After another poor defensive display against Watford we highlight three things that Liverpool need to do to fix their defense woes.
It’s the same old story. Another game where we struggle to handle a bottom-half of the Premier League side. Where an also-ran attack ends up looking Real Madrid. It is a long time since we had a defense we could trust. Not since Benitez have we looked solid. Back when Sami Hyypia and Jamie Carragher patrolled the Liverpool area and took no prisoners.
Once again our attack – missing key players – was outstanding. The huge plus for Reds is that we know we have 2 or 3 more gears for Salah, Mane and Firmino to click through. It is paramount that we solve these defensive issues. A mediocre-to-fair Premier League defense would give us a platform to mount a title challenge. Here are three ways we can improve the Liverpool defense.
Number 3: Sign a center back
This is the most obvious thing Liverpool can do. As we noted in our player ratings, Liverpool are in the position where Dejan Lovren is, at once, a must-start and a liability. The only way to solve that is by upgrading him.
Of course, that is what we have been trying to do all summer.Any chance we had of signing another central defender who would improve the first team has passed in the last 10 weeks of focussing on Virgil van Dijk. With all our eggs in the van-Dijk-basket, we absolutely have to sign him. Ben Gibson is not going be the answer. Ironically for us the best CB openly on the market is Mamadou Sakho. The next two weeks are crucial.
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Number 2: Better coaching
As many have pointed out it isn’t simply better players. Many teams who have less defensive talent do better with what they have because the side – defense and midfield – are well coached and prepared. We are not struggling at set-pieces because we are too weak, small or slow. We are struggling because we don’t know what we’re doing.
Double the time we spend on set pieces. Triple it. I don’t care. We conceded 29% of goals from set-pieces last year. If we halve that, we get 10-12 more points this year. Constant failure in this area goes beyond personnel and to the coaching staff.
Number 1: Better composure
In some ways this is a vague request. Unfortunately it is the difference between winning and losing. The Liverpool defense have talented players. Mignolet, Lovren, Moreno and Henderson are all high-end Premier League talent. They have skill, technique, knowledge and experience. What they don’t have is a unbreakable mentality. The kind of self belief and assured composure that separates the regular professional athletes from the perennial winners. So many of our crucial mistakes are not from ability or coaching but from panic.
This is something that the most gifted managers can do. Balancing the hugs and pats-on-back with hairdryer-half-time-team-talks. As managers go Jurgen Klopp is good at this but he needs to become a master. Bill Shankly was one. Alex Ferguson another. We are a long way from competing financially with City, United and Chelsea. Superior tactics, coaching and psychology are the only way we will end our long wait for a Premier League title.