Liverpool are a shadow of themselves.
Written by Jake Staniland (Twitter @BTL_Analysis)
After the successful spell that Liverpool have had over these last few seasons, they are now facing their toughest test to date, both mentally and physically.
In the 2018/19 season Liverpool won the UEFA Champions League, beating Spurs 2–0 in Madrid. The following season (in preseason) they then won the UEFA Super cup over Chelsea on penalties. They headed into the 2019/20 season full of confidence and quite a few people tipped them to win the Premier League title. How right they were, Liverpool clinched their 19th English title, and their first ever Premier League title. They were much better than the rest of the competition, finishing 18 points above 2nd place Manchester City.
Now in the 2020/21 season the tables have turned. Liverpool are currently sitting in 6th place, 19 points off 1st place Manchester City.
Centre Back injury issues
It goes without saying that Liverpool have had some really bad injuries this season. In particularly the centre back position has been a real struggle for them:
Joel Matip has had an Ankle injury, and has missed 20 games this season (all comps).
Joe Gomez has had problems with his knee, causing him to miss 37 games in all comps.
Virgil Van Dijk has missed 29 games due to his ruptured cruciate ligament
They have had a disrupted centre back pairing for almost all of the season. 18 different centre back pairings to be precise.
The weapon from deep
When you hear the name Virgil Van Dijk you don’t just think about his defensive attributes. He impacts this Liverpool team in so many different ways than that.
One of the best elements to Van Dijks game is his ability to play pin point passes from deep. Whether it’s an over the top through ball to Mane or Salah, or if its him pushing the ball into one of the midfielders to start an attack. If you have a CB that is capable of spraying the ball 60 yards to a teammate then that’s 1 problem solved. Because that pass is going to bypass the opposition press and take a tonne of players out of the game.
Let’s take a look at his numbers from the 2019/20 season. Last season the Dutch international completed 7.18 long balls per 90, compared to Fabinho 5.76 and Matip 5.2. Not only does he play considerably more long balls than any other Liverpool CB, he is very efficient with them.
Here is a map of Fabinho’s and Matip’s completions
Now let’s compare these to Virgil Van Dijk of last season
21 of their opening 29 PL goals last season came from either a set piece, counter attack or an over the top through ball. A third of these goals actually came from Virgil Van Dijk creating them or scoring them himself.
Defensive weaknesses
Liverpool have lacked a distinctive leader at the back all season, ever since Van Dijk has been out. No one can set up and command a defence quite like him. He is a commanding presence and also a real calming influence at the back.
19/20
Errors leading to goal: 5
Penalties committed: 1
Set piece goals conceded: 7 (Joint 2nd best)
20/21 (so far)
Errors leading to goal: 8
Penalties committed: 8
Set piece goals conceded: 8 (14th best)
The attack
The counter attacking numbers have significantly decreased this season. Last season Liverpool launched 38 counter attacks. While this season they have launched just 13 so far. This of course will be mainly impacted by the loss of Van Dijk, however I think there’s another reason for it too.
The signing of Thiago, I believe has also effected the amount of counter attacks that Liverpool have produced this season. As he will tend to dictate the tempo of the game, and look to maintain possession. Rather than try and force it forward, he takes a more measured and calculated approach. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but for a team like Liverpool it kind of isn’t what you want. When you have 2 world class, pacey wingers in Mané and Salah…you want to get them in a foot race with a defender.
When you look at the overall performance from the forwards, it’s not been that much of a difference. If you take a look at the big chances/missed per game, shot conversion percentage.
19/20
Big chances per game: 2.9
Big chances missed per game: 1.7
Shot conversion percentage: 20%
20/21 so far
Big chances per game: 2.6
Big chances missed per game: 1.5
Shot conversion percentage: 17%
Conclusion
The Liverpool of the last few season have been frightening to watch and to play against. They’ve been scary on the break. They’ve played teams off the park and dominated games from start to finish in midfield. They’ve had a solid defensive foundation that they know can hold up for 90 mins, and defend the net valiantly.
But this season has been so much different. Teams now look at this Liverpool team and can see weaknesses at the back. They know that the defence will slip up and cave in this season, if they pressure the Liverpool goal. They don’t have the same aura of invincibility about them as they’ve done previously. Teams go into the game against Liverpool with confidence they can get something now. As opposed to the last few seasons, when teams dreaded coming up against this team.
