In all eight of their games, they have been second-best in terms of distance covered, while in six of them they have managed fewer sprints than their opponents. Right now, they are falling short in that department, and it may require some harsh truths from the manager and his staff to snap them out of their slumber.Īnd what about the physical side of the game? Liverpool haven’t just looked jaded mentally this season, they’ve also looked like a side whose legs have gone. “We are not robots,” said Van Dijk following the win over Newcastle last week, and that’s fair enough, but Liverpool has been a team that has prided itself on its mentality, and has had a lot of praise in that regard. He could have said the same after the defeat to Manchester United, and certainly after Wednesday night’s game. On the opening weekend at Fulham, Klopp questioned his players’ “attitude”, suggesting he had seen signs of complacency or a lack of mental preparation. The Egyptian hasn’t scored in four now, and was taken off with nearly half an hour left in Naples. Virgil van Dijk, for example, looks a shadow of the man which has dominated the Reds’ backline since his arrival in 2018, while his full-backs, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson, have been worryingly subdued and far too easy to bypass defensively.įabinho has looked fatigued and overworked in midfield, while Mohamed Salah’s frustration is growing with each game. 'F*ck off, Allegri!' - Juventus a club in complete crisisįor all the talk of new signings and of adaptation processes, it is Liverpool’s most established players who have struggled most this season.Ronaldo and Portugal's big line-up tussles for World Cup.Liverpool's first Premier League XI: Where are they now?.'Give Iwobi what he wants' - Fans want new Everton contract.The ‘reinvention’ Klopp speaks of needs to start right away, but what will it involve? GOAL takes a look.
They were the team everybody feared, the one they all (begrudgingly) admired relentless, brilliant, utterly in sync and convinced of their style and talent. They were 15 minutes away from nicking the Premier League title and only a Thibaut Courtois masterclass away from becoming European champions. Less than four months ago, Liverpool were on the cusp of greatness.
That’s not to say that things don’t need to improve. We’ve seen some strange decisions in football, but that would be the strangest of them all.
Those are damning words, as is the fact that Klopp was asked, in his post-match press conference, whether he fears the sack at Anfield. “We have to try to find a setup to be much better in pretty much everything." “They will say - and I would say - it's a perfect moment (to play Liverpool),” he concluded. "It looks a little bit like we have to reinvent ourselves,” he said before adding that Wolves, Liverpool’s next opponents, “probably cannot stop laughing” ahead of their trip to Anfield this weekend. “It’s tough to take,” began Klopp, but it was what he went on to say which offered the greatest insight into his mindset right now.
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