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When Liverpool take on Fulham at Anfield tomorrow with the aim of ending a dismal five-game losing streak at home, there is a chance they can do it with another new center-back association, should Jürgen Klopp be willing to give Ben Davies his debut in the likely absence of Ozan Kabak after the 20-year-old suffered a minor injury in Thursday night’s loss to Chelsea.
If that scenario were to play out, Liverpool’s tally would carry as many as 20 unique center-back combinations for the season so far in all competitions. It’s a frankly ridiculous number, and it has been a hugely debilitating source of instability throughout the campaign, the collateral damage of which has spread across the camp in various ways.
Yet with so much focus on the absurdity of Liverpool’s defensive situation, it has somehow been overlooked how much the midfield has been continually cut and shifted. After 27 league games, Klopp has already used 14 different midfield combinations, with the most used combination of Jordan Henderson, Gini Wijnaldum and Curtis Jones five times.
While last season Klopp was able to field at least one of Fabinho or Henderson in midfield in 35 league games, he has only done so 14 times so far this season, while neither of them have started a single. league match in midfield in 2021. so far.
Regular midfield rotation isn’t bad in and of itself, of course. Typically, it would suggest a high degree of tactical flexibility and strength in depth, as evidenced by the fact that Klopp deployed no fewer than 16 unique midfield combinations over the course of Liverpool’s title-winning campaign.
This season, however, Klopp has been repeatedly forced shuffle his midfield out of necessity, partly because players like Thiago Alcântara, Naby Keita, Jordan Henderson and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain were unavailable for several stints, and partly because of injuries at center-back that led him to release Fabinho again to fill the void, and then the same with Henderson, therefore smashing two-thirds of his best midfield setup.
As such, rather than tailoring midfield selection with each specific opponent in mind, it’s essentially been about picking whoever was fit and available at any given time, which is why Wijnaldum has made more appearances (36) than anyone. other. player on the team, with Jones the second most used midfielder in 29 appearances in all competitions. It is not just the volume of change, but also the fact that the midfielders have not had established roles, because each has had to move to occupy different positions that might not be better suited to their individual strengths (most notably Thiago, who has been found himself tasked with a very different job than he was presumably hired to do).
And while last season, Klopp was able to adjust his midfield against a consistent defensive core, only using four central defender combinations throughout the league campaign (Virgil van Dijk playing every minute and accompanied by Joe Gomez, Joel Matip or Dejan Lovren), this season has been changing the midfield in the face of an ever-changing set of pairs of central defenders, which has had a profoundly negative impact on the system as a whole. With so little continuity in central defender and midfield, the associations have not had time to grow and flourish, and the wingers and the three forwards, the only parts of the team that have been constantly available, have felt the ripple effects as well.
So where can Liverpool go from here in fast-running time to change their form before any lingering hopes of finishing in the top four are completely dissipated? Klopp can’t do much as a center-back with the limited number of options at his disposal, which means we are likely to see two from Fabinho, Kabak, Davies and Nat Phillips together for the rest of the season. .
However, there is an argument for committing to playing as a center-back in the center-back position and getting Fabinho back into his favorite role, with the aim of getting the best midfield available in as many games as possible from now until the end of the season. . May. Returning Fabinho to the anchor role will not instantly solve everything, of course, but it will bring several benefits; making Liverpool more difficult to play, allowing Liverpool to pin teams and keep the pressure higher up the field, providing a more natural defensive screen in front of the baseline and freeing Thiago to operate in more advanced areas.
Thiago has only started one game in midfield all season with Fabinho or Henderson (the Merseyside derby at Goodison Park in October), and has spent a total of 14 minutes on the field alongside Keita, during the early stages of the first half of the 2-0 win against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in September.
With his sights set on the last 16 Champions League second leg matches against RB Leipzig next week, for which Klopp will surely want at least two from Wijnaldum, Thiago and Jones as fresh as possible, a viable solution for him. Tomorrow’s game against Fulham could be a midfielder trio of Fabinho, Keita and Thiago (or Jones). With Fabinho keeping things together in all six, Thiago and Keita offer a great deal of cunning, precision and penetration with their exceptional dribbling and passing ability against a Fulham team that will likely follow the standard low blocking model when defending. In a game like this, there’s a lot less need for a player’s safety-first approach like Wijnaldum.
Obviously that would involve some degree of risk in facing Davies and Phillips together in the back (assuming Kabak isn’t ready), but at this point in the season Liverpool could try something bold and different, because what they have been doing it for the last few months it hasn’t exactly worked. With midfielders filling the gaps in central defender, they have weakened two positions to solve a problem and have been advancing at a steep decline pace for far too long.
This weekend feels like an ideal opportunity to shift your focus and prioritize strengthening the midfield with one of the best midfielders in the area. They have little to lose at this point and much to gain if they do well.
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