Liverpool may no longer be able to step things up a gear as they did on so many occasions last season.
Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool team turned in one of their worst displays under the German manager’s leadership as they fell to a 2-0 defeat to FK Crvena zvezda in Belgrade on Tuesday night.
This was Liverpool’s second Champions League defeat of the season, having also lost 1-0 to Napoli back in early October.
However, what is most concerning for Reds fans is the manner of the performance and how disjointed the team looked over the 90 minutes. For many weeks now, we have been hearing about how the red machine would take things up a gear soon. It always seems to be just around the corner, yet still shows no sign of arriving.
Liverpool – and this seems to be an intentional tactical change from Klopp – are no longer steamrolling teams or running them into the ground with his famed ‘heavy metal football’.
There is no doubt Liverpool’s defensive solidity has improved with the additions of Alisson Becker and, of course, Virgil van Dijk. Yet, that is not the only reason they are tighter at the back. The emphasis now seems to be more focused on making this team hard to break down, rather than just going gung-ho at opponents and letting them be the ones to worry. Fewer risks are being taken.
That is not necessarily a bad thing as Klopp is simply taking a more holistic approach to the team unit. He must be careful, though. We are all familiar with Alex Ferguson’s quote (taken from PremierLeague.com) that “attack wins you games, defence wins you titles.”
Yet, a quick look at the stats (also from the Premier League’s official site) from the last quarter-century shows that in 14 of those 25 years the highest scoring team were the league champions, while the team with the best defence won the league in just 10 of those seasons. Klopp needs to be mindful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Liverpool must get the balance right between defence and attack but it will not come easy. Yet, it is necessary. The attacking trio of Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane already look sluggish, stifled and short on confidence. The midfield generally lacks creativity, although Xherdan Shaqiri, Fabinho and Naby Keita have all shown impressive cameos where they can take the game to the opponents, breaking the lines via jinking runs or incisive passes.
Tuesday night aside, it seems that defence is the one area of this Liverpool team that Klopp has performing to an almost optimum level. However, it’s the attacking drive we witnessed last season that The Reds are missing now. It’s all well and good ‘winning ugly’ but three wins from their last nine games is barely winning at all. Liverpool need to step up that gear before they are simply no longer able to.
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