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It has often been said that Liverpool have not had their best performance this season. While this may be true, it must be remembered how high the standards are that they have set for the past two or three seasons.
This is a team that has accumulated 196 points over the course of the previous two league seasons, picking up four major trophies along the way. There would surely be a crash at some point, and when you consider the difficult circumstances that every team in the country is in, it should come as no surprise that most clubs have yet to find their best form.
That said, despite some of the criticism Liverpool have received and injuries that have damaged the true strength of the squad, the signs are that Jürgen Klopp is still managing to make the team tough to beat.
After the injuries of Joe Gomez and Virgil van Dijk, many expected Liverpool’s defense to collapse and the team would find it difficult to shut out the opposition. But the evidence shows that the players who are fit and available have done a good job.
Since Van Dijk was injured in the Merseyside derby in October, Liverpool have played 11 league games and haven’t conceded more than one goal in any of them. If you also include the Champions League, there has only been one game (Atalanta at home) in which at least two goals have been conceded in the last two and a half months.
But how have Klopp and his team managed to do this? Well, it hasn’t been easy, that’s for sure, but part of the solution has been the quality of Fabinho and Joël Matip who have stepped up and filled the void of Van Dijk and Gomez.
That’s the obvious answer, and you’d think there will have been a tactical shift in the way the team defends. When you really look at recent accessories, that may not be the case.
Take the image below as an example. Against Chelsea in September, with Van Dijk and Gómez on the side, Liverpool kept a high line for a set piece, as we had hoped for the last two seasons.
So if you look here against Newcastle in the middle of the week, the line, if anything, is a bit higher than before. Bearing in mind that this is without any recognized center-back from the first team on the wing, with Matip also on the sidelines for this game.
It just shows that the way Liverpool play is not about individuals, but about a system. Nat Phillips has been able to make the team that has won the biggest awards and can fit in relatively smoothly.
Klopp has managed to build a team that, no matter which players take the field, can fit into Liverpool’s style so as not to compromise their style. That is the sign of a well-trained team.
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After looking at the set pieces, how have Liverpool defended themselves in open play? Almost the same, really.
Below is an example of the loss at Aston Villa. Yes, this may not be the best example of how Liverpool should defend, but the best players in the squad were on the field that day.
And then if you compare it to this example of the victory over Tottenham. With Rhys Williams in the lineup alongside Fabinho, the defensive line remained relatively high despite having to deal with the pace of Son Heung-Min and Stephen Bergwijn.
This only reinforces once again the strategy that while Klopp has been forced to go without two or three of his first-choice defenders, he has stayed true to his principles and has not changed the way the team defends. While this may have been perceived as a risky move, evidence from the last 17 games across all competitions with eight clean sheets shows that it seems to work relatively well.
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