Jurgen Klopp must go back to the drawing board to fix soft touch Liverpool, whose season is heading for almighty failure
Jurgen Klopp seemed clueless as to the reasons behind his team’s slump when he was interviewed on Monday night, moments after Liverpool had been comprehensively beaten 3-1 by Leicester.
It was the latest setback in a dramatic decline in results since the turn of the year. Having won 17 of their first 23 games of the season, they have managed just two victories in the following 12.
Never mind Champions League qualification, Liverpool may not even make the Europa League, and now you can add a crisis of confidence to Klopp’s list of problems.
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The slump has raised doubts about Klopp’s preference for a high-intensity approach to football.
Liverpool’s players look like they have run out of gas, but is that because England lacks the winter break that Klopp is used to at home or because the German trains them too hard?
Liverpool had 16 days off before the Leicester game yet they looked laboured. How much rest did the players get?
Timid, predictable, lightweight
In any case, I’m not sure Klopp has the right squad to play that way. He is asking them to be aggressive, to fight, but his group – with a couple of exceptions – is lightweight.
They are not strong, they are being overrun and have become a soft touch.
Defensively they are timid. Too often at set-pieces they seem to lack a leader who will take the initiative and get team-mates on their toes, while they have two suspect goalkeepers.
Liverpool lost 3-1 at struggling Leicester on Monday (Source: Getty)
They are also too predictable tactically.
When they play a team who dominate possession, Liverpool can exploit their pace on the counter-attack, but when they have more of the ball and the opposition defends deep – as at Leicester – they can lack penetration, resort to moving the ball sideways, and look toothless.
Not good enough
This wobble must be breeding fear at Anfield, and by contrast is only encouraging the teams chasing them, Manchester United and Everton, who are both full of confidence.
After the encouraging start, finishing without European qualification would be an almighty disaster. Klopp didn’t deliver in his first season either, so it would be flop upon flop.
He will certainly get another year to try to reach the promised land of the Champions League, but it is not good enough at the moment.
In the short term, Arsenal visit Anfield on Saturday in a match that could have significant repercussions for the top four, and they might just be ideal opponents for Liverpool because they will try to win.
Long-term, the squad is in need of major surgery over the summer. Klopp, meanwhile, may need to rethink his approach to training to keep his team’s energy levels.