The Kopite View

Liverpool stormed into the group stages of the Champions League on Tuesday night after blitzing Hoffenheim at Anfield in the first twenty minutes to take an unassailable 3-0 lead before eventually running out 4-2 winners on the night and an aggregate 6-3 win.

It was an impressive start by Liverpool that overwhelmed the Germans, a high tempo pressing game combined with some superb passing and movement put the tie to bed inside the first twenty minutes.

But Hoffenheim helped Liverpool with their tactics, they continued to play with a high defensive line at Anfield, tactical suicide against a Liverpool side with so much pace in attack.

Mane, Salah and Firmino enjoyed the space given to get behind the German’s defence on numerous occasions, Hoffenheim’s tactics certainly helped the game become an entertaining spectacle with their own intentions of attack that caused Liverpool more than a few problems.

But how many teams are going to come to Anfield this season and play with the tactics Hoffenhiem deployed ?

Not many, it doesn’t matter if Liverpool are playing in Europe or in the Premier League, not many teams are going to make the game as open as Hoffenheim did the other night.

Teams will come to Anfield and sit deep like Crystal Palace did last Saturday and try to frustrate Liverpool’s attack and try and hit on the break like we saw many times last season, and apart from Liverpool counter-attacking, Mane and Salah’s pace will be nullified with little space to work in.

Can, Wijnaldum and even Henderson were all pushing forward against Hoffenheim but Liverpool were still vulnerable when they lost possession with too many men forward and it didn’t help with Moreno ignorant to the fact that he is a left-back.

It is a totally different game when teams come and park the bus and Liverpool’s midfield of Can, Wijnaldum and Henderson don’t have the creativity to unlock well disciplined, deep-lying defences.

This is why Liverpool must hold on to Coutinho now because it is too late in the transfer window to find a replacement, he is the only player that can open up packed defences with his ability.

Liverpool will destroy teams that come to Anfield with the same approach as Hoffenheim but don’t expect to see too many being brave enough.

Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group are heading into arguably their most important 2 weeks in charge of the Anfield club.

With only a League Cup win to celebrate during their reign of one of Europe’s most successful clubs, the pressure is on Liverpool’s American owners to take the club to the next level.

Supporters are losing patience despite the club’s improvement both on and off the park.

Anfield’s impressive new main stand is an excellent addition to Liverpool’s famous ground allowing more speactators to support the team as well as providing extra revenue.

On the field, FSG made an excellent signing by capturing Jurgen Klopp to take charge of the team, when many clubs in Europe were showing an interest in the German.

Klopp led Liverpool to a top 4 place in the Premier League and Champions League qualification.

But Liverpool supporters have been left frustrated this summer with few additions to Klopp’s threadbare squad and with the return of European football to Anfield this season, the worry is that the squad will struggle with the extra games.

The improvements in the last season raised expectations that FSG would take Liverpool to the next level this summer and make them genuine challengers both in the Premier League and in Europe.

But apart from the few signings made at this time of writing, the most important issue for FSG looks like maintaining the sevices of their star player Philippe Coutinho.

Liverpool’s owners seem intent on keeping Coutinho but whether he stays or goes, it pains me to say that there are more important issues needing resolved that will require FSG spending money and bringing in quality players.

Another centre back remains a priority for Liverpool’s defence and a holding midfielder but with time running out this transfer window, it is looking less likely of happening.

If Coutinho finally leaves for Barcelona, then Liverpool will need a player similar to his style too, so it will be interesting to see how the next 2 weeks pan-out regarding Liverpool’s transfer window, but if Coutinho leaves and nobody is signed then FSG will need to answer a lot of questions from the fans because they have been starved of success for too long.

Liverpool’s season has already started with a 3-3 draw away to Watford and a 2-1 win away to Hoffenheim in the first-leg of their Champions League qualifier, and from a Liverpool supporter’s point of view, there are many problems that are still to be solved.

It has been a quiet summer regarding transfer activity, where the need to strengthen Liverpool’s squad looked obvious with the extra games they will have to play this season with the inclusion of European competition.

Manager Jurgen Klopp has added Andy Robertson, Mohamed Salah and Dominic Solanke to his squad this summer, but his squad still looks a bit threadbare.

Liverpool have already picked up a few injuries before the season kicked-off, with Nathaniel Clyne, Daniel Sturridge and Adam Lallana amongst the more notable casualties.

The likely departure of Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona will leave a massive void because he is one of the few players in Liverpool’s squad that can provide the creativity and defence splitting passes.

Liverpool’s defence is still a major worry and the three goals conceded against Watford proved that there are still defensive problems and they were quite fortunate to only concede one goal in Germany on Tuesday night.

Southampton’s Virgil Van Dijk has been talked about all summer as the man to solve Liverpool’s defensive problems but it doesn’t look like he will be coming to Anfield and unless they sign another centre-back then their defensive woes will continue.

Alberto Moreno’s return to left-back doesn’t fill supporters with much confidence either, and surely Andy Robertson will get his chance at left-back sooner rather than later.

Emre Can, Jordan Henderson and Gini Wijnaldum are all good players in their own right but the evidence of their performances playing together in Liverpool’s first two games is worrying, the midfield didn’t look balanced with that trio.

Surely it is Klopp’s decision to go into the new season with the squad he has, but you can’t help thinking that his hands may be tied by his American owners regarding the lack of spending.

Time will tell if Liverpool’s squad is strong enough to challenge in the both the Premier League and Europe this season.

Liverpool’s disappointing 2-1 defeat at home to Crystal Palace at the weekend was a major blow to their hopes of finishing the season in the Premier League’s top four.

Former Reds striker Christian Benteke scored both goals that earned the visitors the three points after Philippe Coutinho’s spectacular free-kick had opened the scoring for Jurgen Klopp’s men.

Liverpool still have four fixtures left to play but the defeat gave encouragement to top four rivals Manchester United and Arsenal, both can now overtake the Reds if they win their games in hand.

With injuries piling up and confidence taking a knock after last weekend’s defeat, it is paramount that Liverpool finish the season in the top four to mark a significant improvement under Klopp, and put Liverpool back in the Champions League where they need to be.

Champions League qualification would help Liverpool attract players to come to Anfield, and also give the club more money to invest in players.

If Liverpool miss out on the top four, then they will have to negotiate playing in the Europa League, and that competition is really a millstone round a team’s neck with Thursday and Sunday fixtures and the amount of extra games providing a serious problem for mounting a challenge in the Premier League.

Liverpool’s disappointing league position last season was partly down to their adventures in the Europa League.

Losing the Europa League final to Seville that would’ve meant qualification into this season’s Champions League was a major disappointment, and Liverpool can’t afford to let this season’s tremendous opportunity slip away again.

Liverpool’s mounting injury list a real concern, and many people expected Klopp to add a few players in the January transfer window to strengthen the squad for the final few months of the season, and now with players like Sturridge, Lallana, Mane and Henderson all injured, the squad is really stretched.

Hopefully the lack of transfer activity in January’s transfer window doesn’t prove costly and Liverpool can somehow stumble over the finish line in the race for a top four spot.

Liverpool have six games left to play this season and they are all very important if they are to achieve their goal of finishing in the top four.

It is vital for the Reds to get back into Europe’s elite competition and with six games to play, they are all basically all cup finals with little room for error with Manchester United only six points behind them, with two games in hand.

Arsenal are nine points behind with two games in hand and also remain a threat. The advantage for Liverpool is that although they have played more games than the rest, they have the points in the bag with their rivals playing catch up, they also still have to play Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United before the end of the season.

United have a tough fixture at home to Chelsea this Sunday before facing local rivals Manchester City, Tottenham and Arsenal before the end of the season.

Liverpool have arguably the easier fixtures remaining until the end of the season with no games against any of the Premier League’s top six sides left to play, but they still have to play a few teams that have caused the Reds problems in recent times.

Jurgen Klopp’s men are away to West Brom this weekend and they haven’t won at the Hawthorns since the 2011-12 season and Sunday will be a very difficult test for Liverpool against a physical team that will pressure their defence at every opportunity with high balls into the box.

Crystal Palace at home are next, and they are another team that has caused problems in recent years, and their form has improved since Sam Allardyce took over as manager and they will provide another tough test for the Reds.

Watford away follows the Palace game and fresh in the memory is Liverpool’s 3-0 defeat from last season and Klopp’s men will know they are in for a tough game at Vicarage Road.

Liverpool’s second last game of the season is away to West Ham, the Hammers did the league double over the Anfield side last season, and although they have not had as good a season as last, they will hope to continue their recent good record against the Reds.

Middlesbrough should know their fate by the time they come to Anfield on the last game of the season, and hopefully Liverpool will know they are guaranteed a top four spot before this game.

It is going to be a very nervy end to the season for Liverpool and their supporters with so many fixtures to play against teams that have caused them problems, but fingers crossed they achieve their goal and are back playing in the Champions League next season.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has a few injury concerns ahead of his team’s fixture against Burnley at Anfield tomorrow, Jordan Henderson and Daniel Sturridge have both been ruled out, while Dejan Lovren has just recovered from a knee injury and is not guaranteed to start.

But possibly Klopp’s biggest injury concern is the news that Roberto Firmino is struggling to be fit.

With limited options in attack, it looks like Klopp will give Divock Origi an opportunity to prove his worth if Firmino is ruled out.

Origi has been inconsistent this season despite featuring in 32 games this season, the Belgian has scored 8 times and is Liverpool’s third highest goalscorer this season.

But Origi hasn’t shown enough this season and most of his appearances have been cameo roles as a substitute.

Origi showed what he is capable of in last weekend’s 3-1 win over Arsenal when he made an impact coming off the bench in the latter stages.

The Belgian international was unlucky not to score with a headed effort that came off the post before producing a tremendous pass that resulted in Wijnaldum scoring Liverpool’s third and game-winning goal.

Origi will be desperate to start after spending so much time on the bench this season, and this could be the opportunity he needs to prove to Klopp that he should be playing up front instead of Firmino who is being used as a makeshift striker.

There is much speculation regarding the future of Liverpool midfielder Emre Can, the German international has just over a year left on his contract and although the club have offered him a new deal, Can’s agent is believed to be asking for double his current salary of £35,000 per week.

Agents are making it more and more difficult for clubs, and can use the offer of new contracts to bargain with other clubs for a potential move that could happen in Can’s case.

It is difficult to justify such a pay rise that Can’s agent is hoping for considering the player has struggled to feature in Liverpool’s midfield this season, but there is no doubting he has tremendous ability and with his versatility and only being 23-years-of-age, he has time to still improve his game.

Many supporters think that it’s time to move Can on because he has not kicked on from last season or showed the form of last term.

I hope Liverpool sort out a deal for the German because I think he has a lot to offer, and it wasn’t so long ago that he was one of our most important players, but injuries at the start of this season, and losing his place to Gini Wijnaldum have not helped his progress.

Last Saturday’s win over Arsenal was a reminder of what Can gives to the team, his physicality and work rate were influential in Liverpool’s midfield, and his will to get stuck in and make a few tackles is something Liverpool need in their midfield.

Although Can has had a difficult season, I would like to see him stay at Anfield, and I hope the club can agree on a new contract even if they have to double his wages, because £70,000 per week is not astronomical considering the new contracts that Adam Lallana and Philippe Coutinho have recently signed.

Liverpool’s Lucas Leiva has had more than his fair share of critics over the years, but the more criticism he gets, the more he seems to enjoy silencing his critics.

His early years at Anfield were tough for Lucas, with many Liverpool supporters deciding that he was not good enough to wear the red shirt, but over the years he won over many of his critics before suffering a serious injury in December 2011 in the 2-0 win over Chelsea in the League Cup quarter-final.

The Brazilian suffered an injury to his anterior cruciate ligament after colliding with Juan Mata resulting in Lucas missing the rest of the season and the League Cup win over Cardiff City later that season.

It has been noticeable that Lucas has lost a yard of pace since recovering from his serious injury, but his professionalism and commitment to Liverpool is unequalled amongst the squad.

In recent seasons Lucas has struggled to feature regularly in Liverpool’s first team and on numerous occasions has looked to be on his way out of the Anfield door.

But Lucas is still at Anfield and once again he showed his importance to Liverpool by producing another impressive performance in an unorthodox defensive position alongside Joel Matip in the centre of Liverpool’s defence due to concerns over Lovren and Klavan.

Jurgen Klopp has selected Lucas to play in defence on numerous occasions despite his natural position being in midfield, but his superb reading of the game makes him an ideal option to play in defence.

Despite Lucas not being the tallest or the quickest he has played well when called upon to help out Liverpool’s defence.

Saturday’s 2-0 win over Tottenham was a tough test, not just for Lucas but for the whole team after recording a poor run of results since the turn of the year.

Liverpool badly needed a positive result quickly to end their poor run, and to end it against one of the Premier League’s best teams was impressive, and their performance deservedly earned them a much needed win.

Lucas was outstanding in the heart of Liverpool’s defence and many supporters feared the worst when he was selected to play in defence against one of the league’s best attacking teams.

Lucas was criticised in Liverpool’s 2-0 defeat at Hull City the previous week, but once again he silenced his critics in typical fashion against Spurs.

When will we ever learn, never write off Lucas.

Liverpool’s disastrous start to 2017 has left their supporters disappointed beyond belief and scratching their heads as to what has caused their team’s drastic downturn in fortunes in such a short period of time.

After beating Manchester City on the last day of 2016 Liverpool looked like serious title contenders, but since that win they are still looking for their next win in the league, and have since exited the Capital One Cup and the FA Cup and have dropped down to 5th position in the Premier League after Saturday’s 2-0 defeat away at Hull City.

I’ll try to put my take on some of the reasons I think have contributed to Liverpool’s recent poor form:

Injuries – Injuries to key players hasn’t helped Klopp’s team, injuries to Coutinho, Lallana and Matip have resulted in Klopp having to change his team more often than he wanted, and even on Saturday Lovren and Klavan were both unavailable to play in defence resulting in Lucas deputising in defence once again, a team selection that Klopp has had to make far too often this season.

Loss of form – Too many players have lost their form from the earlier part of the season, Can has been woeful, Coutinho and Lallana have struggled since returning from injury and Firmino has hardly kicked a ball since his run-in with the police on Christmas Eve.

Goalkeeper- Klopp dropped Mignolet for Karius earlier in the season but had to rei-instate the Belgian because the German stopper was so poor, but Mignolet is not the answer as we saw on Saturday when he gifted Hull their opening goal, and Klopp must sign a top class keeper.

Busy January- Liverpool had a lot of games to play in January and Klopp tried to keep his players as fresh as he could by playing a number of youngsters but it didn’t help their results and the players still looked tired and jaded and struggled to play the high-tempo football from earlier in the season.

Teams Learning How To Play Against Liverpool- We’ve seen many teams play a similar way against Liverpool recently, they sit deep defensively and make it difficult for us to break them down and hit us on the break when we lose possession, and many teams recently have enjoyed success by deploying these tactics against us since the turn of the year.

African Nations- Mane was a big miss throughout January because he is the one player in Liverpool’s squad with pace and Matip was also affected with the African competition despite his decision to retire from international football.

Lack Of Transfer Activity- Many supporters was surprised with the lack of transfer business in January, but Klopp doesn’t seem to like buying players in January and I fully believe he is trying to give the current squad of players a full season and a chance to prove themselves before making changes in the summer.

Despite all these reasons and excuses for Liverpool’s poor form I expect Klopp to turn things around sooner rather later, and he is still the right man for the job.

Liverpool only have league games to play for the rest of this season and that should help them pick up their form with Klopp having more time to work with his players on the training ground.

There is no doubt that results and form have been really disappointing recently but Liverpool still have a great chance to finish in the top four and a win against Tottenham on Saturday would be the perfect tonic to end this poor run of form.

Former Manchester United defender turned football pundit Rio Ferdinand has claimed that Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has made a big mistake in allowing their “best defender” to join Crystal Palace.

Sakho has been an outcast at Anfield this season after failing a drug’s test last season before having a much publicised fall-out with Klopp during Liverpool’s pre-season tour of America.

The French international defender finally got a loan move away from Anfield on transfer deadline day by moving to Crystal Palace.

Speaking on BT Sport, Ferdinand thought that Klopp has made a mistake by allowing Sakho to leave by claiming:

“I think he’s Liverpool’s best defender when he’s fit and available.

“Last season he was very good and I think they’ve missed him this season. Like Stevie (ex-Liverpool skipper Steven Gerrard) said, he was their leader at the back, athletic.

“He’ll be a great addition to Crystal Palace because he will add a bit of pace and aggressiveness to the back four.”

Has Ferdinand forgot about his old boss Sir Alex Ferguson and one of his decisions?

Back in 2001 the United manager let his imposing centre-half Jaap Stam leave Old Trafford after the release the defender’s controversial autobiography.

Stam made some unflattering comments about some of his United team-mates and claimed that Ferguson made an illegal approach for him at PSV.

Stam was arguably United’s best defender at the time of his departure, but he upset Ferguson and he had to go.

Klopp’s decision to move Sakho on is similar to Ferguson’s with Stam because it doesn’t matter how good a player is, if he breaks the manager’s rules then he must accept the punishment, even if it means they have to move to another club.

Nobody really knows what goes on behind the scenes between players and manager’s relationships, but supporters have to trust and back their manager on these kind of decisions because there can’t be rules for one player and rules for others.

Obviously Ferdinand forgot about how his old boss treated some of his best players when they broke the rules.