[ad_1]
It seems to be a common theme in soccer that sometimes certain figures are not criticized for their previous achievements. That seems to be the case for Jürgen Klopp in Liverpool.
Don’t get it wrong, the German is a legend at Anfield for what he has brought to the club in the last two years. Winning a Premier League and a Champions League automatically puts you in the elite category of Liverpool’s historic coaches, and that will never change.
However, the way he has used his equipment over the past few weeks deserves further inspection. While the recent results have not been a disaster, they are far from perfect.
Taking the win over Crystal Palace aside, Liverpool have struggled to score goals in open play. Against Tottenham the winning goal came from the corner, and in the tie with Fulham Mohamed Salah’s tie was a penalty.
There is no doubt that the team seems to have lost a bit of intensity in recent games, but that is to be expected given the intense match schedule and injuries. The same players have had to play practically all the games in the course of December, except for some changes.
To be more specific, it could be said that there were three or even four games in which Klopp’s use of his team could be questioned. The first in the Champions League against Midtjylland.
The game in Denmark was, in short, a meaningless game. Liverpool had already secured the top spot in the group, and there wasn’t much need for a strong eleven. So why did we see people like Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Fabinho, Naby Keïta and Diogo Jota start?
Of course we weren’t expecting to see a full U23 squad, but the aforementioned players are key members of the first team. When you’re going through an injury crisis, you need to wrap the players you have in cotton and make sure none of them take more hits.
Your content written from Liverpool, but done differently and straight to your inbox.
You know what it’s all about, that it offers you the best in-depth, alternative and current content, but it also brings Liverpool, Football Club and the city to wherever you are in the world.
If you’re too busy to scroll or search, simply sign up for our newsletter to receive your daily selection of written content, from transfers to tactics, delivered right to your inbox. You will also receive a weekly summary personally written by the editor, as well as the opportunity to stay up-to-date with any of the latest offers and exclusives we have.
All angles of the champions covered.
For all Liverpool fans on the planet.
How do you register?
It’s easy and only takes a few seconds.
Just type your email address in the box at the top of this article and click “Subscribe.”
And that’s it, you are ready.
And yet what happened? Jota ends up suffering a serious injury that likely means he will have been on the sidelines for at least two months. Of course, you can’t predict that a player will be injured, but at the time it seemed like an unnecessary gamble, and it still feels that way several weeks later.
Then there is the game against Newcastle and Fulham. It was quite clear that the team was not playing as well as it could have been, and a substitution would have helped inject some life and creativity into the team.
Instead, we didn’t see a tactical change in any of the matches until well after the hour, with the exception of Joël Matip being replaced at halftime at Craven Cottage due to injury. Klopp’s defense of leaving him until the end of the game to make changes has been in the event of an injury, so it’s almost as if the boss fears an injury will happen every time a player takes the field.
And then against West Brom we have the same problem. Yes, Matip came out with another injury after an hour, but the next change was not made until 83 rd minute. This was to bring in Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, which was a good idea to be fair, but then the final change was pretty weird.
With the level of play, Klopp opts to remove Roberto Firmino and replace him with Divock Origi, who has yet to score a goal in the league this season. Considering he had Takumi Minamino and Xherdan Shaqiri on the bench, who have shown more promising moments this season, that seemed like an odd decision too.
All of this may seem very harsh, but you can’t just lavish a player, coach or coach with praise and ignore things when they make a mistake. It’s part of life, we all make mistakes and the Liverpool manager is no exception.
While it may be an exaggeration to say that he has been grossly wrong in recent games, it is fair to question some of his decisions about team management. But let’s not forget, Liverpool are still leading the table and they are starting to have some of their main players coming back from injuries, so things are not all bad.
[ad_2]
