For quite a while, it has been the same story for Liverpool – great attack, poor in defence. Whilst they have been free scoring, they concede too many goals. And this is especially a concern given the rough correlation every season between how good your defensive record is and your final position in the table. Last season the teams with the 1st, 3rd and 4th best defensive record occupied the top 3 places in the Premier League standings.
So far this season,Liverpool have scored the 3rd highest number of goals, but have let in 10, which puts them firmly in mid-table in the goals conceded table with 6 more goals conceded than Tottenham who have the meanest defence.
This is certainly something that Jurgen Klopp will be looking to improve as he attempts to turn his free-scoring team into a team with the consistency to win the Premier League title.
The centre-half partnership of Lovren and Matip looks like it has potential. Matip especially looks to have a calming influence on the Liverpool back line. In Nathaniel Clyne, they have one of the best right-backs in the Premier League so there is no problem there either.
The good news is that there are the two obvious fixes that Klopp must make to a defence that has slowly improved as the season has progressed.
Left Back
Early in the season, Klopp made Moreno his first choice left back. But after an absolute horror show in defence against Arsenal which almost saw their lead slip, he looked at other options. The man he chose is the dependable, right footed midfielder James Milner. Whilst he has been OK, Liverpool are clearly in the market for a left back and it will be the number one target for Klopp in the January transfer window as he looks to add some balance to the Liverpool defence.
Dealing with Crosses & Set Pieces
So far this season, almost a third of the goals that Liverpool have conceded have been from set pieces. The main problem here is simply down to height. With their array of creative number 10 type players, Liverpool have a huge height disadvantage against most teams. Recently on Sky Monday Night Football, Klopp said of this problem: “We have to be more creative, at Dortmund we had a lot of man marking because we had a lot of tall players – here we had to find a different solution.”
This isn’t just a problem limited to this season, though, as since Klopp’s arrival, Liverpool have conceded 16 goals from set pieces (stat correct as of Oct 1st), the second highest number in the Premier League behind Swansea.
Unfortunately for Liverpool, they must learn and learn fast as their next test is against Crystal Palace. Already this season West Brom have scored 4 of their 12 goals from set pieces and have been one of the best teams in the league at converting dead ball situations into goals. It is a game Liverpool should win at Selhurst Park, but to do so they must defend these situations better.