Liverpool: How do you solve this team?
Liverpool are in a rut. Coming in off a year where they were two games of a historic quadruple, the Merseyside team find themselves sixth, 16 points of Premier League leaders, Arsenal.
Jurgen Klopp’s ageing old guard, and inexperienced new players, are yet to gel, leaving a disjointed, unorganised mess of a side. After failing to replace talisman, Sadio Mane, the Reds have lacked a clinical edge this campaign, alongside some gaping holes in midfield and a catalogue of defensive errors, has left fans questioning.
Klopp’s Liverpool lost to Brentford 3-1 on Monday night, in an abysmal performance that saw the Bees score five times, though two were ruled out. Among the goals, two came from corners, with the goal scorers being almost unchallenged. Up the pitch, things weren’t much different, as the Reds struggled to create clear cut chances, rather relying on Darwin Nunez’s runs un-behind, though his finishing still leaves a lot to be desired.
To make things worse, star defender Virgil van Dijk picked up a hamstring injury, and will see a specialist over the coming days to determine just how bad the extent of the injury is.
So, what’s gone wrong? Is it the lack of creativity in midfield? Or potentially the disjointed nature of the team’s inconsistent backline?
Everybody knows that front man Nunez has not hit the heights expected, alongside that, Luis Diaz is out with a long-term injury, but Liverpool have attempted to rectify that by bringing in Dutch star Cody Gakpo. The 23-year-old can play anywhere in a front three, just like Klopp likes, and comes in having scored 13 goals this season so far. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, again.
So, the Reds have made an effort to help themselves in front of goal, but what about midfield? Well with the clubs current ownership stance, it seems highly unlikely they will cough up the fee’s required to bring in the calibre of players wanted. But, this is a midfield that got the team to two trophy’s and a Champions League Final? So, what’s gone wrong?
The honest answer is inconsistency. Liverpool have barely played the same midfield three all season. Fabinho has played the most out of Liverpool’s midfield this season, but the players either side of him have changed weekly. In contrast to, Jordan Henderson started 40 games alongside Fabinho in all competitions last season. Alongside this Thiago’s creative turn out and defensive covering has decreased, leading to Harvey Elliott getting more game time, and though his dribbles lead the team from midfield, his overall play is not yet up to the standard of the team. This combination leads to having holes through this midfield, and an almost disjointed centre point. It’s an ageing core group, and its unfortunately starting to show.
The biggest problem that having a slow midfield, is that it leaves your defence wide open to an onslaught. In a lot of cases you can get away with it in the most part, but not when, again, your defensive unit changes weekly, and is almost as lost as those in front.
This season, Liverpool’s highest tackler is forward Diogo Jota, with 2.5 tackles per 90. Not at any point should a forward be leading the team in tackles. To make things worse, injuries have ravaged the Red’s backline, mainstay Joel Matip, the teams defensive tackle leader, has only made five starts, with Joe Gomez deputising for most of the time in his absence, Ibrahima Konate has also only made two starts.
Defensively, certain things are quite simple, and the simple things are what Liverpool have failed to do this season. This was evident when the team conceded the set-piece goals against Brentford. But, when you have a constantly changing backline, that has to take on more and more forward attacks than it should, it leaves you incredibly vulnerable. It’s easy to look at how bad some of defenders marking and so on has been, but Liverpool have been built as a unit, with flowing overlapping defenders, and a fluid front line. You take one player out of that, or one man doesn’t do there job then its like taking a cog or a pin out of a machine, it just won’t work.
To answer what’s gone wrong, it’s simple, they pulled a pin and it’s affected everything, whether you like it or not. Its not a blame game, I believe this digression would have come whether Mane left or not, but his departure has accelerated it. When one man is missing, or someone isn’t up to standard, it’s easy to forget the basics, right now, everyone’s off the mark.
I think that’s where Liverpool is at now, they lost a huge pin in Mane, one that was bigger than most thought. What doesn’t help, is the rest of the core of this group is aging, and with that comes injury. This Liverpool team is still stacked, but it took Klopp four years to create the team that would go on to win a Premier League and Champions League. The Red’s will be okay this year and scrape to a top five most likely, but what comes could be a long road, the promise is there, but can they find the key again, we’ll see.
