OPINION
Before the start of this summer it looked as though Adam Lallana’s time as a Liverpool player was coming to an end.
According to a report by Football Insider in May, the midfielder’s former Southampton manager Mauricio Pochettino had privately told him to quit Anfield and revive his career while the Express reported that the Saints were interested in re-signing the 31-year-old.
It was not a surprise to see those reports.
Lallana made just 16 appearances across all competitions last season as he struggled to break into Jurgen Klopp’s first-team plans amid a spell of bad form and injury problems.
Stats by WhoScored say that Lallana only completed 82.1 per cent of his passes in the Premier League last season and averaged 0.7 key passes per match. Georginio Wijnaldum, Naby Keita, Jordan Henderson, Fabinho and James Milner all had a better pass completion rate last term while Lallana ranked 10th in the squad for average key passes.
Although Liverpool achieved a record points haul in the Premier League and were crowned European champions, Lallana’s struggles were something went under the radar amid the title challenge and push to reach Madrid. And as soon as the campaign ended and the dust settled, many fans on Twitter wanted to see the back of the former Southampton midfielder.
However Klopp may have made a masterstroke of a decision on Lallana since the end of last season as the player who is usually described as an attacking midfielder has been played in a deeper-lying midfield role.
Although Lallana’s positional change failed to impress some supporters on Twitter when he struggled in that role against Bradford City earlier this month, the Anfield faithful were blown away by his performance in the same role against Lyon on Wednesday.
Liverpool won 3-1 against the Ligue 1 giants with Lallana sitting just in front of the defence, dictating play with his good range of passing and also holding his own when it came to doing his defensive duties too.
Some Reds fans took to social media to hail the midfielder as the man of the match for his performance:
Salah Keita looked surprisingly sharp. Lallana probably MOTM with Elliot impressing and Wilson taking his opportunity to shine
— ??RF9 (@Baller_Firmino) July 31, 2019
https://twitter.com/loon245/status/1156620894472691713
Lallana has also been the best player on the pitch today.
— Immybris (@7Imran_21) July 31, 2019
Nah bruv lallana was man of the match next level in the deeper role need to keep both
— Hitzofficial ?? (@hitmansonline) July 31, 2019
Klopp appears to be on to something here.
Although Lallana wasn’t at his best against Bradford, the fact that it clicked for him against a very good team like Lyon proves that there might be a role to play at Anfield next season for the player who fans wanted chucking out of the club not so long ago.
If he’s playing in a more reserved role that requires less running and less physical work, maybe Lallana will say goodbye to the injury issues that have plagued most of his time on Merseyside.
The phrase ‘like a new signing’ has been thrown around a lot by Liverpool fans this summer, but with Lallana back to full fitness and playing in a new role, that phrase is more true of him than anyone else in Klopp’s squad.
