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For a side that entered the season with league title hopes, the 2017-18 campaign has not been particularly friendly to Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool thus far. It's been a difficult start.
The Reds suffered their most lopsided defeat of the young season on Sunday when they were absolutely thrashed in a 4-1 loss against Spurs at Wembley Stadium, which most sportsbooks had favoured.
As usual, Liverpool looked dangerous in attack, but shambolic and panicked defending would be their undoing. Star man Philippe Coutinho, who had a spectacular effort of his own parried away by an equally phenomenal save from Hugo Lloris in the second half, told ESPN Brasil that his team failed to heed defensive warnings from their manager.
Coutinho said, “It started out wide and we ended up conceding one of those goals the manager speaks about. He speaks a lot about this -- we’ve conceded a lot of goals like this. And obviously in attack we were unable to score the goals necessary to draw or turn around the game.”
Dejan Lovren, who has been Klopp’s preferred centre back partner alongside Joel Matip for most of the season, was embarrassingly subbed off in the 31st minute after playing a direct role in each of Tottenham’s first two goals. Lovren inexplicably lost sight of Harry Kane as the English forward opened the scoring in just the fourth minute.
Less than ten minutes later, Lovren completely whiffed on a clearing header at midfield, which launched an easy Spurs counter that resulted in a 12th-minute goal for Son Heung-Min. Kane tore into Lovren’s vacated space at the back and supplied the assist.
While Lovren will take the brunt of the criticism, and rightfully so, Coutinho was quick to suggest that the goals were not the fault of just one player. “The first goal started in a wide position where everyone is involved in defending, not just the players right at the back. We have to improve this as quickly as possible in order to win games and fight more.”
Lovren has reportedly been dealing with a nagging back injury, but his struggles have been consistent since joining Liverpool three years ago. Lovren’s job is admittedly a difficult one. The Reds play an all-out attacking style that can leave defenders isolated against counters, and the club’s No. 1 goalkeeper, Simon Mignolet, doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in his defenders, either.
Still, Liverpool will have to shore itself up defensively if they have any hopes of fighting their way into the top-four. The Reds have picked up just 13 points from the season’s first nine games, and the unsightly goal differential of -2 will have to change if they are to climb the table. Sitting in ninth place and tied on points with the likes of Burnley is certainly not what Klopp and Liverpool had in mind.
We’ll see what changes are in store for the Reds ahead of their next Premier League clash, which will come next Saturday afternoon at Anfield against Huddersfield.
Written by Ketan Patel
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