OPINION
Against Manchester City we saw that Liverpool’s midfield might not be quite creative enough on occasion, and the same thing was demonstrated in different circumstances against Wolverhampton Wanderers on Monday night.
Jurgen Klopp’s much-changed side were deservedly beaten 2-1 by the hosts at Molineux, and it was the performance of match-winner Ruben Neves that really highlighted the Reds’ deficiencies in the middle of the park.
The Portuguese playmaker was superb for Wolves, responding well to being dropped by Nuno Espirito Santo recently by supplying a display of real quality.
The standout moment was, of course, his stunning long range winner, but his passing and dogged defensive work throughout the game was also excellent.
On a night where James Milner and Naby Keita struggled to exert themselves for the visitors Neves provided an example of what Liverpool are missing in central midfield.
They don’t have a player, like Neves, who can do a bit of everything. They have people like Fabinho and Jordan Henderson who do the dirty defensive work, but they’re not as good going forward.
Then there’s Xherdan Shaqiri and Adam Lallana, midfield playmakers who can break down a determined defence, but don’t offer much when their team doesn’t have the ball.
Keita was expected to be the jack-of-all-trades in midfield for Liverpool, but it’s not quite worked out to date. Neves, on the other hand, is a high class operator who is more than willing to get his hands dirty.
We saw how well he could defend at times on Monday, and we also saw his ability to dictate play from deep and come up with match-winning moments.
This is not to say that the Reds should go out and sign Neves, merely that his performance highlighted what Klopp’s team are missing at this moment in time. It will be fascinating to see if the German can solve the problem in the second half of the season.
