Jurgen Klopp to blame for Liverpool’s defensive liabilities

Another loss and more goals conceded, Jurgen Klopp has to take blame for Liverpool’s defensive problems after being in the job for nearly two years

Being dumped out of the Carabao Cup by Leicester in the third round might not be the biggest problem in the world for Liverpool, the competition surely is not high up on the list of priorities for the club who will be more focused on being contenders in the Premier league and at the very least getting into the knockout rounds of the Champions League. But losing to Leicester heightens a much larger problem for Liverpool than just being eliminated from a cup competition – they have now failed to win in their last four games in all competitions and their defensive liabilities continue to persist with any real sense of change coming from the club.

Jurgen Klopp has been the manager at Liverpool for almost two years now and yet while he has managed to improve the team offensively after how dour and toothless they looked under Brendan Rodgers after selling Luis Suarez in the summer of 2014, he continues to suffer from the same issues that Rodgers himself suffered him in that his team is a shambles defensively. Liverpool’s lack of defensive nuance cost them the Premier league in the 2013/14 season despite being one of the best attacking teams in the history of the league and it’s a recurring pattern for the club under Klopp as well.

Liverpool getting Jurgen Klopp as their manager in late 2015 was considered to be a massive coup for the club. Klopp gained notoriety during his time at Dortmund where his style of ‘Gegenpressing’ lead to Dortmund winning two Bundesliga titles and getting to the finals of the Champions League in 2013, where they just came short to Bayern Munich.

Klopp has improved Liverpool’s attack by using a front trio of Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah with Philippe Coutinho playing behind them but while they finished incredibly third in the Premier league last season, they conceded 42 goals. Liverpool did well against the top six last season but frequently struggled against teams who were lower down the table, teams that Liverpool were expected to beat.

The way that Klopp likes Liverpool is what he himself described as ‘Heavy Metal Football’ and is a process in where his team aggressively pushes forward against the opposition and playing with a very high defensive line. This is why Liverpool consistently struggle to defeat teams lower down the table, as these teams will sit back and be compact against Liverpool, leaving no space in behind for their players to run into.

Given the way that Liverpool press forward so aggressively – including even the full backs- it makes them too easily vulnerable to being countered as their opposition only have two centre backs and a goalkeeper to beat, none of whom are particularly good enough to play at the level that Liverpool aspire to be at. It’s a recurring pattern for Liverpool, and one that Klopp seems hesitant to change for some reason.

More from Liverpool FC

Everybody can see the initial problems with Liverpool, they can see that Liverpool are poor at marking set-pieces and quite often leave themselves far too open to being counter-attacked when going gung-ho but it is a mystery as to why Klopp has failed to make any changes from the way that Liverpool play. Liverpool could potentially benefit from a more a patient style of build that focuses more on build-up play to try to draw teams out as right now, there is a blueprint for how to beat Liverpool and clubs know this.

It is also a mystery as to why Klopp did not invest in improving Liverpool’s defence in the summer. It was clear to everybody that Liverpool were weak at the back but Klopp seemed insistent on either buying Virgil Van Dyke or getting nobody else despite it being obvious all summer long that Southampton were not going to sell him. While Liverpool may not have been able to get a player of the quality of Van Dyke, surely they would have been able to find another defender who would be available to join them. Even in the goalkeeper position, Liverpool are lacking in quality with neither Mignolet or Karius being of enough quality for a club like Liverpool and yet, Mignolet was handed a new five-year contract extension.

Klopp has done well so far at Liverpool, he has gotten them to be legitimate contenders for the Champions League spots but if he wants Liverpool to be able to be more than that, he needs to change things up. Right now, Liverpool are too one dimensional and have a lack of options to change things up when things aren’t going their way. Klopp needs to come to the realisation that while his brand of football is highly entertaining and allows Liverpool to be one of the best attacking teams in the league, it also is Liverpool’s greatest downfall. He’s had two years to sort out the problems that he inherited from Brendan Rodgers but has so failed to address them.

If he wants to take Liverpool to the heights that he took Dortmund too, he has to properly look at his team and make the adjustments along with not being so stubborn in the transfer market. Liverpool will have to invest in defenders sooner rather than later, whether they manage to get Van Dyke or not.