Liverpool league shortcomings show worrying lack of squad depth

Despite Liverpool’s recent Champions League success, the Reds’ consecutive shortcomings against West Bromwich Albion and Stoke City show that the shallow squad depth at the club remains a problem.

This isn’t to say that squad depth is not an area in which Liverpool have improved recently. The defense, for the most part, is covered with two right-backs in Nathaniel Clyne and Trent Alexander-Arnold; five center backs in Virgil van Dijk, Dejan Lovren, Joel Matip, Ragnar Klavan, and Joe Gomez (who is capable of covering across the back four); and two left-backs in Andrew Robertson and Alberto Moreno.

The injury crises that led to academy starlet Conor Masterson on the bench or Gini Wijnaldum playing in a back three are unlikely to be replicated. However, Liverpool doesn’t draw their power from their defense. It’s the midfield and the front three that have most often provided the spark needed to win games.

Liverpool have six midfield players for three positions, but Jordan Henderson and Adam Lallana have proven that they cannot be relied on consistently for fitness reasons as we have seen this season. That leaves four players: Wijnaldum, James Milner, Emre Can, and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

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Can’s best position is still a big question, while Oxlade-Chamberlain and Milner have only proven in the second half of this season that they can be counted on in midfield. Klopp has gotten the best out of the two English players, but a regression to the mean is a possibility given the limited sample size.

For the front three, Ings and Dominic Solanke are the only senior attacking players that can give Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mané, and Mo Salah rest. Ings has done well to come back from two years of injury hell, but let’s not forget that he has missed a key part of his formative years as a result. Solanke showed flashes of potential earlier in the season, but he is yet to score a senior goal for Liverpool and is quite raw.

“If [players] are very young, then clubs in the past have sent them on loan and I don’t think it is the perfect situation,” Klopp told the Liverpool Echo in December 2016. “It’s much better that we can work with them together on football at the highest level.”

Young Talent

That season, Klopp kept the likes of Ben Woodburn, Ovie Ejaria, and Trent Alexander-Arnold around and gave them senior minutes. But now, it seems like Klopp has shied away from that philosophy of retaining rising youngsters and gradually introducing them to first team action.

Woodburn has stayed, but his first team minutes have dwindled. Klopp inexplicably chose to bring on Clyne against Stoke as a right-winger, even though the ex-Southampton man’s biggest weakness has historically been in the final third. Woodburn would have given Liverpool a more dynamic option while chasing the win.

As for players currently on loan, the Reds could currently be making full use of someone like Sheyi Ojo, Harry Wilson, or Ovie Ejaria. Ejaria was sent to a sinking Sunderland ship when he could have been the back-up for Wijnaldum. Ojo is the perfect candidate to cover Oxlade-Chamberlain. He’s pacy, strong, and capable of playing out wide and through the middle.

Lastly, Wilson has exploded since joining Hull City in January, scoring seven goals and providing four assists in 11 games. However, those who kept an eye on Liverpool’s youth teams were already cognizant of the Welshman’s talent. All he needed was minutes.

Next: Player Grades: Liverpool v Stoke City Apr 28

If Liverpool aren’t going to bring in reinforcements during the summer, the club has to once again reconsider their loaning philosophy. A team that wants to challenge on all fronts has to have capable back-ups, something the Reds are sorely lacking right now.

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