Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool, ready or not ?
Christian Bertrand / Shutterstock.com
It is really enjoyable watching this highly offensive Liverpool side; however, not many football experts see them succeeding in the Premier League if they keep playing with this template. It was Manchester United’s Sir Alex Ferguson who made this statement, “Attack wins you games, but defence wins you titles”, and over the years, this statement has proven very true.
Every premier league side that has gone on to win the title has had to start building their team starting from the back, through midfield, and then attack. Even the Leicester city side that did the impossible and won the league title in 2015/2016 season were helped by their exceptional defensive record, only Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspurs had better defensive records than them that season.
Liverpool play fantastic attacking football, no doubt about that, but why isn’t their attacking prowess resulting in a trophy or cup wins? Simple, the Premier League is just as big on defence as it is on attack, if not more, but it seems Jurgen Klopp has refused to recognise this very important fact. Probably, he believes all that is needed to win games is free flowing attacking football, with attackers switching positions and midfielders passing forward with flair and abundance of skills.
This may have been all that was needed to succeed in the Bundesliga, but things are different in the Premier League. In the English top-flight there is far more competition for the title and at least six teams are fighting for the top spot, even the so-called smaller teams have considerable chances of hurting the top sides. Considering his experience in his first year, one would expect the German to have learnt his lessons and put more emphasis on getting a top centre-half, but his commitment to doing this has been half-hearted at best.
Liverpool’s defensive issues have been evident since Klopp arrived in the league (losing 3:2 away to Southampton after throwing away a two-goal lead, they also drew 2:2 with Sunderland after going two goals up, among several instances), but it has gotten even worse this season. This season, the issues have been made even more glaring by their poor conversion rate in attack; since beating Arsenal 4:0 on 27th August, Liverpool have scored just 5 goals from 82 shots in the Premier League. Against Newcastle, their most recent opponent, they scored just one goal from 17 shots, and still went ahead to concede, they ended up drawing the match.
Of course, one would say that is just one match, but it is gradually becoming a pattern, and more than any period since he took charge of his side, it is now time for Klopp to realise the importance of a top defence if he intends to win anything with the Merseysiders.
Home
Football 
Basketball
Hockey
American Football
Baseball
Rugby
Volleyball
Handball
Esoccer
