Liverpool center backs are poor and badly need a defensive midfielder
By David Gate
There’s no doubt the Liverpool center backs have been poor, and at least two of them aren’t good enough, but they also lack help from a defensive midfielder.
As we watched Jonjo Shelvey thread a pass right through the middle of the Liverpool side and Joselu tear through the gap between the center backs, we all loaded up our criticism of Joel Matip and Dejan Lovren.
And so we should. The two international defenders should be able to mark one striker between them. Yet that goal also highlighted two other areas of defensive weakness for Liverpool that have been largely overlooked.
Firstly, why was Shelvey allowed to play that ball in the first place. There should have been a midfielder, whether it was Gini Wijnaldum or Philippe Coutinho, closing him down and making that pass harder to make.
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Secondly, where was the holding midfielder? That role was nominally given to Jordan Henderson but he wasn’t there. Do the players even get given that responsibility and instruction? Either way there was no shield in front of the back four to mop up that relatively simple, straight pass. It wasn’t Andres Iniesta tearing us open. It was Jonjo Shelvey.
The failure to sign a new center back (or two) in the summer is certainly the chief failure of the last window. But to also not sign a specialist defensive midfielder is also criminal. We are the only ‘top’ side that plays without one
A league of DMs
Chelsea, the league champions, felt that N’Golo Kante wasn’t enough to protect their three center backs and so they added Tiemoue Bakayoko to help him. Manchester City have very shaky center backs and so play Fernandinho every game. Manchester United paid top dollar for Nemanja Matic and his addition with Lukaku has taken them from 6th to 1st.
Tottenham have probably the best center back duo in the league but play almost every game with Eric Dier and Victor Wanyama in front of them. Even Arsenal – who are pathetic as we are at defending – know they need an anchor man. They have Granit Xhaka in that role and often pair him with Mohamed El Neny.
Every other team sacrifices some midfield creativity to balance their side. Not us. We have Henderson, Can and Wijnaldum all trying to avoid getting lumped into that role. They are all willing players but none of them are very good at being that kind of player. I’m not sure Naby Keita is either but at least he like a tackle.
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Liverpool have not made a single January signing in Jürgen Klopp’s two midseason transfer windows. We need to be scouring the market this time round. A strong reliable center back and a midfield enforcer.