Liverpool’s decline has caught many by surprise, but none more so than Jurgen Klopp and his players.
The ‘mentality monsters’ of Merseyside look a shadow of their former selves and, even eight games into the season, have probably conceded too much ground in the Premier League title race to truly push Manchester City like they have so astutely in recent seasons.
What will be of more concern to Liverpool is that their problems are myriad. They affect the core principles of their sustained success under Klopp and solutions look in short supply.
With the champions travelling to Anfield on Super Sunday looking to effectively end their main rivals’ title hopes, we take a closer look at what has gone wrong for Liverpool this season, and whether there is anything to suggest a much-needed upturn is imminent.
Fatigue taking its toll on ageing team?
Last season was Liverpool’s most taxing yet under Klopp; a season in which they contested every fixture they could have, cramming 63 games into a period of nine months and fighting on four fronts right until the final week of the campaign.
In total, six players – Jordan Henderson, Diogo Jota, Alisson, Virgil van Dijk, Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane – played more than 50 games, while three more – Fabinho, Andrew Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold – played more than 45.
Many of those individuals amassed similarly high numbers in previous campaigns too, with Salah, Alisson, Robertson and Alexander-Arnold among the top seven Premier League players for minutes played in all competitions across the last five years.
It is little wonder Liverpool’s exertions have taken a toll on his key players, but also a squad feeling the effects of the passing of time.
In 2017/18, Liverpool boasted the youngest average age for a starting line-up in the Premier League. That rose to fifth when they won the Champions League in 2018/19, while they ranked 12th in their Premier League title-winning season of 2019/20.
Fast forward to today and a squad that was once packed full of potential is showing its age, with only West Ham and Fulham having older average starting XIs in the Premier League this season.
Liverpool’s inability to kick on in the championship rounds of matches, periods where they have set themselves apart from the rest of the Premier League in recent seasons, is indicative of this and raises the question whether the club were sluggish in their rebuilding efforts.
Will the real Mohamed Salah please stand up
Salah’s glaring struggles in front of goal continued at the Emirates on Sunday with the forward withdrawn with 20 minutes to go after failing to make any impression at all on Arsenal’s backup left-back Takehiro Tomiyasu.
What is more, Salah was replaced by Fabinho, with Jordan Henderson taking his place on the right of the forward line, meaning last season’s top joint scorer in the Premier League has managed just two top-flight goals so far this campaign.
Like the team as a whole, the Egypt forward’s confidence looks shot at present, in stark contrast to this time last season when he had just scored the goal of the season against Man City, before following it up with a similarly memorable solo strike against Watford.
But Salah has been playing pretty much non stop for club and country these past 12 months, including gruelling Africa Cup of Nations and World Cup qualifying campaigns that culminated with Egypt at the start of 2022, while he also sits second behind only Ederson when it comes to most minutes played in the Premier League since 2018/19.
All those miles in the legs have clearly caught up with the now 30-year-old, who finally put an end to his contract standoff with the club by signing a bumper new deal in July, although that has only served to heap more pressure on his shoulders as Liverpool’s form has plummeted.
Salah’s attacking output across several metrics is down compared to last season, some of which can be explained by him being positioned further away from goal on the right of the front line as Jurgen Klopp tries to incorporate summer signing Darwin Nunez into the side.
However, as Jamie Redknapp said on Sky Sports, you cannot just look at one individual when explaining Liverpool’s drop off in form this season: “Right now, Salah is bang out of form. But it is not just Salah, it is not just Trent (Alexander-Arnold), it is Virgil (van Dijk) and everyone right now is not in the form that is really going to get you in that ascendancy.”
Trent highlights weakened case for defence
The criticism of Alexander-Arnold’s start to the season has been justified in parts and over the top in others, but on the field, there is no denying he is being targeted by Premier League attacks.
The 24-year-old’s defensive weaknesses have been preyed upon at an alarming rate of success, with the majority of chances and goals Liverpool have conceded coming down his channel. It’s a vicious circle club and player must get to grips with.
But to pin Liverpool’s defensive issues solely on the struggles of Alexander-Arnold would not only be unfair on the right-back and untrue but would absolve his defensive colleagues of responsibility.
There has been a detectable decrease in Liverpool’s defensive solidity this season compared to last, an issue for which the entire team is responsible and does not rest on the shoulders of a single player.
Liverpool full-backs floundering
Just how dependent Liverpool’s style of play is on the specialised role played by their full-backs has been underlined this season.
It’s a technical role mastered only by Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson, but the former’s lack of form and the latter’s lengthy injury has unsettled the team and overloaded understudy Kostas Tsimikas with responsibility sooner than Klopp would have liked.
Liverpool’s full-backs make them tick, so it should not come as a surprise to see their downturn affect the team as acutely as it has, with productivity in key attacking metrics – goals, assists, chances created and expected assists – reduced compared to last season.
They have delivered an upturn on crosses in Premier League matches this season but a 45 per cent reduction in expected assists suggests the quality of those crosses has diminished, as well as the potency of those getting on the end of crosses.
Has the injury curse struck again?
We have been here before with Liverpool, two seasons ago in fact when having just ended their 30-year wait for the title, their form collapsed after suffering a run of untimely defensive injuries that then impacted on other areas of the team.
In the 2020-21 campaign, Klopp’s side looked a shadow of themselves, even losing six straight top-flight home games at one point as they were unable to implement his gegenpressing ideas with his midfield players having to be utilised as makeshift centre backs instead.
This season has seen a similar run of injuries affecting all areas of the team, meaning Klopp has been unable to rotate – including using the new five substitutes rule he was championing for so long – as much as would have liked.
This has then led to more players in the physio room, with Luis Diaz and Alexander-Arnold both forced off with serious injuries at the Emirates, while new loanee Arthur Melo has now being sidelined for three months after recently tearing his quad in training.
As a result, Klopp has not always been able to give out-of-form players such as Alexander-Arnold a much-needed rest away from the public gaze, with so few options to take their place in the team. When he has opted to do so, as with Fabinho, due to a lack of fit replacements he has been forced to call upon 36-year-old James Milner.
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