When Jurgen Klopp was appointed as Liverpool manager, it was heralded as a great acquisition for Liverpool. He is highly regarded as one of the world’s best managers having created a Dortmund team that played superb attacking football.
In recently years, Liverpool have underachieved massively. During the last 7 seasons, Liverpool have only managed to get into the top 4 once. They have finished between 6th & 8th during the other seasons which quite frankly wasn’t good enough.
The signs when Klopp stepped foot in Anfield were immediately encouraging though and they began to score goals freely. Since Klopp’s arrival at Liverpool, his team has scored 75 goals in 39 Premier League games.
In the last 8 seasons of Premier League football, only two teams have failed to gain entry to the top four elite with a goal tally of 70+. These teams were Liverpool 2012/13 and Manchester City in 2009/10.
75 – Liverpool have scored more Premier League goals since Jurgen Klopp’s first game (17th Oct 2015) than any other team (75). Firepower. pic.twitter.com/XiduLhDGuU
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) October 22, 2016
So this bodes extremely well for Liverpool’s top four chances this season, after years of underachieving.
They have a front four of Lallana, Coutinho, Mane and Firmino that are quite simply on fire. Klopp has set them up in a way that they interchange and play with such freedom and incisiveness that they are impossible to live with when they click. The first goal against West Brom on Saturday evening was a perfect example of this and clearly impressed West Brom manager Tony Pulis who set up at Anfield to defend.
“They’re a good side, with the players they’ve got and on the bench, they’ve got a clear run at this title,” he told BT Sport.
“When you look at the clubs that have played in Europe, they’ve got a real chance this year.”
The one thing that may be the difference between a top 4 finish and winning the title, however, is Liverpool’s defence. Whilst Matip has made a big improvement and Lovren is looking like the player Liverpool thought they paid 20million for, they still have a few problems to iron out.
One being that they literally cannot defend set pieces. A large part this is down to them having quite a small team, but Klopp must make adjustments to deal with this. It was of no surprise that West Brom scored a goal against them from a set piece on Saturday.
They can also improve at Left back and in goal. James Milner isn’t a left back but has been performing OK since Klopp decided he had enough of Moreno. And in goal, neither Mignolet or summer signing Karius are inspiring confidence. Karius currently has the number 1 jersey but looks incredibly nervous at times and this will not be helping the Liverpool defence.
Should Liverpool fix these few problems, there is a good chance that their front four could very well ensure they finish in the top four this season, or possibly even take them all the way to the Premier League title.