There are seven persuasive arguments for believing there is still plenty of life left in Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool.
All of them were evidenced at Anfield on Sunday, March 5th as a formerly rapid, rabid, formidable unit remembered themselves and across 90 minutes decimated a hated rival in record-breaking fashion.
Not even Liverpool at their best, and Manchester United at their worst – both extremes commonplace between 2018 and 2021 – produced a score-line so comprehensive and a disparity so emphatic.
Twenty-four hours on and it’s a result that still stuns. Liverpool 7 – Manchester United 0.
Talked down, disrespected, even written off, Mo Salah and company flew into United from the off, hell-bent on proving one hell of a point and this they did, and more.
It feels fundamentally incongruous therefore to claim in the aftermath of this awesome display of attacking excellence that this very same team is in decline.
Furthermore, that only regression can be anticipated from this point forward, a reversion to a norm that will eventually lead to the departure of Klopp.
If nothing else, the timing of such a discussion feels distinctly off. It feels like booing at a wedding.
To deny that Liverpool are mired in trouble, however, is to focus all of our attention on a single game of football, a game incidentally – but importantly – that saw the Reds score a xG-busting seven times from eight shots on target.
That alone hints strongly that what we witnessed at the weekend was an outlier. A freak occurrence.
Elsewhere, Liverpool’s season has largely been one of inconsistency and struggle, with significant flaws evident that aren’t going away anytime soon.
And though we can surmise that thrashing a historical rival will inject a good deal of confidence into a collective that was in scant supply of it, these are problems that will arise again and again before this campaign is out.
It's a diagnosis that especially applies to a failing defence that has conceded 1.2 goals per 90 across 2022/23.
At first glance it’s a perfectly respectable return but not when you’re Liverpool, not when you play in the manner they do, pushing up both full-backs and deploying a smothering methodology that necessitates a high back line.
Then that defence has to be perfect and moreover protected by a midfield that is highly industrious.
When Liverpool are on top - "We have the best CB, full-backs, keeper, back-up keeper, number six and strikers in the world"
— Stephen Tudor (@SteTudor123) October 15, 2022
When Liverpool are struggling - "It's too haaard. The deck is rigged"
Mentality minnow.
In season’s past both their rearguard and midfield regularly fulfilled this mandate, or more accurately they were brilliant on far more occasions than they weren’t, and what this meant was Liverpool’s ferocious and relentless attacking roster could have an average day, or several, and still nick a determining goal.
In 2019/20, their title-winning campaign, Klopp’s men boasted the meanest defence in the top-flight and won over a third of their fixtures by a single-goal margin.
They still hammered opponents by fours or fives on their good days of course. It was these tight victories though that secured them the league, brought them success.
Compare and contrast to the here and now, where Liverpool still have afternoons and evenings when everything clicks in the final third – a prime example being last Sunday – and when this happens there are few teams in the world that can touch them.
When they don’t though, when Gakpo, Nunez, Salah and the rest are frustrated, and chances go begging, no longer does a single moment of magic suffice.
Instead, deconstructions at Brentford, Brighton, and Wolves occur. The disastrous second-half against Real Madrid recently in the Champions League unfolds.
In short, they have become a team of famine or feast, all or nothing; a boxer with a tremendous punch but a glass jaw.
And teams like that typically get excluded from the Premier League betting odds for the title, making do with a drawn-out chase for a top four spot at best.
The solution to eradicating the vast swathes of space left behind the full-backs, and tightening up a midfield that too often affords time to opposing numbers, is two-fold, one of which Klopp is entirely unwilling to cede to, the other being beyond the club’s capabilities.
A compromise in Liverpool’s approach and a change to their system would greatly help address defensive frailties but seemingly Klopp, if anything, is more intent on doubling down on his attacking ethos, leaning in on his pacy front three to compensate for vulnerability at the back.
Don’t be surprised therefore if Liverpool succumb to further heavy losses from now until the end of the season, as well as pulverizing those who are wasteful of the chances afforded them.
That’s something to consider in the sports betting in the coming weeks.
Then there’s the personnel issue, with centre-backs too routinely guilty of making individual errors and midfielders, on the wrong side of thirty, looking flogged half to death.
Can the club afford to overhaul both areas, bringing in three or four new names at enormous cost? They cannot.
All of which infers that inconsistency will become the new consistent for Jurgen Klopp’s Reds for some time to come. But the fans and the club have come to expect much better than that.
*Credit for all of the photos in this article belongs to AP Photo*
