Champions League crunch tie with AS Roma in midweek.

Goals from Danny Ings and Mohamed Salah were not enough for Jurgen Klopp's side to prevail against an inspired Baggies side, who surprised many to beat Manchester United at Old Trafford last weekend and have managed another impressive result - especially having come from behind - to snatch a point here.

Jake Livermore and Salomon Rondon both netted in the final ten minutes, leaving the Reds having to travel back to Merseyside frustrated. So with that in mind, here are three things that went wrong for Liverpool on this occasion:

---

#1 Fullbacks performed poorly

Gomez (left) made his 20th league start here - his first since injury on international duty

Ahead of their Champions League semi-final clash with Roma in midweek, Klopp opted to rest his first-choice fullbacks in Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andrew Robertson.

So both Alberto Moreno and Joe Gomez, the latter of which has recently recovered from an injury, returned to the starting eleven here. This was their golden opportunity to assert their first-team credentials and show Klopp why they should remain in the side going forward - but ultimately both were disappointing against a physical West Brom team who persisted with the long ball tactic and saw them struggle as a result.

Between the pair of them, they only completed one tackle while both made four clearances and committed a foul. Moreno was booked midway through the second-half and thus, walking a tightrope as West Brom edged themselves back into the game late on.

Moreno's passing accuracy of 76.7% was the third-worst for the visitors, while Gomez utilised possession better and created a key pass in fairness to the England youngster. However, both should have been more convincing defensively and will be hoping to make amends sooner rather than later.

Stats' source: WhoScored

#2 They failed to control the game in midfield

Liverpool's midfield had a quiet outing on this occasion.

Liverpool's midfield players have been in brilliant form of late and were naturally displaying their dominance in the middle of the park over recent weeks. They've worked hard together and proved tough to play against, not giving their opponents any time on the ball.

This was not the case against West Brom, as they looked off the pace. Their interchanging play was not as slick as it usually is - they misplaced a number of passes. That gave the hosts an opportunity to get themselves back into the affair, naturally taking advantage of the space that the Reds left for them to dominate the middle third of the game.

As they continued to keep pushing throughout the match, West Brom got their reward with a well-deserved comeback during the dying embers of the fixture.

#1 Struggled to defend against set-pieces

Liverpool bottled a two-goal lead.

Liverpool have struggled to defend against opposition set-pieces throughout the campaign and have consequently conceded plenty of goals during crucial moments of the season.

Klopp's expensive acquisition of Virgil van Dijk back in January was a bold move, but one that they hoped would end their woes and the Dutch centre-back has been successful to some extent.

However, it takes time to cure something completely and we've seen that in Liverpool's 2-2 draw here. They certainly struggled to deal with long balls stemming from dead-ball situations and both goals were from set-pieces.

Liverpool are playing some impressive attacking football this season, however, need to improve the defensive side of their game if they are to challenge for the Premier League properly in future seasons.