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Football News: Liverpool FC - A Defensive Review, Part 2

Liverpool FC - A Defensive Review, Part 2
Image from: sloths.com.au

Welcome to Part 2 of the top to bottom defensive review of Liverpool FC. This part will analyse Liverpool's centre back options and briefly discuss the few we've shown an interest in.

To start with, it has to be said that Liverpool made a horrible mistake by failing to add a centre back in the summer. The club made a derisory offer for Kalidou Koulibaly of Napoli, and Jurgen Klopp tapped up Virgil Van Dijk of Southampton. Beyond those two players though, it seems as though nobody at the club had a contingency plan in place. Embarrassing incompetence, yet again.

Up until the Huddersfield Town game, it seemed as though Klopp had no plan of how to manage the situation either (with his limited options), and was going to just persevere and pray until January. In fact, if I'd been writing this a week ago, it'd be pretty scathing of Klopp if I'm honest. Obviously it shouldn't have taken 10 games for Klopp to tweak the defensive system, but that's a whole different debate. There is still a very strong argument for a dedicated defensive coach to be brought in, in my opinion though.

So what exactly did Klopp do differently against Huddersfield? The main difference was that Joe Gomez was essentially a third centre back, rather than a right back. When defending, Moreno dropped in to make it a back four, but when attacking all three of Gomez, Ragnar Klavan and Joel Matip sat back and defended. It was incredibly effective. It is slightly unfair to say Huddersfield just offered no threat. Every time they tried to get the ball out to one of their hold up players, Liverpool's centre backs bullied them and cut the attacks out at source, preventing Huddersfield from committing anyone forward on the counter attack. Their striker even pulled out slightly wider hoping for some luck, and found Gomez in the mood for a fight as well. The real test will be whether this tactic works against better opposition though. Huddersfield are hardly a Premier League bench mark, with all due respect.

 

Dejan Lovren:
Lovren is a bit of an enigma. When he is fit and on form, he can make players like Romelu Lukaku disappear. However when he is struggling for fitness (which is quite often) and his confidence is low, he is a total liability. I feel like i need to review two different players with the same name.

The good Lovren covers his team mates well, wins aerial duels for fun, makes some crunching tackles, and can play out from the back. Even when in form he does make some rash attempts to get in front of his man, but when confidence his high for him he is less hesitant and these rash decisions usually pay off. It looks great to see an attacker sent spinning to the ground as Lovren aggressively bullies his way in front of them to the ball. He definitely lacks pace, but he is not Liverpool's slowest defender, or even close to it!

So what about the bad Lovren? Bad may be an understatement. When Lovren is not on his game, every day is as scary as Halloween for the poor Liverpool fans. He doesn't mark players properly at set pieces, he misjudges the flight of aerial balls, his rash lunges constantly result in him getting the wrong side of an attack, his crunching tackles become silly fouls, and his team mates have to start making covering tackles for him! It is absolutely baffling how such a good defender, can flick a switch one week and become the most error prone player in the Premier League.

Lovren definitely needs replacing. He is probably our best senior centre back, but that is more of a sad indication of where I'm going from here, than a positive for Lovren! I have nothing but respect for his level of commitment. He plays regularly with pain killers, he would run through barbed wire to be a success at Liverpool, and he showed up against Huddersfield prepared to give his all for fans who had been sending him death threats all week. He is a professional, but he has had some well documented mental struggles recently. Sadly, he just isn't consistent enough. It is a massive shame because he is the hardest working defender at the club, excluding Alberto Moreno.

Joel Matip:
It is really hard to have respect for Matip, unlike Lovren. In terms of his physical attributes, he should be the best defender at the club. He is 6ft5, but he can't win a header in his own box, and when he does (usually when he is unchallenged) it is weak and carelessly directed wherever he is facing. The thing that annoys me though, is that he is actually good in the air when he can be bothered! In the opposition penalty area, he always looks the favourite to win a header, even if he his useless at keeping them under the bar. So why doesn't he put in that same effort to win defensive headers?

You'll start to notice a recurring theme here. When Matip is on the ball, he strides forward at pace and can even go past a man or two. His passing can be incisive and effective, and his driving runs can gain the team up to 30 yards of territory sometimes. So why on earth does he look like he has been shot in the knee with a 50 calibre rifle when he is tracking back? I have never seen a 'defender' with such a relaxed and lazy attitude to defending. He never tries to get back on the goal line quick enough, once the opposition have bypassed him he never gets back on side, and on the one occasion he did catch someone who ran off his shoulder (the lumbering Joselu of Newcastle United) he made a weak and half committed tackle which saw the ball bobble beyond the keeper anyway.

The absolute worst thing about Matip though, is how he deliberately positions himself away from the ball, but get's close enough to pretend he is having an impact. He will always stand in between attackers instead of getting involved, and he will half heartedly get out to help the right back when the opposition double up on him. In reality though, Matip just doesn't want to get involved. Perhaps he doesn't trust his ankle after the operation, or perhaps he is just genuinely lazy. Either way, it is not good enough.

 

Matip was only ever signed with the intention of being a stop gap. He wasn't intended to be the lynchpin of the Liverpool backline. I just hope the 'gap' he is 'stopping' gets filled properly soon. He is the worst defender at the club, but he is the best ball playing centre back which sees him get game time anyway. He is also consistently average (unlike Lovren who is either good or bad), and slightly quicker than the man who is next in my cross hairs. Unfortunately we will see plenty more of Matip between now and January (at least).

Ragnar Klavan:
I don't want to be too harsh on Klavan, because he is clearly supposed to be the fourth choice defender. That considered, he is as good as most fourth choice defenders are. The problem is that Liverpool's first choice pairing (Matip and Lovren) are both ridiculously injury prone so Klavan is relied on far too often. He should be playing cup games and coming on in the 85th minute for a striker, to protect a lead. Not playing 90 minutes every other week.

As it happens though, he does play quite regularly so i shall briefly review his strengths and weaknesses. First things first, Klavan is a tough guy. He doesn't lose out in physical battles very often, and he never shys away from a tackle. Despite being short for a modern centre back, he's also not terrible in the air. Though he's not great either. On the ball, there have been worse passers than Klavan playing in Liverpool's midfield in the past. So whilst he isn't a ball playing centre back, he isn't terrible either. He can panic though when someone is closing him down quickly.

Klavan's problems lie elsewhere. For one, he is terrible at reading the game and way too slow to recover. He tries to get tight to players with the pace to roll him and leave him for dust. He is what i like to call a reactive defender rather than a proactive defender, and he couldn't mark Christian Benteke, let alone a lamp post. It is seriously frightening when you see him get isolated against anyone. Sadly, as Klavan is a left sided centre back, and Liverpool's left back options are all wing backs, he gets isolated against wingers every time he plays. That means he either gets skinned alive, or he gives away loads of free kicks, which Liverpool can't defend!

Does Klavan need replacing? No, not really. He will happily be a squad player and he is a model professional. However we really do need to get three good centre backs ahead of him so that he doesn't have to play 30 games a season!

Joe Gomez:
The final player in this position, is the young lion Gomez. Gomez is potentially, a top class defender. He is already captain of the England U21's and at Charlton Athletic, he was seen as a future England senior player. He deserves massive respect for the way he has come back from an Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) injury that would take the heart of most teenagers. He is clearly mentally strong and that should see him fulfil his potential. You could make a pretty strong case for him being Liverpool's best centre back option already to be fair.

As previously touched on, Gomez was given a unique role against Huddersfield. He was basically playing as a right back, and on the right of a back three, depending on the scenario. Such a role requires a lot of discipline as well as tactical nous, and Gomez carried out his instruction absolutely perfectly. He won everything that came his way, stopped attacks before they got even slightly dangerous, and the Huddersfield players will still be seeing his face when they close their eyes.

Gomez is superb on the ball for a guy who is 6ft3. This has seen him utilised at right back for the start of this season, and he has not disappointed. His ability to carry the ball at speed and his surprisingly good crossing have made him a real threat. His pace off the ball has also allowed him to stand up to some of the fastest wingers in the league. He is very good in the air, very controlled in the tackle, and reads the game very well. There isn't much defensively that he isn't good or potentially good at. The real hope is that he develops some organisational skills as his confidence grows and he becomes more assured of his status in the side.

 

However, he is still only 20 years old and this means he is prone to lapses in concentration. Take the game against Tottenham Hotspur as a recent example. For the second goal, Gomez had a 5 yard head start over Son Heung-min, but by the time Son tapped into the net, he was 5 yards ahead of Gomez. This was because Gomez let Son get goal side on the half way line and then couldn't make up the ground despite being relatively quick. He needed to be aware of his surroundings so he could get in front of Son from the get go, and just hold up his run by positioning his body in Son's path. Disrupt his stride, and he doesn't reach Harry Kane's cross.

For the fourth goal in that same game, Gomez was ball watching. Whilst the Liverpool forwards were quick to get back to the goal line to make a block, Gomez was taking lessons in laziness from Matip on the penalty spot. He has to watch that back and learn. He's let players go past him a few times this season due to a lack of concentration and ball watching, which has seen him pick up cards for shirt pulling. It is a steep learning curve, but he has been much improved in the shirt pulling department since his red card in the Champions league. He seems more conscious of the risk of suspension, what types of challenges can get you booked, and how that can hurt his team.

So whilst Gomez has immense potential, he is still a work in progress. Liverpool fans have to give him leeway though and accept that he has to make mistakes to learn from them. Gomez is a real talent who has the potential to be one of the best defenders in England, and lead Liverpool's back line for the next 10-15 years. He is strikingly similar to a young Rio Ferdinand with his almost complete array of attributes as a defender, that just need fine tuning. His talent cannot be wasted. Liverpool cannot afford to waste it.

All in all, it paints a pretty bleak picture. Liverpool have one centre back who is painfully inconsistent, one who doesn't care enough to defend, another who would get beaten in a footrace by Jan Molby, and the last of the bunch is learning his trade from the rest of them! Ultimately, Liverpool fans can all blame Simon Mignolet for every goal that goes in, but the fact is that the whole unit is defensively inept and Klopp's new tactic won't cut out the individual errors or make Matip more passionate. So how can things be changed?

As discussed at the start of this article, the club are actively seeking reinforcements. Van Dijk is still a serious target for January, and it is probably not unreasonable that the club could look to Koulibaly again. Both of these guys would be extortionate, but both come with pedigree.

 

Virgil Van Dijk:
Van Dijk is a man mountain of a player. In a one on one challenge, the forward may as well go home. He is quicker, stronger and taller than nearly every player in the world. He actually looks more like a Rugby player! Don't confuse him for a lump though. He is also incredibly gifted on the ball. He is well balanced, has a superb touch, can carry the ball at pace, and his passing range is very impressive. He is even a free kick specialist!

The draw back though, is that Van Dijk is just as lazy as Matip at times. He takes far too long to break into a sprint when getting back, as he usually has a short sulk or ball watches for a split second. The difference is, when he does break into a sprint it is with purpose and at much more pace than Matip. So whilst he does get caught out of position a lot, he also gets back more often than Liverpool's current crop. Most importantly though, Van Dijk is imperious in the air from set pieces, and has started showing signs of leadership since coming back from Injury. Before his injury Jose Fonte was the leader of the Southampton defence, but Van Dijk has seemingly stepped up now. He has attributes which Liverpool desperately need at the back, but also has similar concerns to Matip to an albeit lesser extent.

Kalidou Koulibaly:
Koulibaly could not be more different to Van Dijk on the ball. He is clumsy, and erratic. To be honest, he is better off just launching a clearance forward because his ability on the ball is non existent. However, like Van Dijk he is also quick, powerful and great in the air. He reads the game much better, and doesn't get caught out of position as often either, as he rarely ventures forward. He is part of the reason Napoli have become one of the best teams in Italy.

Koulibaly's main concern defensively is that he is overly aggressive sometimes. He picks up a lot of cards and concedes a lot of free kicks. A proper old school defender who i personally think would be a better suited partner for Gomez than Van Dijk would be long term, but not without some level of concern. Unfortunately, world class centre backs are hard to come by in modern football.

That concludes Part 2. Hopefully, Liverpool have an alternative centre back option lined up should moves for Van Dijk or Koulibaly fall through again in January. It is clear that they need to strengthen as soon as possible though, or their season could end up being a disaster. The heart of the defence is where titles are won.

Written by Adam Jones

Written by Tris Burke October 31 2017 11:14:25