Chris Kavanagh blew the long whistle of the FA Cup fifth round match that brought Chelsea to Liverpool. The result was that the Blues won 2 goals for their visitors from Merseyside with Willian and Ross Barkley each striking one goal against the soon to be English Premier League champions.
This article is discussing something that makes us a little surprised about the appearance of Liverpool which is quite different than in previous months.
Since losing to Atletico in Madrid in the first 16 of the Champions League first leg, football with Jurgen Klopp’s brilliant strategy seemed to fade and instead created gaps that could be exploited by opposing players. As a result in the following three matches, including the most recent against Chelsea, both Alisson and Adrian have collected a total of seven balls from the Kop’s goal.
While the line of attackers are known to be quite productive in breaking into the opponent’s goal, they can only pack three goals, and even then from one match that is when a comeback against West Ham at Anfield. These minor results officially invalidate Liverpool’s chance of winning the Premier League gold trophy for unbeaten achievements in a season and also equalling Manchester United’s achievement of the legendary Treble Winners in 1999. The question is, is Liverpool just unhappy or is it really starting to run out of fuel?
When examined carefully, from the match against Atletico, it was seen that Liverpool had difficulty in dismantling the opponent’s defence which piled up almost all non-goalkeeper players in the defence area. Several times, even defender errors and counter attacks can be maximized by Atletico to be able to add to the goal of Alisson. The 1 goal loss was Liverpool’s first defeat in 2020.
Furthermore, when against West Ham at home, the Reds also suffered a goal back through a set-piece scheme, like his case against Atletico, even when the second goal scored by Pablo Fornals, the Liverpool defender seemed out of focus when easily crossing the Hammers players can easily be converted into goals.
Luckily, Liverpool were still able to win a 3 points with a Fabianski blunder and a dramatic Sadio Mane goal. Liverpool’s game returned to the spotlight when they had to surrender three goals without reply at home to seventeenth-ranked team, Watford who broke 44 games in the defeat of the Reds. In addition to the attack line that did not move before the duo of central defenders Catchart and Kabasele, the Liverpool defence line led by Lovren et al was also highlighted because it caused a gap for the counter-attack which led to Ismaila Sarr and Blunder Alexander Arnold’s goal for the third goal scored by Troy Deeney.
The fitness factor is considered to be one of the factors decreasing the stamina of the Liverpool midfielder and defender in balancing the dominance of the midfield and the speed of the opposing players. In addition, the absence of captain Henderson also contributed to some unsatisfactory results in the last three matches. Henderson’s leadership is vital in maintaining the rhythm of Liverpool’s game which tends to be more stable before.
It is interesting to wait for the reaction that will be shown by the Reds in looking at the next matches, including a crucial match against Diego Simeone’s team who are already famous in overthrowing giants including Barcelona, Bayern and Chelsea in the cage. Will the revival spirit like last year’s heroic versus Barcelona win be repeated or will it even fall as it did in the Benitez period (2009) and Brendan Rodgers (2014) some time ago when it was just barely a champion. It will be interesting to see how Liverpool handled their latest performance in the upcoming matches.
ASL
