Not hurting, hurting: Liverpool’s crisis worsens

Liverpool fans look at the Premier League table today and do not believe what they see. Their formidable team, the one that has won the Champions League and the English Championship in the last two years, is ranked only fourth, six points away from the top and with an increasingly small chance of retaining the title.

Liverpool in crisis, and it can no longer be hidden. The home loss to Burnley yesterday (Friday) was not a one-time stumble, but a continuation of a negative trend that is only gaining momentum from game to game.

Jürgen Klopp, who to many is the best coach in the world in recent years, seems nervous and frustrated, and is unable to find solutions. During the descent to the locker rooms at recess he is seen chasing Sean Deitch, Burnley’s manager, and yelling at him.

At the end of the game, when he was a little calmer, Klopp said: “It was a strong punch to the face. It’s a hard blow and it’s hard to explain what happened. My players are not the ones who after last month’s 0: 7 win over Crystal Palace will think everything will go smoothly for them. Also against Burnley but it did not work out for them. If something does not work out for you, you have to work harder, and in the long run. And if after a loss to Burnley at home, after a fourth game in a row where we do not score, I will talk about the championship race, I sound really stupid, is not it?”

So yeah, Klopp is no longer talking about a championship. In fact, even before the game against Burnley, he stressed that the main goal now is to ensure that Liverpool finish in the top four, so as not to miss the Champions League next season. Yes, so much so that Klopp is desperate – or perhaps realistic?

Needless to say, what happened to Liverpool last month, since that crushing 0: 7 over Crystal Palace on December 19, is almost delusional.

Liverpool have had five league games since then. She did not win in any of them and after the 1: 1 against West Bromwich Albion she did not score a single goal in medicine in four consecutive games.

The statisticians had to work overtime to find out when Liverpool went through such an anemic period.

This is only the second time in the Klopp era that Liverpool have not won five league games in a row. The previous time was in January and February 2017.

The last time the Mighty Reds did not occupy so much time in the league was over 20 years ago, in the last five games of the 1999/00 season, with French manager Gerard Hoya, who recently passed away.

True, two weeks ago Liverpool scored a quartet in the Cup, but the rival was Aston Villa’s strengthened youth team, with most of the senior squad positive for Corona.

440 minutes have passed since Liverpool’s last goal, when Sadio Mane scored early in the game against West Bromwich Albion. Who would have believed that he would pass more than a month without a league goal. And who guarantees that Klopp’s players will score in the next league game, against Tottenham?

By the way, since that Senegalese striker’s goal, Liverpool’s players have kicked 87 times towards the goal – and nothing. Against Burnley they recorded 27 kicks (only 6 of them per frame). Which indicates growing insecurity.

The last time the team kicked so much without scoring was almost eight years ago, against Reading (28 kicks), in April 2013.

Muhammad Salah for example, who has won five games in a row during the month of December, has not hit at all in the last five league games. And obviously he did not forget how to score, right?

Klopp referred to this when he said: “These guys are capable of conquering, but when they fail to do so over time, it is clear that they are not full of confidence. See it. People may ask, how is it that they have no confidence after all they did last season? But confidence “It’s like a little flower, and obviously someone has stepped on that flower. We need to find a new one, and we will. But against Burnley it was not enough.”

Beyond the analogies to flowers Klopp explained: “In the last third their decision-making is not as it should be. And everyone will talk about it, whatever will intensify the problem, will not diminish it.”

As for Klopp himself, the last time his team did not score in four consecutive games was in 2006, when he was the coach of little Mainz in the Bundesliga.

Former star and current commentator Mark Lawrence said: “In recent games there have been too many cases where players have touched the ball once too much, both the pitch lifts are not good enough and the dedication game is not as smooth as before.”

right. Against Burnley Liverpool raised 30 times into the extension, and all those balls were sent off by the brakes and defenders.

Klopp tried to shuffle the cards before the game against Burnley. Following the previous disappointing games, he came up with a revolutionary line-up: alongside Mana, they started with an original origami (in their debut this season) and Alex Oxblad-Chamberlain, with Salah and Roberto Firmino coming off the bench. But even this experiment did not succeed.

What is interesting is that while Salah maintains a reasonable scoring average this season as well (13 goals in 18 league games) and leads at the top of the scoring table, there is a big drop in the numbers of Mana, who has scored just six goals. Last season he scored 18 and two years ago 22.

Yes, Liverpool’s problem is the attack, and it’s pretty weird when in the first weeks of the season there was talk of injuries to the brakes, Virgil Van Dyke and Joe Gomez, who are still unclear when they will return.

The fear was of a collapse of the defense, but except for one hallucinatory loss, 7: 2 to Aston Villa in early October, the defense overall is functioning quite well. Since then she has conceded 11 goals in 15 games, a perfectly reasonable balance.

Another aspect that indicates the decline in ability is the huge setback in the ability of the two defenders, Trent Alexander Arnold and Andy Robertson. In the previous two years the two have been the mainstays of the group’s success, as they have not stopped supporting the attack and cooking in quantities.

Alexander Arnold netted 13 goals in the league last season and Robertson contributed 12 assists. Except for Kevin de Bruyne they were the two best cooks in the Premier League. And this season? Robertson with five cooks and Alexander Arnold with only 2!

One explanation for what is happening to Liverpool is that the coaches of the rival teams have simply learned how to defend against Klopp’s method. Opponent players do not allow Alexander Arnold and Robertson to fly on the wings unhindered and stop them in the midline area, and the wide density makes it very difficult for Mana, Salah and Firmino to make their famous double-passes.

Another sign that this is a real crisis was the first home loss in the league in almost four years. It is true that in the Corona era, when there is no crowd in the stands, homeliness is not what it used to be. And yet Liverpool last lost a league game at Anfield 1,370 days ago.

On 23 April 2017 it was Sam Allardyce’s Crystal Palace that beat Liverpool on a 1-2 draw with Christian Benteke of Belgium. By the way, even then Origi started in the lineup …

Since then, Liverpool have played 68 times at Anfield, winning 55 of their games, finishing 13th in a draw and not losing at all – until yesterday. By the way, Burnley were the only team to score a point at Anfield last season. Liverpool have won all 18 other games!

More than that, Ashley Barnes’ successful 83rd-minute penalty determined that Burnley had finally beaten Liverpool in the Premier League for the first time since 1974, the year Bill Shankley retired from coaching Liverpool!

By the way, Liverpool are currently ranked second in history after Chelsea, who recorded 86 consecutive home games in the Premier League without a loss, a record set in October 2008.

And the comparison to last season basically tells the whole story. Last year Liverpool had 55 points after 19 rounds and they led the table with a gap of 13 points. She is now in fourth place, with 21 points less than a year ago.

On Sunday, Liverpool are expecting a rematch against arch-rivals Manchester United, this time in the Cup and this time at Old Trafford. The league meeting between them at Anfield at the beginning of last week ended in a disappointing 0-0. This time there will be a decision, and if Liverpool are relegated from the cup, it will only increase the pressure within the system.

The next league games will not be easy. On Thursday, Liverpool travel to London to meet Tottenham, who are only one point away from it, and have missed a game.

In the event of another loss, Liverpool could drop to seventh place in the table! Tottenham will of course pass by and so can Everton and West Ham, who are only two points away – while Everton also have two games missing.

West Ham will be the next rival, on 31 January, and after a home game against Brighton Klopp will host Pep Guardiola and Manchester City on 7 February.

City are currently seen as the top quality team in the Premier League. She has won all of her last nine games in all competitions and has not absorbed at all in the last five. According to many, City is currently the big favorite to win the championship.

championship? Klopp admitted that at the moment he does not even think about her. There are things that bother him a lot more.

Jamie Krager, one of Sky’s top commentators, summed up the situation in the best way possible: “As it looks at the moment, the championship is running away. It is true that a six-point gap can be closed, but according to the team’s ability and the games that await it, it is clear why Liverpool are much more concerned From the possibility of losing one of the first four places. “