Didn't see a thread for Liverpool this season. If there is one please merge this with that.
A lot is being made of Liverpool's drop off and, after all the praise Liverpool have had over the past few years, I'm loving it.
However, I also think this speaks to the poor level of football punditry. Honestly, its shocking some of these people get paid hundreds of thousands to trot out truisms and trash.
There is no major problem with Liverpool IMO. Instead there's a bunch of small things that, on their own don't matter but put together create an issue.
The foremost problem Liverpool have is Klopp's system relies on energy and emotion. A lot of it comes from him. Its draining to play that way for years on the trot without fundamentally refreshing the squad and Liverpool haven't. To compensate for that Klopp always sacked off the domestic cups. However, this season, with the condensed calendar he just hasn't been able to rest his best players. Its showing. The Champions League will make this worse when it resumes cos Liverpool will 100% go for it.
The next problem is related to the condensed calendar: injuries. Yes, everyone has them. However, trying to play Klopp's 'heavy metal football' without being able to refresh the squad with Jota or others. Once Liverpool lost Jota a lot of issues started to arise. Liverpool has to rely on the same players more than ever before and those players are exhausted.
The next problem is related to the previous two points: change of style. People keep asking 'Why Thiago?' Actually, I understand Klopp's thinking: If you have a huge amount of games piled up and you can't refresh the squad, you can't just rely on outrunning everyone. Eventually you'll get muscle injuries. Thiago's there for a more deliberate style, a different way of opening up defences that doesn't just rely on energy. However, the squad Liverpool have isn't really tooled for that. Other players are suffering as a result. Having Thiago in midfield means the Liverpool full backs have to be more cautious, because Thiago can't cover them the way Fabinho or Henderson or Milner do. Liverpool's midfield, before Thiago, was mostly runners. The likes of Keita and Wiljnaldum offer strength and work rate not silky skills. We've seen ourselves with how we've had to rely on McFred, if you've only got two workers rather than three, it can be risky. We do it because the benefit of Bruno at #10 outweighs the disadvantage of doing something different. However, Liverpool having fewer runners in midfield means there's often a lack of cover behind Alexander-Arnold and Robertson. United exploited that, Burnley exploited that, everyone is exploiting it. You can tell Alexander-Arnold and Robertson are conscious of it too and they're not playing with freedom. Its affecting Liverpool going forward and backwards.
All of these things together are why Liverpool are having a tough moment. However, there's a way to remedy all of it and I wouldn't be surprised if Liverpool turn things around.
