Jurgen Klopp says he wants to right Liverpool‘s woeful form by focusing on building a new defensive platform, and has spent the extended break since the club’s chastening defeat away at Napoli last Wednesday working towards that goal.
The Reds were comprehensively beaten 4-1 in southern Italy, and were wretched in every area of the pitch as a lack of intensity, efficacy and at times desire cost them dearly. Klopp’s men were three down at half-time, with Napoli also having missed a penalty, as the home side were able to walk through the midfield and backline seemingly at will.
The second Napoli goal in particular was an utterly dreadful one to concede, with Napoli able to move forward far too easily and then facing no challenge at all from a sea of static red shirts.
Particularly poor individual performances from the likes of Joe Gomez, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Virgil van Dijk did not help Liverpool’s cause, but their overall ineffectiveness across the field of play contributed significantly to their downfall.
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With three draws, two defeats and two wins from their opening seven fixtures in the Premier League and Champions League, Klopp discussed his use of the extra training time ahead of Tuesday’s match at home to Ajax following the postponement of Saturday’s fixture with Wolves due to the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
“Yes we would have wanted to play [against Wolves],” Klopp told reporters in his press conference. “But for the reasons we all know it didn’t happen and of course we respect that. We tried to use the time for analysis and training which makes absolute sense after the game we played in Napoli.
“I watched the game back plenty of times and it was a real horror show. We showed the boys the situations as well. They knew [the mistakes they made], but seeing it again makes it really obvious. It’s the worst game we had since I’ve been here.
“In this game there was nothing [visible about the way we want to play]. You have to understand why that happens. Eight out of 11 were absolutely below their level, and the three others just had a normal game.
For Klopp, who has won every top-tier trophy available since taking over at Anfield in 2015, the disjointed nature of Liverpool’s displays has been concerning, and the way to begin making progress is to improve their defending before anything else.
“We had obvious football problems, and what led to these problems was a misjudgement of certain situations,” he explained. “In this game it looked like everyone wanted to solve the problem by himself, and that never gave us the structure to work together. We have to make sure we solve the problems together on the pitch.
“We have to follow a common idea again. Everything teams do in football is based on really solid defending, that’s how it all starts, that’s what we had to work on and that’s what we did. Now we have to build again in the training sessions. How you can get confidence in a football game? By winning challenges, that’s it. We all have to realise it all starts again with defending. If we do that we can get some kind of momentum, if we have momentum we can play good football.”
So, how can Klopp improve his team’s defending?
What has been going wrong?
The first thing to take note of is the use of that word “defending” rather than defence – Klopp is not looking at the deepest area of the pitch alone here, he is looking for better defending collectively. Subsequently, it’s important to identify why Liverpool have not been defending especially well so far this season, and the reasons are complex.
Of course, guaranteed starters like Alexander-Arnold and Van Dijk have not been playing at anything like their usually high levels. The former has looked lethargic and at times disinterested, while the latter has been error-prone and sloppy. What’s more, injuries to Ibrahima Konate and Joel Matip meant Gomez has had to play between the two, having barely done so in the past few years, seemingly making all three less sure of what is going on around them.
Something which has made both Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson less effective is the width of the forwards ahead of them – Mohamed Salah and Luis Diaz are closer to the by-line far more often than previously under Klopp, meaning the attacking width and creativity the full-backs used to provide is far less common.
Liverpool are having to do more defending than usual in part because the full-backs are already deep, opponents are not being penned into their own half, and it is easier for teams to start breaks of their own.
Then there is the midfield. The central player, Fabinho, has looked a jaded and exhausted version of himself so far this season, unable to break down attacks or provide the defence with the cover he typically has done. Couple that with the fact that Liverpool’s No 8s are playing higher up the pitch to fill the central areas vacated by Salah and Diaz, and there is precious little protection in front of the centre-halves and full-backs.
More generally, the spate of injuries, tiredness and lack of rotation options affecting the whole Liverpool squad is having a significant impact on the quality of defending.
Liverpool have gone behind in five of their seven matches so far this season, and the poor defending which is leaving them open is being caused by all of their systemic issues.
Are there possible solutions?
The injury to Konate, and a subsequent one to Robertson, means Klopp does not have the option of dropping a slew of players in defence and trying out new ones. At the moment, only five first-team defenders are fit to play.
One thing which would have helped is having a few extra days to train without the intensity of a matchday on Sunday. After competing on all four fronts right to the very end of the season last year, the Reds conducted a heavy pre-season programme which looks to have left the majority of the squad exhausted, and a small but welcome extra rest could benefit them in that regard.
Liverpool’s high line, a staple under Klopp which has defined their way of playing and has been a major reason for their success, has come in for criticism since the start of the season but is unlikely to be changed. The Reds use the high line to make the pitch smaller, to ensure they are in the opposition half, more often than not, and to keep control of the ball.
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The return of Thiago Alcantara, impressive in his cameo in Italy last Wednesday, could also help to improve Liverpool’s defending if he is able to give them more control of possession in midfield and to decrease the onus on Fabinho when the opposition are breaking with the ball. His presence makes the high line much more viable.
Something which could help, though it is not a tangible metric, is increased communication. Having attended six of the opening seven Liverpool fixtures, the lack of talking and encouragement in the defence and encouragement of one another has been noticeable, especially in comparison with the previous season. If Van Dijk in particular could talk to those around him throughout the matches more, the team as a whole could benefit.
Confidence in defending is something Liverpool are going to have build up over time, and key to that will be going through a run of matches where they don’t concede the first goal. In order to do so, the wide forwards could do with playing far closer to the goal, and the midfield needs to play much more intensely and aggressively from the start.
Despite a very impressive start to the season, Harvey Elliott is not able to help with the defensive work that the Liverpool midfield traditionally does under Klopp, and provides little cover for Alexander-Arnold on the right. Perhaps leaving the 19-year-old on the bench at the start of matches once more midfielders are available again could mean Liverpool are able to take more a foothold in games from the outset, and it still gives them an excellent option among the substitutes should they need him.
The reality is that, with so many players injured or fatigued, it is going to take time for Liverpool to find anything like the form they have shown throughout the majority of Klopp’s reign. The new defensive attitude Klopp is hoping to see will face its first against Ajax on Tuesday night.
For now, if they can find ways to make themselves more intense, aggressive, and robust, they can improve their defending and take the pressure of having to earn results from a goal down away from themselves. That may not sound like much, but it would be a big first step forwards.
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