Liverpool latest news: Jurgen Klopp is learning to hold and not fold as his Anfield boys finally seem to have sorted their defensive woes
Ex-Prem star Danny Higginbotham believes the penny has finally dropped with the Kop boss as his Reds look like they have managed to stop shipping so many goals
MAYBE the penny has dropped for Jurgen Klopp.
Liverpool have shipped an alarming number of goals throughout the German’s reign — especially against some of the Premier League’s so-called weaker teams.
And I have argued a large part of that has been down to Liverpool playing with just one holding midfielder.
In the league this season 14 teams have conceded fewer goals than Liverpool, including next-to-bottom Bournemouth. That’s not a good look.
And it has led to the likes of Dejan Lovren, Alberto Moreno, Joel Matip and Simon Mignolet getting plenty of stick.
But defending is a collective art, just like attacking. So it’s unfair to blame just the back four or keeper.
Liverpool have left them exposed with the way they have set up.
Look at the player’ average positions — map A, on the right — against Burnley back in September which they drew 1-1 despite having 71 per cent possession.
You can see they only had No 23 Emre Can as a holding midfielder while No 7 James Milner and No 10 Philippe Coutinho both pushed on.
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With both full-backs pushing they were basically defending with a back three. That’s dangerous.
And maybe Klopp has had a look at it because last week they set up differently when they beat Huddersfield 3-0. Again they had plenty of the ball — 73 per cent possession — so didn’t try and sit back but they did play with two holding midfielders, as you can see from the average positions on map B.
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See how No 14 Jordan Henderson and No 5 Georginio Wijnaldum are sitting on the halfway line.
This means they are defending with a much more compact shape and have that box of two centre-halves and two central midfielders in the middle of the park — the danger area.
And they can cover the flanks if the opposition break down them because they have strength in numbers. They kept a clean sheet snd it clearly didn’t hamper their attacking as they scored three.
It will be interesting to see if Klopp does it again today at West Ham when they will have more of the ball again.
Under Klopp, Liverpool have had 68 per cent possession or more in six away matches. Yet they only won one of those games.
That tells you that they get done on the counter-attack.
Bigger teams all have to be wary of this against the smaller sides because the more ball you have, the higher up the park you play and the more space there is in behind your defence to be exploited.
It’s how Spurs beat them recently by isolating the centre-backs and letting their forwards get at them.
Maybe Klopp has clicked. Today’s match will tell us.
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