Liverpool Draw with Rubin Kazan Shows Jurgen Klopp's Need for Quality in Attack

ANFIELD, Liverpool — The last time Liverpool drew a Europa League game 1-1 at Anfield, boos greeted Brendan Rodgers' side at the final whistle. Twenty-one days later, following a 1-1 draw with Rubin Kazan, it was a completely different atmosphere.

Instead, new manager Jurgen Klopp received the applause of the Kop at full-time despite his team's failure to beat 10-man Rubin Kazan. While Klopp was the centre of attention, it was defender Mamadou Sakho—comfortably the man of the match on the night—who received the most recognition from the Anfield faithful.

The result was an anticlimax for Klopp's first home game in charge, failing to beat a team sitting 12th in the Russian Premier League and who played with 10 men for over half of the game after having defender Oleg Kuzmin sent off for a second bookable offence in the 35th minute.

If the 0-0 draw with Tottenham Hotspur in Klopp's first game in charge tempered expectations, this result has shown the scale of the task the German faces at Anfield—new manager, but the same players and similar problems.

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Klopp opted to make just one change to the team that started at Spurs, with Joe Allen replacing Lucas Leiva. That change was reversed at half-time after Allen was the subject of Klopp's ire after Kazan's opener.

When Kazan had all 11 on the pitch, they often found space to drive through Liverpool's midfield and attack the fragile-looking Martin Skrtel.

The Slovakian somewhat divides opinion among Liverpool supporters. There's a growing majority who see him as the only constant in Liverpool's leaky defence of the last three years. Then, there are those blinkered by block challenges and headed clearances who put him as the warrior at the back.

Skrtel endured a torrid first 45 minutes at White Hart Lane and put in a similarly poor showing in the first half against Kazan. Late to the tackle, overly physical when not required, dropping off deep when the rest of the back four hold the line—the list of his defensive faults is long.

Klopp is clearly keen to build from the back, and that's probably why he kept the same back four in place against Kazan, looking to develop understanding and continuity.

"It is not the time to change many things—only to turn the screws a little bit in the right way and that is what we tried to do," he said ahead of the Tottenham game, per the Press Association (via This Is Anfield).

Every good manager builds from the back; Gerard Houllier and Rafael Benitez did the same during their tenures at Anfield. It's that which was always the problem for Rodgers.

Alongside Skrtel, Mamadou Sakho has stood out for the opposite reasons in Klopp's first two games—the Frenchman has arguably been the Reds' best player in each of them.

Against Kazan, he was the dominant leader at the back Liverpool have so badly needed but Rodgers baffling overlooked for so long. Favouritism and politics blinkered the former manager's viewpoint in his shunning of Sakho for Dejan Lovren.

Klopp, though, is undoing a lot of the decisions made by Rodgers, such as picking Sakho, playing Emre Can in midfield, lining up with a back four, turning Alberto Moreno into a left-back who can actually defend and not asking Simon Mignolet to play the ball short from the back all the time. These are simple things the Anfield faithful have grown frustrated with over the last 16 months.

It's for those reasons this 1-1 draw against 10 men isn't being met with the derision it would have been had Rodgers still been in charge. There are signs of things improving and changing.

Liverpool had gone stale under Rodgers, and while it was never going to be corrected overnight, Klopp is clearly on the right path.

He may need to rethink Philippe Coutinho's role, though. The Brazilian was withdrawn with just under half an hour remaining after a pretty quiet performance.

Left out of the latest Brazil squad, the 23-year-old is struggling for form. Perhaps Klopp needs to take a look at him in a deeper role, within the midfield three rather than the attacking trio, especially in games against lower-quality opposition at Anfield.

It's there where Coutinho flourished in the latter stages of the 2013/14 campaign, putting in industrious and tenacious displays against Everton and Tottenham at Anfield, enjoying the midfield battle and revelling with space and movement ahead of him.

Klopp would be wise to give it another look, putting three dynamic players ahead of Coutinho. Ideally, they would be Daniel Sturridge, Roberto Firmino and Danny Ings, though the latter won't be available any time soon. But Sturridge, Firmino and Adam Lallana or even Christian Benteke would provide plenty of options ahead of last year's Player of the Year.

Future

A win in this match would have meant Klopp could have rested key personnel for the trip to Russia on Nov. 5 knowing a draw would be enough to remain in control of Group B.

A third draw, though, means the Reds cannot afford defeat against Kazan, who are just a point behind in the group along with Bordeaux. FC Sion sit on top, four points ahead of Liverpool.

The returns of Firmino and Benteke from the bench offer Klopp the most optimism for the short-term future, with the Reds clearly needing quality in the final third.

"We had our moments and hit the post through Christian, but at the end [there was] no goal," said Klopp in his post-match press conference.

"So I would say 98 per cent OK, not perfect. The other 2 per cent, that is the problem of this game."

Who knows, perhaps Sturridge might even stay fit for more than a fortnight to provide Klopp with that much-needed 2 per cent.

Managers need luck, Liverpool and Klopp got their luck when Kazan went down to 10 men but still couldn't take full advantage. Now Klopp needs some luck with injuries to add quality to his squad.