The Liverpool manager has his work cut out to sort out Liverpool’s defence
It’s like an old fairy-tale story that Liverpool’s back-line can’t defend against forwards who are physical, tall, etc. and the game against West Ham provides another challenge for the Reds to defend against the big men.
In all honesty, it has been a horror show having to describe when Liverpool are in position to defend against so called ‘physical’ forwards or lining up to defend against any set-piece. It just feels like something drastic is around the corner, something that will change the score-line or the whole scenario.
In the case of normal play, let’s take a game against West Ham for instance, which took place four weeks back. The full-backs and midfielders, who have the job of stopping crosses, were just standing at the edge of the box allowing crosses to come in at fast pace, West Ham had two strikers in Carroll and Valencia, two tall, physical forwards and our centre-backs were all over the place dealing with those crosses.
As we see, the wide players had loads of time to think and pick out a perfect cross at a perfect pace. Against teams who play long balls and crosses, you just can’t allow crosses to fly into the box every five minutes. In the figure we see there are three players positioned to defend against two attacking players, but none of them are closing down to try and stop the cross.
This has been a normal problem for Liverpool’s back-line to fail to deal with this kind of threat and the full-backs, along with those midfielders, have to find a way to stop the initial danger of an attack, i.e. crosses.
Now, we shall look at a few points regarding our defence in set-piece situation. Talking about set-piece and corners comes first to mind and it has almost given heart-attacks to many fans. Mignolet’s decision to punch/grab every corner kick is a questionable move. Okay, so Klopp wants his keeper to command the six-yard area and look to be dominant in situations like these, but at the same time, having an abundance of players on both the posts just makes the goal look insecure and any connection from any head would go in, regardless of what sort of connection it is.
There have been a few situations where a corner is fed in to the near post and the goalkeeper has no idea where it’s going and goes in anyway. It has happened once with both Bogdan (against Exeter) and Mignolet (against Arsenal). The reason for this is also there are too many players on both the posts and the keeper is left with very much to do.
Klopp becomes a frustrated man when talks of his team’s defence comes up. He himself is little circumspect about it at the moment, first and foremost he has to get his team to stop crosses, especially playing against teams like West Ham, West Brom, etc., his policy to allow the goalkeeper to command the whole goal area in corner situations is a questionable one and the absence of players on both the posts makes it utterly difficult for a keeper to judge, there’s absolutely no protection in beside him.
So, many areas in defence to ponder, and the German has said he has had many ‘intensive’ talks on how to improve defensive stability but it remains to be seen when the last of that ‘intensive’ talk comes. The game against West Ham is another litmus test for the defence and one thing is for sure, if Liverpool allow West Ham spaces in wide areas, then Anfield will be a silent place on a Saturday evening!
By Mizgan Ahmed on 29th January, 2016
Twitter – @mizgans
Valencia isn’t tall or particularly physical.