Jurgen Klopp looks ready to solve Liverpool’s uneven attack

Much was made of Liverpool’s recent form, or rather the lack of it, following three draws and two losses in five Premier League games before the dominant victory at Tottenham.

Despite that excellent 3-1 victory, the difficult period has seen the Reds slide from pole position in the top flight to fourth and a four-point gap to leader Manchester City, who has a game in the league. hand, while rivals Manchester United are three points ahead and Leicester two ahead.

Of course, many teams have already been through ups and downs in what is a very mixed up 2020/21 season and there is no reason to suggest that things are over for the champions in their quest to retain the title, particularly after they closed the gap with victory over Spurs and other results followed their path this week.

Now Jurgen Klopp’s team must continue to perform as it did against José Mourinhho’s team to keep winning, otherwise a crash like the one we just saw will likely cause the gap between Liverpool and City to become insurmountable and result in an early end to his quest for a second Premier League crown.

One of the main reasons cited for the Reds’ disappointing exit has to do with their injury crisis at the heart of the defense.

Problems with central defender have plagued Klopp’s team this season with long-lasting injuries to Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez, Joel Matip’s inability to demonstrate his fitness, which was demonstrated once again after he was taken out of the way. time against Tottenham, and the absence of any other recognized senior players in the central half to replace those three.

As we know, those problems have seen Fabinho pushed to the baseline and joined in the center of defense by a variety of players, including midfielder Jordan Henderson, teenager Rhys Williams and the almost inexperienced Nat Phillips.

Drastic problems lead to drastic solutions, like those that will always have a knock-on effect. Apparently, there was a decrease in the willingness to take risks of older players in recent games to protect a young, inexperienced or improvised defense, while losing world-class midfielders from the engine room would never help sustain attacks. due to the way the Reds operate and play in the five Premier League games before the Spurs have missed something as a likely consequence.

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Another consequence that has been mentioned often since the injury problems began is the position of Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson.

In the past two trophy-laden seasons, both wingers have often been the catalyst for devastating attacks, prowling the wings at will to deliver assist after assist with unmatched precision and damage.

However, assists seemed to have almost depleted with Alexander-Arnold providing just two in his 17 top flight appearances, until he landed a third this season with a sumptuous pass to Sadio Mane at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, while Robertson has provided five in the last 20 games.

It was assumed that due to the defensive woes Klopp’s men are going through, both Alexander-Arnold and Robertson have dropped a little deeper and the Reds fail to create at the head of the field because of that.

It’s a fair conclusion on the surface, but ECHO set out to establish what has really been going on with the two defenders in terms of their position by looking at the heat maps of every Premier League match so far this season.

As you can see from the set of heat maps above, the position of Alexander-Arnold and Robertson is very similar to what you would expect with most of their play on the wings in the middle of the opposition.

These are the first five games of the season, before Van Dijk was injured against Everton.

Alexander-Arnold had provided one assist in the second half against Arsenal, while Robertson had provided two assists, against Leeds United and Everton, at this point in the campaign, with the latter having also scored against the Gunners.

Now something to note from these five heatmaps is that Robertson is playing further forward more often than Alexander-Arnold and seems to be entering more penetrating gaps between the opposition defense, while against Everton both players They stayed a bit further behind, which is understandable afterwards. the wound of his talisman in the heart of the baseline.

This next set of heat maps, which plots the position of Alexander-Arnold and Robertson in the three games before Joe Gomez suffered an injury on international service, yields some very interesting data.

As you can see, against Sheffield United and West Ham, both players struggled to really go beyond the last line of defense as they began to get used to life without Van Dijk.

The duo regularly assumed deeper-than-normal positions beyond the midway line, although there were clearly times when they made the decision to move forward, as we have seen so regularly in previous matches.

Klopp used a 4-2-3-1 formation against Sheffield United, but returned to the regular 4-3-3 for West Ham.

Against Manchester City, when Klopp used his 4-2-3-1 formation for the second time this season thanks to the appearance of Diogo Jota, both Alexander-Arnold and Robertson had a hard time getting out of defense and you can see how much further back they played. against a rival of the highest quality.

Alexander-Arnold suffered a calf injury against City and was replaced in the 63rd minute.

The first three of these heatmaps show first the position of Robertson, James Milner and Neco Williams after they replaced the right back as Alexander-Arnold recovered from injury before his reintroduction in the final 22 minutes against the Wolves. .

This is where you can begin to see how much responsibility Robertson has been assigned to keep moving forward and the rather uneven nature in terms of positioning for Liverpool’s full-backs in every match. In the game against Leicester, the Scottish international was by far the more advanced of the two players and got an assist for his efforts.

Against Brighton, Williams was retired at halftime and replaced by Henderson, while Milner left midfield and became a right-back for the second 45 minutes, which seemed like the right decision for Klopp as the veteran’s position is considerably more offensive than star Williams, but it is still Robertson who covered an incredible amount of ground going up and down.

The last two heatmaps here show Williams, Robertson and the reintroduction of Alexander Arnold, but it was apparently a tough question for the latter to move forward after entering and he was likely feeling his way back after injury as Robertson continued. Investigation.

In these six heatmaps, which highlight the position of Alexander-Arnold and Robertson in Liverpool’s next six games of the Premier League season, there are even more interesting things to note, and Diogo Jota is not worth suffering. an injury against Midtjylland in the Champions League before the trip to Fulham.

During that visit to Craven Cottage, it is clear both full-backs were playing high up the field, but finding wing positions beyond the 18-yard area was a bit more difficult to come by, again it was Robertson down the left who still found the greatest success here.

Against Tottenham at Anfield, it was a slightly different story, with much of the game continuing in the middle of the opposition and both players going beyond defense and occasionally getting into the penalty area, and Robertson once again seemed to do this. more effectively than Alexander-Arnold. provided a help in the game.

Interestingly, at Crystal Palace, in the dominant 7-0 win, both players appear to have assumed deeper positions than in previous games, but the Reds still managed to loot goals and both defenders received an assist that day.

And then comes the beginning of Liverpool’s poor form with a draw at West Brom, who are on the second floor, a stalemate at Newcastle, a league fighter, and a loss to Southampton.

Interestingly in all those games, the lack of goals is clearly not due to the deeper position of Alexander-Arnold or Robertson, with both playing extremely high on the field and covering a lot of ground, although there is a drop from the field. England international against Southampton. So perhaps it’s due to the aforementioned bonding game and the creation of opportunities during these games which is where the Reds started to fall.

** You can read all about Liverpool’s problems in attack before playing Tottenham and where they came from here.

The last three heat maps here show the position of Alexander-Arnold and Robertson in Liverpool’s last three Premier League games.

First, against Manchester United, both players went up and down the court well and occasionally broke past defense, while also getting into the box at times, although they couldn’t break the deadlock.

When Burnley arrived at Anfield, both full-backs assumed positions so high on the court you’d think they were wingers and much of their game came in the final third, but the Reds still couldn’t find the back of the net with both. Robertson and Alexander-Arnold even further ahead than they had been for the rest of the season.

During the trip to Tottenham it was the same story for both players, but their persistence in playing tall and beating the opposing defense finally paid off with the Reds dominating the game on the commercial side of the field and Alexander-Arnold scoring a goal and providing. Help.

Clearly then, there have been times when both players have fallen deeper, particularly in the 4-2-3-1 formation, but generally when 4-3-3 is used, neither seems to be playing much further back. after Van Dijk and Gómez suffered an injury.

What is interesting is the amount of work that Robertson has already done while Alexander-Arnold was dealing with both Covid-19 and the injury.

Positively, in more recent games, the young right-back seems to be getting back into shape and that will give Klopp a much-needed boost, while the coach will hope that Robertson can continue to show his excellent qualities on the left side of defense and in getting ahead.

If both players can get back to the top of their powers, particularly to boost Liverpool and create opportunities, the goals will flow once again, just as we saw against Spurs.