IT wasn’t particularly surprising. Boring is what Liverpool do in European aways. Always have done, and in a two-legged affair it usually works.
It’s also evident what they do these days following massive wins. They bring you to a point where you say: “These could score with bad breath in a nunnery if they wanted to.” Soon followed by: “These couldn’t score in a brothel with a fistful of fifties and a Tom Jones tan.”
You know? Those famous sayings.
Jürgen Klopp is trying to make this team his without much in the way of time on the training field to do so. To borrow an analogy from his predecessor, Klopp is trying to build the plane while flying it.
It is therefore perfectly understandable that while there are glimpses of supreme quality from this Liverpool side, it is cut with an inconsistency that is taking them from one extreme to another, particularly in attack, and summed up perfectly by the two results this week against Aston Villa and Augsburg.
If you’re reading this article then presumably you are a Liverpool fan and so I don’t need to tell you how infuriating the Reds have been in front of goal at times this season. They’re always finding new ways to not score a goal. Some of their stuff last night was truly innovative. Remarkable creativity in the art of not scoring a goal.
The manager has mentioned it on more than one occasion, and as the game went on last night it became inevitable that he would refer to it again. Sure enough, post-game he said: “Doing the right thing at the right moment is important — we had a few good moments and in the second half we had three or four really good moves. My problem is that I think, with our quality, we should do better, but I have to be patient.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHE1u7FQJ6U
It was the latest in a long-line of comments that Klopp has made since coming in that refer to his team’s decision-making in the final third.
After the Leicester game earlier this month he said: “We had opportunities in the box but we didn’t find the right decision often enough. The longer the game was we didn’t get cooler, the decisions didn’t get better. We had the ball in their box and didn’t shoot.”
It was very much evident last night. You had short corners taken to players who had defenders stood right next to them, players shooting with their sidefoot from 35-yards, attackers hiding behind defenders when there’s a cross about to come in, crossers pinging it to the far post when there isn’t anybody there, and Kolo Toure deciding to not head the ball from a free kick (though you could argue that Kolo scoring twice in a week would likely have caused some sort of irreparable tear in the space-time continuum).
Since Klopp has arrived on these shores he has guided Liverpool to wins at Chelsea, Manchester City, Southampton, Norwich and Villa in which the Reds have blammed a whopping 24 goals. But he has also been denied any goals in trips to Sion, Newcastle, Watford, West Ham, Leicester and now Augsburg.
In spite of the lack of quality Melwood-time due to a hectic fixture list, the Firmino-nutmegging gaffer has managed to achieve one thing with this team that is making it look like his. He has them being good at creating the moments that lead to potential chance creation. A load of lads who are good at making the pass before the assist, or at winning the ball in a high area leading to a chance being created. This is what his Dortmund side were great at.
The issue now is that far too often either the lads who need to lay on the assist are making the wrong decision, or the fellas on the end of the assist are.
Not having Daniel Sturridge has been an obvious part of the problem, as has the settling in period for Roberto Firmino and the issues we’re all aware of with Christian Benteke.
We were all justifiably excited on Sunday to finally see the Triumvirate of Doom (I’m hoping that name will stick) of Sturridge, Firmino and Coutinho. However, last night showed that while it is a very promising set-up, it is still very new and will take time to settle as the Brazilians and the Wriggly-Armed Assassin (also hoping that name sticks) learn how to play as a three.
Liverpool don’t play again until next Thursday. As a spoiled fan who is used to games every three days, that feels like ages away. May as well be pre-season. However, for Klopp, it’s an incredibly rare occasion where he has time to work with his team at Melwood and give them proper training sessions, rather than just recovery sessions or light preparatory ones.
I’m not saying that by next week we will have a lean-mean Klopp-tastic machine capable of wiping the floor with Augsburg in the return game, but the manager knows what the problem is and has a chance to start remedying it.
Liverpool have shown in numerous games this season that they are capable of scoring lots of goals, even against very capable teams. The trick now is to learn how to do it more consistently, or at the very least, just spread them out a little.
- After scoring three at Chelsea, they laboured to score two in their next two games against Rubin Kazan and Crystal Palace.
- After scoring four at City, they struggled to score three in two home games against Bordeaux and Swansea (two were penalties).
- After scoring six at Southampton, they didn’t score any in their next two at Newcastle and Sion.
- After scoring three against Arsenal, they failed to score against Manchester United.
- After scoring five at Norwich, they failed to score in 210 collective minutes at home to Stoke and West Ham.
- After scoring six at Villa, they failed to score in Augsburg.
Now it wouldn’t be fair to suggest that Liverpool should be scoring six every game. We can leave those demands for further down the line, say by the start of next season? The issue is that this team is clearly capable of scoring lots of goals when it’s flowing and confidence is high. It just goes from one extreme to the other too often.
People can say that the opposition were terrible all they want, but no-one else is scoring four at City, no-one else is scoring five at Norwich, and in spite of their genuine terribleness, no-one else is scoring six at Villa.
The immense promise that is being shown in those games bodes very well for the future. Just imagine what Klopp is going to be able to do once he can bring in his own players.
However, in the meantime he needs to figure out how to get his current set of lads scoring goals that win points. Six against Villa is great, but I would much rather those goals come in the form of three 2-0 wins, or six 1-0 wins.
Liverpool have the feeling of all or nothing at the moment. The good thing is that the ‘all’ doesn’t feel too far off becoming the norm. It’s not as if they are struggling for goals through a lack of quality in the team but, as Klopp is fully aware, it’s the final third decision-making that is largely the reason for not finding the net more often than they do.
It is a small tweak to make though. A calm head in pressured attacking situations can very much be taught, and when it all clicks, Liverpool are going to score more often than, erm, not.
Sorry, I ran out of crude analogies.
Could be time for the return of the diamond. Firmino never looks like scoring when he isn’t tasked with scoring. Can at the bottom, Couts at the top, Milner and Henderson/Allen tucked in at the sides.
Yeah, I like diamond. With the current crop of imperfect central midfielders that we have, diamond may work best.
Front two: Sturridge and Origi (origi will give lots of energy and running/pressing while Sturridge will pull away defenders and create his own space)
Tip of Diamond: Coutinho or Firmino
Base: Can or Lucas
Two sides: Hendo, Allen (or Milner)
Until new midfielders come in, this group would best suit with diamond, in my opinion.
So you would take Coutinho or Firmino off the pitch so that you could have Origi on it?
I’d stick with a front three of Cout Firm behind Studd. (Studd and Firm interchange alot anyway) I think all they need is time to be more cohesive. Once they click it would be v v v cool.
But two strikers could work against certain systems esp more defensive ones i suppose. But in that case i’d take Benteke and Studd. Ben would attract a lot of attention because of his physicality and aerial threat. Which would create space for Studd and the others around him.
https://theredsoliloquy.wordpress.com/2016/02/20/balotelli-to-the-chinese-super-league-please-augsburg-0-0-liverpool/
the only.sample I have on Sturridge and Origi starting was 6-1 win at Southampton. And it worked pretty well.
So far no Sturridge and Benteke have not really played together yet. it may work well too, as you mentioned Benteke to occupy two defenders so that Sturridge can enjoy more space.
But it looks like Klopp will stick to the coutinho-Sturridge-Firmino for now.
I think everyone who really knows the game and relish every aspect of the game, we can all agree that football is played in the midfield and for you to be a decent team enough or be consistent enough then you must have a good central midfield. The problem is I consider that to be Liverpool’s weakest position which is why it’s hard to be consistent…
Central midfield options of Jordan Henderson, James Milner, Emre Can are too similar in style to be a standard midfield three… In terms of ball playing skills the best central midfielder in the the Liverpool first team is Joe Allen though injured now but still doesn’t get the recognition as most don’t know how crucial having a central midfielder who can keep the ball at his feet and move a few yards before passing it out, most people would say he is always passing sideways and backwards but that only being harsh… He is not of the highest quality and until there are better players signed in that position by the summer, he should be given more games ahead of some of the central midfielders currently starting, it’s so difficult for the team to get the ball forward and even when they get there, they’re hardly composed enough, I can hardly handle watching Jordan Henderson shoot the way he does while wearing the LFC captain armband.
In the long run, though the way it might seem, the only central midfielder that would maybe get a spot for the future amongst the current 3 starting would me Emre Can, he seems to give the ball away, but that can be attributed also to not having a quality ball playing central midfielder alongside you who knows how to choose his positions and become an outlet… Just imagine pairing Emre Can with central midfielders like Gundogan, Fabregas, Modric, to lesser extent Koke… Though these are world class midfielders but I’m trying to arrive at the particular style of play missing in the middle of the park. They’re very good with the ball, can move, choose position, all mostly quite good at dead-balls and rightly so.
There’s not enough composure, poise in the central midfield and that’s our weakest position… I hardly think the liverpool attack has any fault though need upgrading but the central midfield options of Jordan Henderson, James Milner, Emre Can, Lucas Leiva and Joe Allen is very very average…. Once that is the case then there’s always bound the struggles.
Cameron Brannigan proved to be the kind of central midfielder lacking in the starting 11 but would be overlook due to age. It gets very static in the middle for us and there would be some shocking decisions before the end of the season because you can’t fool and manager like Jurgen Klopp who knows the game and the playing with Jordan Henderson and James Milner in the same midfield 3 is hardly ever going to dynamic, might work most of the time in the EPL but would be found wanting time and time again in Europe..
I don’t know if anyone can relate to my point, the central midfield is really the major issue in the team and when we lost the only real quality player we had to MLS, Brendan Rodgers decided to replace him with James Milner, that’s obviously downgrading the midfield and making it worse than it was.
Spot On about the importance of central midfield.
During last night’s match, I was just thinking how ‘boring’ and ‘one-dimentional’ our central midfield was. And to play Heavy Metal football, we really need box to box, energetic, ball playing, all rounders, desperately.
Can (maybe?), but Hendo, Milner, Lucas, Allen won’t get us to Heavy Metal football ever. Maybe, we will end up with Country Music football with these guys in the centre of the park.
Looking forward to Grujic coming in the summer, looks like he has the ability to give our midfield some much needed legs going forward in the years to come, also has a great strike from distance
really hope this new kid is an upgrade to the current midfield lot.
after 2013/14 season, I expected a lot from Hendo to consistently deliver quality performance, but he has not been able to for whatever reason.
Can is also consistently inconsistent. we really.need heavy metal CM players surely.
Long long time ago I still remember when.Football used to make me smile,
But zonal marking made me shiver,with every corner they’d deliver.But maybe I’d be happy for a while.
I can’t remember if I cried when I saw the full-backs playing wide.But something touched me deep inside…………..the day……..
How many people does it take to get a footballer onto a pitch nowadays Conditioning Coach,Defensive Coach,Attacking Coach,Marking Coach,Corners Coach,Free-Kick Coach,Throw-In Coach,,Rehab Coach,Performance Analyst,Rehab Coach,Sports Science Consultant,Head of Physiotherapy,Strength and Rehabilitation Coach,Oh the list goes on and on…..hairstylist……agent…..!
Why do I need to know how many miles somebody ran? Why do I need to know how many corners?Why do I need to know possession stats,Why do I need to know assists and shots on target? Why do I need to research some player from the Azerbaijan 4th Division who would work well with Henderson?
Why can’t I just enjoy the game for what it is?
It’s a simple game,Shankly and Paisley used to say that!
Why can’t
I’d enjoy the inconsistency if only it wasn’t so consistent.
I wonder if I might share my own frustration at a fruitless shopping trip I had this morning where I found both too much and not enough choice. I’d like to relate it in the form of a rap lyric.-
Went into town to buy some meat
Twnty two butchers shops down our High Street
Wanted a garden tool to smooth the ground
Not one hardware store was there to be found
Cos we’ve got too many butchers and not enough hoes
That’s right, too many butchers and not enough hoes.
I’ll get me coat…