This time 12 months ago, Liverpool had lost only two league games, were about to chalk up a 10-game winning run in the Premier League and had become only the eighth club to win all six of their Champions League group games. Nobody was talking about physical and mental fatigue.
One of the innate characteristics of a Jurgen Klopp side is that when one element of the team dynamic breaks, be it through individual poor form or a lack of belief, everything can quickly fall apart.
We diagnose four of the biggest issues causing Liverpool’s unexpected fallow year…
Lack of legs in midfield
“Liverpool have bought one midfield player in four and a half years and it’s coming back to haunt them now,” was Jamie Carragher’s assessment in January, and you would struggle to find a Liverpool supporter who disagrees with that.
It isn’t that Liverpool haven’t invested, more that they focused their recruitment on defensive back-up (Kostas Tsimikas, Calvin Ramsay, Ibrahima Konate) and high-level forwards (Diogo Jota, Luis Diaz, Darwin Nunez, Cody Gakpo). In midfield, they signed Thiago Alcantara and then took Arthur Melo on loan.
Three of Liverpool’s four most-used midfielders this season are Thiago, Jordan Henderson and Fabinho – 31, 32 and 29. Liverpool played 63 matches last season and there was a World Cup in the middle of this campaign. Their midfield has less energy this term than it did last. These three things are related.
At their best, Liverpool were brilliant in transition – both ways. They transformed from defence to attack quickly, but also used their midfield energy to close teams down and snuff out counter-attacks.
Liverpool began this season by attacking with the same gusto, but the midfield has not been able to stop counters and so Liverpool have given away big chances.
In search of a solution, Klopp pushed his defensive line up the pitch to reduce the amount of space his midfielders needed to cover. That, in turn, only made Liverpool more vulnerable to a ball over the top for an onrushing forward.
Salah’s changing role
Mohamed Salah has not had a poor season; it is nonsense to suggest as much. He has 18 goals and assists in the Premier League and 13 in cup competitions. The numbers have slightly dropped off, but that’s not really on him.
Instead, Salah is being asked to play a different part following the signing of Nunez. Last year, Salah had the most shots of any Premier League player, with 4.33 per 90 minutes played. This season, he is taking his shots from roughly the same distance from goal and taking roughly the same amount of chances as before. But now the top shot-taker in the Premier League per 90 minutes, with more than 1.1 more per game than any other forward in the division, is Nunez.
Salah is taking 25 per cent fewer shots and creating fewer chances too (it isn’t that Salah is creating chances rather than shooting). With Liverpool’s extra forwards, the onus has been reduced on Salah. Given his age (30) and the workload of last season, maybe that’s no bad thing. But it does take some getting used to for him and his teammates.
All of this is best demonstrated in Salah’s comparative lack of touches this season. In 2021-22, he touched the ball more often than in any season of his career – 50.6 per 90 minutes in the league. This season, that has fallen to the lowest touches per 90 of his time at Liverpool – 39.8.
The loss of belief
“I cannot say I was 100 per cent convinced we would not concede a goal when we were 3-2 up,” said Klopp after Liverpool did indeed concede an equaliser to Brighton at Anfield in October. That admission spoke of Klopp’s concern that the mentality of his squad had shifted over the summer as mental fatigue and the disappointment of a second Champions League final defeat to Real Madrid set in.
In fact, Klopp’s worry about ceding leads has proved unfounded. Liverpool are the only team in the country not to drop any points after scoring the first goal of the game – 10 wins from 10. But he was right about the general erosion in belief. The biggest macro change in Liverpool is in their lack of response to adversity.
Last season in the league, Liverpool conceded the first goal of the game 12 times in the Premier League (more times than Arsenal, who finished fifth). But of those 12 matches, Liverpool only lost twice. Their record of 1.67 points per game when conceding first was more than half a point better than any other team in the division (Arsenal, for what it’s worth, took 0.27 points per game).
This season, a sea change. Liverpool have certainly conceded the first goal more often (13 times is already more than the whole of 2021-22). But their response to conceding has been poor: only 0.69 points per match. Crystal Palace, who have gone months without a win and sacked Patrick Vieira, have won double Liverpool’s number of matches when conceding first. Now it is Arsenal, leading the league, who have taken on that mantle: from 0.27 points per game to 1.88. Everyone faces adversity; it’s how you react to it that defines you.
Injury issues
Liverpool have not suffered a repeat of 2020-21, when their attempts to defend their league title were decimated by serious injuries to key players. Then, Virgil van Dijk only played five matches and Joel Matip just 10, while Henderson, Thiago and Fabinho had time out.
But Liverpool’s rhythm has been constantly disrupted by absentees. Only three times since the opening day has the defensive axis of Van Dijk, Matip and Fabinho started together (wins against Aston Villa and Ajax, draw vs Brighton). The league season started with three different central defensive combinations in three matches and three different midfield combinations for good measure.
And then, frequent minor knocks to kill any buzz. For the 3-2 defeat at Arsenal, Fabinho didn’t start. After winning two league games in a row vs Manchester City and West Ham, Liverpool lost to Nottingham Forest with a four-man midfield that contained Curtis Jones, Harvey Elliott and Fabio Carvalho.
When a winning run ended in a shambolic defeat at Brentford, Matip and Andy Robertson were missing. Only three outfield players have started 80 per cent of their league games or more. Two of those (Van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold) have been out of form.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/EapG8CU
Post a Comment