Liverpool Football Club is at a crossroads. After a period of unprecedented success, the Reds have been brought down to earth with a thud, with a series of disappointing results leaving the club in a precarious position. With Jurgen Klopp’s men struggling to find their form, the team must find a way to turn things around and reclaim their place at the top of the Premier League.
The task is daunting, but it is not impossible. Klopp and his players have the ability and the talent to rise to the challenge, and the team must come together to show their resilience and determination. With the support of the Anfield faithful, Liverpool can make a comeback and prove that they are still one of the most feared teams in the world.
The Reds must find a way to regain their composure and confidence, and they must find a way to rediscover their swagger. They must find a way to re-establish their defensive solidity, and they must find a way to unlock their attacking potential. Klopp must find a way to get the most out of his players, and the team must find a way to come together as a unit.
It will not be easy, but it is not impossible. Liverpool have the capability to rise to the occasion and prove that they are still a force to be reckoned with. With the backing of their supporters, the Reds can show their true colors and prove that they are still the kings of the Premier League.
As bad as it was, of Liverpool the Brighton game had an unsettling sense of inevitability, writes Stephen Scrugg.
Fortunately the Reds went into the interval level but in the second half the Reds were hammered by opponents who hinted at Liverpool as we were before but we can still rise again.
Jurgen Klopp admitted his growing anxiety after the game and was humble, apologetic and even vaguely shy in front of the traveling Reds as he left the pitch after his side’s latest setback.
More than finesse is required
Again, as during our defeat by Brentford and periods of the FA Cup tie at home to Wolverhampton, Liverpool were completely trapped in midfield and Roberto De Zerbi’s slick 4-2-3-1 formation consistently gave Brighton two extras players on base. a duel for the central square, both when they were in front and on the extremely rare occasions when they felt the need to get further inside.
Quick in thought and movement, Brighton they broke through Liverpool too easily and Klopp’s side failed to heed the first-half warnings and accept the gift of a clean sheet in the second half.
Liverpool’s current approach is clearly not working; it may prevail again at some point in the future, but now it desperately needs something markedly different, no more, or just a subtle adaptation of the same.
of Klopp The 4-3-3 option has always been fueled by an overflowing sensual confidence that we simply don’t have at the moment. Now that’s like asking broody teenagers to clean up after themselves. Unintelligible grunts and slumped shoulders can be heard all over the field.
Klopp was candid after the game, talking about how he tried to change his formation, reflecting that his players didn’t seem to buy into it. Given how poorly they worked, any significant change in the scheme was almost imperceptible to the trained eye. There is an alarming lack of leadership.
But despite the reflex reaction, these are not bad players. Eight months ago, they made a four with accuracy from two parties. The fall has undoubtedly been consistently steep, but unlikely as it may seem now, the peaks must be re-climbed.
While not all of these players will be a part of those bright days, many of them will be, or at least should be.
Belly for battle?
Despite the fact that his distribution is happening all over the place at the moment, Liverpool still have an indispensable goalkeeper; despite the major errors in the center of defense and the over-impact we experience in the full-back positions, we still have individual defensive elements that could be the envy of the world.
Whether they are in good form at the moment or not, and despite their struggles to find the net, we have the most incredible collection of attacking talent the club has ever had.
People are being hung out to dry by increasingly desperate fans, as is the media, hungry for blood in the water and football kitchen drama with which to garner clicks for websites and sell newspapers to people who still buy them.
But to Klopp Liverpool lives and dies as a collective. When you look at the sum of the parts at Klopp’s disposal compared to the performance on the pitch and the results obtained, the picture becomes sharper. Although the midfield needs systematic restructuring, fresh thinking and momentum.
As much as this midfielder is rightly doubted and ridiculed, these are still players who should be able to perform better than them.
Where is Thiago’s vision with the third eye and the passage? Where is Jordan Henderson, who looked fit to feature at the World Cup? Where is Fabinho, who balanced our Champions League and Premier League wins and that odd attempt at a top four?
Harvey Elliott, Curtis Jones and Stefan Baisetic offer youth, while James Milner is old enough to be their father, he has all the experience in the world. Meanwhile, Naby Keita and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain carry the lingering frustration of unfulfilled greatness.
Far from perfect, it still creates a group of midfielders that should be able to work their way to minimum Champions League qualification. If we transfer the right to a sixth shift when everyone is fit, we will have enough midfielders to change the entire midfield every half hour.
Conversely, even those crops that won Champions League and the Premier League has always felt they lacked that little genius in the middle of the park.
We have a lot of options in the middle of the pitch but we constantly stick to the formation which is always weak on the pitch in that department so they rely on the attack of the outside backs. It’s nice when we’re on the crest of a wave, and excruciatingly painful when you get stuck in those cyclical ruts.
Apart from the necessity of the obvious comings and goings of midfielders, it’s a battle against the vagaries of the mind and we’ve faced it before.
We swing from the most dizzying heights to the most heartbreaking falls. As a football club we are absolutely bipolar. We’re just at the negative end of that sliding spectrum right now.
Adding insult to injury, we have to contend with a fixture list that offers no obvious consolation. This is followed by an FA Cup replay at a rejuvenated Molineux where the prize is played – another trip to the Amex before surviving a visit to the equally dysfunctional chelsea, which will turn on sooner or later.
These engagements will bring January to a close and take us through to February, which takes us back to Wolves, on to a seething Newcastle, and a trip to the usual graveyard of hopes and dreams, Selhurst Park. All this was offset by missions at Anfield in the Merseyside derby and against Champions League giants Real Madrid.
There will be no easy way out of the rut we are in. We have a fight, just when we don’t seem ready for it.
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