Jurgen Klopp has outlined the negative impact on Liverpool’s “fluidity and stability” caused by a constantly changing central defensive partnership.
Klopp has been forced to field 12 different centre back pairings in the Premier League this season because of the injury problems suffered by Virgil Van Dijk, Joe Gomez, Joel Matip and Fabinho, the defensive midfielder who has been used as an emergency defender.
With the increasingly fragile Matip picking up yet another injury in the win at Tottenham on Thursday and Fabinho ruled out for the next two or three games, Klopp is set to start with the pairing that finished the Spurs match – the inexperienced Nathaniel Phillips alongside midfielder Jordan Henderson – when Liverpool return to London to face in-form West Ham on Sunday.
While the Merseyside club continue to search desperately for the “right player at the right price” to bolster their defensive options before Monday’s transfer deadline, Klopp says the chopping and changing of personnel has effected his team’s cohesion.
He said: “Football is all about individual skills of course – we have to bring them together and we have make it work – but it’s also about the structure of the team, stability, reliability, knowing what the other boy is doing in this moment so you can react or prepare your reaction. It’s about leadership as well. On the pitch that means who leads the line?
Liverpool’s starting CB partnerships in Premier League 2020-21
In chronological order based on first starts together
- Gomez & Van Dijk – 3 matches
- Fabinho & Van Dijk – 1
- Matip & Van Dijk – 1
- Fabinho & Gomez – 1
- Gomez & Phillips – 1
- Gomez & Matip – 1
- Fabinho & Matip – 6
- Fabinho & Phillips – 2
- Fabinho & Williams – 1
- Fabinho & Henderson – 2
- Henderson & Matip – 1
“It’s not a secret that Virgil [Van Dijk] leads our last line so, organisation-wise, who pushes up, who moves here, who move there; all these kind of things. It just developed in that manner.
“Then it was the job for Joe [Gomez] for a while, who grew into the job well. Then Joe was out and Joel [Matip} played together with Fabinho.
“Both of those players are not the most vocal players on the pitch, let me say it like this, plus we miss our natural No 6 [Fabinho] in midfield. When we speak about structure and stability that changes the whole set-up.
“Usually in football when one player has the ball all the others kind of know what will happen because they are used to it. And all of that was gone in a period when we played every three days.
“The boys did really well with that to be honest but it cost a lot of focus and energy then to change and adapt to all these things. That then cost us our fluidity. Passing without having to look, for example, is pretty much no longer possible because you have no idea where the guy who didn’t play last week will go.
“It’s just starting new pretty often because the centre half pairing changes so often. That’s the problem of the season. I think we dealt quite well with that so far. Maybe not in the manner people want but it’s a tough one in a strong league.”
Klopp insists Liverpool have been looking to bring in a new defender ever since Van Dijk and Gomez were injured within three weeks of each other in the autumn but have refused to panic buy and their search has been complicated because of the lack of available quality players and the financial impact of the pandemic on the club’s resources.
“We need to find the right player and one which suits our financial situation,” he added, “In an ideal world, it would be that the short term solution is the long term solution as well – wow that would be great! I don’t know if we can do that but we will try.”
Despite the on-going defensive concerns, Klopp believes his team are over their blip and re-discovered their form in the win at Tottenham. He has been particularly encouraged that Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Mo Salah have been back among the goals in the last two games but is wary of David Moyes’ much-improved Hammers team.
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from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/36rsfRd
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