David Moyes has been left concerned by an injury to Everton defender Jarrad Branthwaite which ‘doesn’t look great,’ in keeping with the manager.
It was the primary Merseyside derby on the Hill Dickinson Stadium on Sunday and a giant one within the race for European places.
Liverpool took the lead on 29 minutes through Mohamed Salah, before Beto equalised early within the second half.
It looked set to complete level before Virgil van Dijk headed in a winner deep into injury time, finding the back of the online 10 minutes after the 90.
The loss was a painful one for the Toffees and it was a physically painful afternoon for Branthwaite who needed to be stretchered off late in the sport.
The England international appeared to suffer a hamstring injury and Moyes admits that it appears serious.
‘It doesn’t look great,’ Moyes told Sky Sports. ‘It caused problems because we had already made a few subs so we were all the way down to our last one.
‘Jarrad was head and shoulders above anyone else on the pitch, I assumed he played so well.’
The Scot added within the post-match press conference when asked if there was news on the centre-back: ‘No, I’m nervous though. We’ve not had any results yet.’
Goal-scorer Beto was also forced off late in the sport with a head injury after a collision with Liverpool defender Ibrahima Konate.
The forward appeared to suffer swelling under his eyes and was replaced consequently, but there may be yet to be an update on his status.
‘I don’t think the injuries we had helped us, in some ways,’ said Moyes. ‘I’ve got no problem, the players done an ideal job today, competing against a very strong team.’
He told Sky Sports: ‘I assumed the players played great today, they didn’t get the result they deserved. We deserved more from it than we did. They did an ideal job. Disenchanted with the last goal but within the most important the players did an excellent job.’
Reds boss Arne Slot admits his team were poor firstly of the match but improved over the piece and experience counted.
‘There have been multiple aspects entering into but that [experience] was considered one of them,’ said the Dutchman. ‘From the beginning, we weren’t impressed, they were higher in the primary 10-Quarter-hour but we stood our ground.
‘We got higher and higher in the sport. The moment they scored for 1-1 was the moment I expected it the least because we began the second half well. Then towards the top we kept on pushing, were close a number of times, after which scoring a goal you’ll expect Everton to attain – a set piece – is good for us.’
With Aston Villa beating Sunderland, Liverpool stay fifth within the table, while Everton are tenth, but only one point behind sixth-place Chelsea.
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