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Analysis: Uneven play leads to Liverpool’s defeat at Villarreal

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Image for Analysis: Uneven play leads to Liverpool’s defeat at Villarreal
Toure did well against Villarreal in an unfortunate result last night

Toure did well against Villarreal in an unfortunate result last night

Conservative Liverpool were handed a heart-breaking injury time loss at the hands of Villarreal in Spain, with uneven play being the main catalyst behind the defeat.

Klopp started with a 4-3-3 shape without an out and out striker. Firmino was leading the line as false 9; Lallana and Coutinho just beside him as a front three. Milner, Lucas and Allen started as a three behind the front three. The back four had one change too with Toure coming in for the banned Sakho.

It was a bit of a conservative approach from the German especially after knowing Villarreal love to play on the counter. Instead Liverpool were playing on the break for most of the game and allowing equal amounts of possession to the Spanish opponents.

Let’s have a look at the Reds’ shape and analyse what actually went wrong and how all is not lost for the Reds with the second leg coming up in 6 days time:

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As we see in the image above, Milner and Allen were not very wide in their midfield positions, the reason being the deeper role that Lucas was playing, as the Brazilian spent most of the time acting as a third centre-back. The full-backs were very high whenever they got the opportunity and Coutinho (later Ibe) and Lallana were very wide from where they should be to press in tight spaces.  That allowed Villarreal to play out of the back whenever they wanted to.

Let’s take a situation with Lucas almost as third centre-back and Villarreal having the ball; this situation forced Allen and Milner to be central and cut that half space in between the lines. Coutinho (later Ibe) and Lallana were very wide and never affected the midfield part of the game allowing the Spanish side to get into Liverpool’s half without much pressure.

It was a conservative approach surprisingly by Klopp and anybody could see Liverpool never looked comfortable in it. Firmino being false 9 never allowed the Reds to clear the ball high up field with someone to hold on to, it was all pass, pass and pass which sometimes created pressure. Whenever the full-backs got themselves into a good position, they had no real target to aim at with their crosses. They failed to latch onto second balls too on many occasions.

Milner is not a player we know when he’s playing in midfield centrally. The veteran was forcibly playing in that central position and never looked comfortable in it. Sometimes he tried to go wide with subtle movements but lack of midfield presence allowed Villarreal to play through the Liverpool midfield.

All in all Klopp was not very frustrated with this result, he knows that in 6 days his team can score more at Anfield in-front of a vocal crowd. He kept Sturridge out for the whole game which came as a surprise and the idea of playing possession football along with counter play never gelled together and the disjointedness was evident throughout the game.

On the other hand, Villarreal have something to hold on to which they do very nicely. They have one of the meanest defence in Europe and should be hard to break down, even in Anfield. They also know that just one away goal will mean that Liverpool could be chasing the game in 6 days time. This semi-finalis still in the balance though, and both teams have advantages to play on next Thursday.

By Mizgan on 29th April, 2016

Twitter – @mizgans

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