Liverpool’s blistering start to the season seemed to hit a real stumbling block in their 2-0 Champions League defeat to Red Star Belgrade on Tuesday night.
There is absolutely no doubting, given that he has the inspirational skills of Mel Gibson himself (the Braveheart one, not the Chicken Run one), that Jurgen Klopp has his players fired up and has turned the Reds into genuine title contenders this season – Liverpool are arguably Manchester City’s closest rivals for the 2018/19 Premier League crown.
However, following a hard-earned 1-1 draw against Arsenal on Saturday, Liverpool fell to a 2-0 defeat away at Serbian champions Red Star Belgrade, making it two defeats from three in the Champions League.
That loss has highlighted the fact that, despite their strong start, there are certain players in the Liverpool squad that are not quite hitting the heights expected of them and letting Klopp down.
This is something the German manager must seek to change if he is to maintain an Anfield title challenge, so read on to find out which four players have let Jurgen Klopp down so far this season.
(Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)
1. Roberto Firmino
“I was not really happy with our defending first half in London and he was involved in that. That’s what I’m talking about.”
Those were the words of Jurgen Klopp when discussing Roberto Firmino after Liverpool’s 1-1 draw away to Arsenal on Saturday. Firmino is a fantastic centre-forward, let’s just get that straight, but if he isn’t scoring goals then he becomes heavily reliant on that famous work ethic and defensive contribution.
(Photo by Srdjan Stevanovic/Getty Images)
The 27-year-old was on fire last season, firing home 27 goals in all competitions, but the Brazilian only has four goals to his name so far this campaign, including one in his last nine outings.
His telepathic understanding with Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah seems to have waned a little, leading to a disjointed Liverpool front three, while Firmino is struggling to defend from the front as he so often does – the forward has made 1.63 tackles and won 3.7 duels per 90 minutes this season, compared to 2.11 and 5.77 respectively last term – has meant the Reds have been conceding more possession in the big games than they would like.
2. Mohamed Salah
The Egyptian King seems to go from absolutely brilliant to distinctly average with every touch of the ball at the moment. On the face of it, seven goals in 16 games is a decent return and Salah is still causing problems for defences – his 2.29 take-on success per 90 minutes betters that of his direct rival at Manchester City, Raheem Sterling (2.1).
What is worrying, though, is how uninvolved Salah has become in Liverpool’s general play. The 26-year-old has had 520 touches of the ball in the Premier League this season, compared to 582 for Sterling and an incredible 762 for Eden Hazard, who has played 250 fewer minutes.
(Photo by Srdjan Stevanovic/Getty Images)
Hazard is the cog that makes the entire Chelsea team tick, while Salah has been on the periphery of Liverpool’s play and the former Roma man has only managed two goals in the Champions League (both in the 4-0 home win over Red Star), while he hasn’t netted at all in games against ‘big six’ opposition this season.
Salah’s demeanour has reflected a frustrated player recently and Klopp has urged him to relax more at times this season.
“It is about your confidence,” Klopp told the Telegraph. “His game is really good. His last game was really good – he was in the positions but then the last two balls were not too cool. That happens. He lost balls in those situations last year. How do you deal with it? Be relaxed, completely relaxed, because there is no need for anything else. Completely relaxed. The quality is there and so everything is fine.”
In truth, his end to last season and a tough World Cup with Egypt may still be affecting him. However, Klopp needs his talisman back in shipshape as soon as possible to make sure their good start to the Premier League season isn’t squandered. The fact that he is still chipping away with goals is a positive, at least.
3. Adam Lallana
Adam Lallana may still be recovering from a long-term injury but, given that he has a full pre-season under his belt, his lack of impact for Liverpool so far this season has been quite remarkable.
(Photo credit should read ANDREJ ISAKOVIC/AFP/Getty Images)
The 30-year-old has created just two chances in his 133 minutes of Premier League football in this campaign. Manchester City’s Phil Foden has created double that amount in just 64 minutes of league action and Ruben Loftus-Cheek has equalled Lallana’s tally despite being behind Jorginho, N’Golo Kante, Ross Barkley and Mateo Kovacic in the midfield pecking order at Chelsea.
There is plenty of talent left in the boots of Adam Lallana. However, the former Southampton man is showing it less and less these days and with Alex Oxlade Chamberlain out long-term, and the likes of Naby Keita and Fabinho (we’ll get to him in a minute) really struggling to adjust to the Liverpool way, it is becoming a problem for Jurgen Klopp, who is now relying on Xherdan Shaqiri (a winger) for his midfield creativity.
4. Fabinho
Where do we start with Fabinho? The 25-year-old Brazilian surprised everybody by signing for Liverpool straight after last season’s Champions League final.
He has shocked everybody even more with just how terrible he has been so far this season. Following Fabinho’s reported £39 million move from Monaco over the summer, we’ve heard nothing but excuses from Jurgen Klopp about how the midfielder needs ‘time to adjust’ to English football and Liverpool’s style of play.
Following Liverpool’s defeat to Napoli in the Champions League in October, the former Dortmund manager told the Guardian: “He has had to adapt to the style of play and, if you watch Fabinho playing at Monaco, he was full of confidence. You come to a new club and it depends a bit on your personality. He’s not the loudest person on the planet.”
(Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)
That would be all well and good for an 18-year-old with little experience in a top side, but Fabinho has seven caps for Brazil, is a Ligue 1 winner with Monaco and has played in a Champions League semi-final. Being honest, he has looked completely off the pace and nothing has accentuated Fabinho’s struggles more as when he went up against Arsenal’s new-found midfield duo of Granit Xhaka and Lucas Torreira in the recent 1-1 draw at the Emirates.
Klopp, surprisingly, gave Fabinho the midfield pivot role that day and, to be frank, he was horrendous and drew visible outrage from his manager. The former Monaco man managed just 45 touches of the ball in the entire game, compared to 74 for Torreira and 119 for Xhaka.
Arsenal’s pairing also made a combined 26 recoveries that day, compared to just one for Fabinho, while Xhaka and Torreira posted passing accuracies of 87.63% and 89.06% respectively, compared to Fabinho’s 80.77%.
You can call it early days all you want for Fabinho but with Jordan Henderson and Naby Keita really struggling for fitness, Liverpool are desperate for the Brazilian to step up and make that central midfield role his own.
The post Four Liverpool players letting Jurgen Klopp down appeared first on Squawka News.
From Squawka NewsSquawka News https://ift.tt/2PMNQwi
No comments:
Post a Comment