Like watching Joe Allan! Pedestrian Liverpool midfield slammed
Liverpool were beaten 4-1 by Manchester City in the Premier League and their pedestrian midfield was slammed by frustrated fans.
Manager Jurgen Klopp has been forced to select a barely-functioning trio because of Jordan Henderson and Fabinho’s continued commitments as centre-backs.
That’s had a massive impact on how the whole side operates, and that was laid bare as Manchester City put four past Liverpool at Anfield.
Liverpool need to think again
Klopp picked a midfield three of Gini Wijnaldum, Curtis Jones and Thiago – basically the only three he could have gone with. James Milner was on the bench, but the veteran has had plenty of football this season and even his hamstrings have a breaking point, while Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain looks nowhere near the first team.
The manager even mentioned the static and stale nature of the midfield in his post-match press conference, as per the BBC.
"“Coming out in the second half, they changed the system and we didn’t move enough in midfield. We scored our goal and in that moment it was possible the game goes in our direction, but Alisson made two massive mistakes, gave two goals away – and then a genius situation from Phil Foden.”"
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Even though we’re all aware of the huge limitations placed on his group of players due to the unprecedented injury crisis, it’s hard to compute when we’re faced with what we had to watch against City.
Did Joe Allan sneak back instead of Gini Wijnaldum?
Wijnaldum has looked really slow on the ball and appears to stifle more of our own attacks than the oppositions while doing little to progress the ball forward. According to FBref, he’s playing fewer progressive passes per 90 than he has in the last three years.
Against Brighton, he played just one progressive pass. Is that really good enough? When the full-backs are struggling to attack with the same fluidity that we’re used to, the midfielders have to step up and provide more creativity.
Poor Thiago
Thiago hasn’t looked overwhelmingly brilliant either, but you have to feel sorry for the Spanish star this season. He walked into a team and expected to find gold, instead, he got a bag of flaming poop left on his doorstep by a spotty 14-year-old.
I love Gini, but he seems to be slowing the play down a lot bar that driving run earlier
— Dave Walton (@davewalts) February 7, 2021
For a quick contrast, Thiago is playing nearly 10 progressive passes per 90 and peeled off eight against Brighton. Wijnaldum is at 2.89.
Sadly there isn’t going to be much time to put it right or any players that can come in and do a better job. With Henderson and Fabinho marooned in defence, this bad Joe Allan tribute act may continue longer than we think.