Areas Where Liverpool Are Actually Better Than Last Season
It may not look like it, with Liverpool sat 10th in the Premier League table heading into November's international break, but thanks to a managerial change and a summer of measured, if unspectacular, recruitment—less Mario Balotelli and Lazar Markovic, more Christian Benteke and Danny Ings—the Reds are in a stronger position now than they were this time last year.
The appointment of Jurgen Klopp, at the expense of Brendan Rodgers, has reinvigorated one of the Premier League's storied clubs, along with its passionate support, with hopes of a top-four finish replacing fears of another season languishing on the fringes of Europa League qualification.
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This improvement is, of course, not entirely Klopp's doing. After a miserable 2014/15 campaign, the club's owner, Fenway Sports Group, sought to make improvements at a fundamental level.
Assessing Liverpool at this break in play, there are many areas that are significantly better than last season.
Liverpool's 2014/15 campaign was perhaps most neatly summarised by the tribulations of £20 million summer signing Dejan Lovren, who struggled to deliver under the weight of expectation as Rodgers' priority defensive acquisition.
"He is exactly what I’ve been looking for since Jamie Carragher left," Rodgers gushed following Lovren's goalscoring performance in a 4-0 pre-season friendly win over Klopp's Borussia Dortmund, as relayed by Chris Bascombe of the Telegraph.
"He is a dominant, No. 1 centre-half, who reads the game well, offers good guidance to the back four and the rest of the team—and shows his qualities of range of passing too."
But while Rodgers conflated the Croatian's signing to the second coming of Franco Baresi or Paolo Maldini, the Ulsterman drastically overestimated Lovren's ability to step up into the role of Liverpool's "No. 1 centre-half."
In a campaign that saw Liverpool finish sixth in the Premier League, crash out of both the FA Cup and the League Cup at the semi-final stage, squander their Champions League hopes at the first time of asking and then fail in their resulting Europa League knockout clash with Besiktas, via penalty shootout, Lovren was at the heart of the Reds' misery.
Images of his despair after missing the deciding penalty against the Turkish giants perfectly captured the emotions of a disappointed support.
In 2014/15, Lovren served as a symbol of Rodgers' poor defensive nous, only redeemed by a positive nine-game run between January and March that saw the Reds keep seven clean sheets in the Premier League when Rodgers opted for a three-man defensive line—notably lacking Lovren.
Those seven clean sheets totalled 39 percent of the Reds' entire output for the season, which has been improved on this season:
- In 58 games in 2014/15, Liverpool conceded 68 goals—an average of 1.2 goals per game—keeping 18 clean sheets—an average of one every 3.2 games.
- Under Rodgers in 2015/16, Liverpool conceded 11 goals in 11 games—an average of one goal per game—keeping three clean sheets—an average of one every 3.7 games.
- Since Klopp's appointment, Liverpool have conceded five goals in seven games—an average of 0.7 goals per game—also keeping three clean sheets—an average of one every 2.3 games.
Much of this can be attributed to the reintroduction of imperious centre-back Mamadou Sakho, who has made 11 appearances for the Reds this season, becoming a key player following Klopp's arrival.
The German described Sakho as "really spectacular" following a solid performance in October's 1-1 draw at home to Rubin Kazan in the Europa League, as reported by Andy Kelly of the Liverpool Echo.
Sakho is of vital importance to Klopp's side, miserably underlined by the feeling of panic that spread around Anfield as the Frenchman collapsed onto the pitch clutching his knee in Sunday's 2-1 loss at home to Crystal Palace—Sakho is expected to miss up to two months of action, according to the Liverpool Echo's James Pearce.
Sakho is not alone in his contribution to Liverpool's improved defensive output, however, as both Nathaniel Clyne and Alberto Moreno have played a major role in this rally.
Clyne, a £12.5 million signing from Southampton this summer, and a rejuvenated Moreno have added bite to Liverpool's flanks in the back four, averaging 3.5 and 3.8 tackles per 90 league minutes respectively—more than any other Reds defender.
Moreno struggled to impose himself in his first season on Merseyside in 2014/15, with lapses in concentration and positional sense allowing Liverpool to be exploited on the left side of defence. But he has improved immeasurably this campaign—particularly following Klopp's appointment—while Clyne represents a significant improvement on Liverpool's first-choice right-back form last season, the lethargic Glen Johnson.
Importantly, both add more in the attacking sector, too. Moreno has averaged 2.6 key passes per 90 minutes in the league this season, compared to 1.4 last term, while Clyne's average of 0.7 key passes per 90 is more than double the output of Johnson, who made 0.3 key passes per 90 last season.
This is in support of an area that, in terms of options, is vastly improved on when compared to last season.
Liverpool spent much of 2014/15 operating without fielding a recognised centre-forward, with Rodgers lamenting the injury issues of Daniel Sturridge, and the respective failures of Balotelli, Rickie Lambert and Fabio Borini.
This left Rodgers to experiment with Raheem Sterling as his leading striker, with the 20-year-old making 12 of his 35 league appearances last season in this unnatural role, invariably supported by attacking midfielders Philippe Coutinho and Adam Lallana.
Liverpool scored just 52 goals in 38 league games in 2014/15, with Rodgers' strikers—Sturridge, Balotelli, Lambert and Borini—contributing a mere eight of those, while no other player scored more than nine.
Rodgers' attacking line was limp and lacking in options, with the manager seemingly distrusting the likes of Borini, Balotelli and £20 million signing Lazar Markovic, who started 24 league games between them.
This season, while Liverpool have so far scored only 13 goals in 12 Premier League outings, Klopp's squad boasts more valuable attacking options.
One-goal Italian Borini left Merseyside this summer to join Sunderland; Danny Ings, who joined on a free transfer from Burnley, took his place and scored twice in five league appearances before an ACL injury ended his season.
Balotelli, who mustered just one league goal in 16 games for the Reds last season, joined former club AC Milan on loan, making way for £32.5 million man Christian Benteke, who has already scored four in eight in the league.
Sterling and Markovic also both left Anfield this summer—the former sold to Manchester City for £49 million; the latter joining Fenerbahce on a season-long loan—and Roberto Firmino and a swiftly developing Jordon Ibe replaced them.
Improved, too, is Liverpool's belief in their academy options, as Pepijn Lijnders—an important link between the club's youth- and first-team ranks—explained to the club's official website, in praise of his new mentor, Klopp.
"What we introduced this year is the Talent Group so that the best players between 14 and 21, instead of the manager going to see them at Kirkby, we bring them to Melwood.
We make a selection of players and they train every Tuesday under the eye of the manager and he can see them develop, he can bring them to the office, he can talk to them.
[...]
This should be your development; it shouldn't be the Academy bringing you the best players it should be first-team staff showing interest and creating plans for each single individual to put them on a high level.
"
Klopp has already involved Joao Carlos Teixeira, Cameron Brannagan, Pedro Chirivella, Jerome Sinclair and Connor Randall in his first-team ranks, while the likes of Ryan Kent and Harry Wilson have both returned to train under the German during their respective loan spells with Coventry City and Crewe Alexandra.
Lijnders described working alongside Klopp as "like a masterclass everyday," and this perhaps shows the biggest improvement at Liverpool this season.
Moving to appoint Klopp signalled FSG's intent, with the former Dortmund man a widely recognised, world-class manager, and while Rodgers is one of the most promising young managers in English football, the impact Klopp's arrival has had on the club from the bottom up is remarkable.
In his inaugural press conference, he played down expectations but suggested that "if I sit here in four years, I am pretty confident we will have one title," as reported by the Independent's Tom Sheen. In addition to that, he shows his confidence in his squad after every game—embracing every player on the field after the final whistle. Klopp is saying and doing all the right things.
This is reflected in the improved performances of the players, too, as well as their mentality.
"I don’t know why I’ve improved to tell you the truth, it is hard to explain. I just get the impression [from Klopp] that he really feels the game," Moreno told the Guardian's Andy Hunter at the end of October.
"He has a huge passion for the game, which I think I do. He wants you to express yourself on the field. He wants you to offer not 100 percent but 200 percent when you are performing and I think I offer that. It fits in with me."
While Rodgers left Moreno feeling an "inner anger," the Spaniard praised the man management of his successor: "He talks with me a lot. I feel he trusts me. He spends a lot of time with me."
Klopp has instilled a belief within a Liverpool squad that was so desperately lacking one following the disappointment of 2014/15. Under the German's management, the prospect of challenging at the upper end of the Premier League, and eventually in the Champions League, has been restored.
Liverpool went back to ground zero by dismissing Rodgers, and Klopp's intervention, following a summer of positive recruitment, looks set to usher in a positive era for the club—with much improvement on last season.
Statistics via WhoScored.com and Transfermarkt.co.uk.
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