This week’s Blood Red column on what has been an inspired season so far for one man in particular at Liverpool.
Attempting to pick a best performer from a crowded field at Liverpool so far this season is a difficult task.
A quartet of long-serving superstars are back to their best after a frustrating year last time out. Alisson Becker is once more earning rave reviews that refer to him as the best goalkeeper in world football. In front of him, Virgil van Dijk is nearing those imperious levels once more. The Reds captain has been the outstanding defender for a team who have a three-point lead of the top of the Premier League and the best defensive record to go with it.
Mohamed Salah’s 18 goals across all competitions have him on course for another real crack at breaking the 30 barrier again while Trent Alexander-Arnold has been in sensational form. All four have genuine claims to be the Liverpool player of the season to date.
But surely it is in the technical area where the Reds’ most influential operator has been plying his trade? If it is true that players can have fluctuating levels of output then it can also be argued managers can and Jurgen Klopp has been inspired since August.
The Liverpool boss is having a major impact on the results of his team through some skllful juggling of his options, his resting and rotating and his in-game tactical adjustments that are paying dividends alongside his substitutions. Less than a fortnight into 2024 and the Reds now stand as Premier League leaders with one foot in the League Cup final and a fourth-round home tie in the FA Cup to be followed up by a last-16 meeting in the Europa League in March. Things haven’t been flourishing like this for nearly two years at Anfield.
It was fascinating to hear Pep Lijnders when he stepped in for Klopp this week to preview Wednesday’s first leg with Fulham. The assistant manager spoke of telling the players to leave all the negativity, the baggage and the unwanted memories of last season at the entrance door of the AXA Training Centre in July or risk “a punch in the face”.
The ability to discard last season’s events has helped provide the team with the basis to build from as a quartet of new midfielders have added to a squad that was already brimming with several high-class performers seemingly hell-bent on turning the page and changing the narrative.
None more so than Klopp, whose expertise has kept the side on track during a punishing, crippling period that has seen them play 13 times between late November and early January.
Klopp has always preferred solutions over excuses and problems and the way he has kept the plates spinning at speed in the midst of an increasingly debilitating injury list has been masterful.
Since the 1-1 draw with Manchester City on November 25, Klopp has seen so many of his key men succumb. Alisson, Joel Matip, Alexis Mac Allister, Ryan Gravenberch, Kostas Tsimikas, Diogo Jota, Dominik Szoboszlai and now Alexander-Arnold have all pulled up during that period and even Van Dijk missed the game at Arsenal in the FA Cup last week through illness, while Salah and Wataru Endo are currently on month-long jaunts for Egypt and Japan, respectively.
First-choice left-back Andy Robertson has been sidelined since October with a shoulder problem that required surgery and Thiago Alcantara, arguably their best midfielder, hasn’t kicked a ball since April. Last season’s breakout youngster, Stefan Bajcetic, has featured just once too, as a right-back at LASK in the Europa League back in September.
That Liverpool played their 13th game in 46 days on Wednesday without as many as seven first-team starters in Alexander-Arnold, Robertson, Van Dijk, Matip, Thiago, Szoboszlai and Salah – while also choosing to omit Alisson – for a semi-final they won speaks volumes about both the manager’s tactical ability and also the strength in depth available to him.
While Klopp was able to steer the FA Cup tie at Arsenal back in his team’s favour with some tactical tinkering that saw him move four players’ positions in Darwin Nunez, Cody Gakpo, Luis Diaz and Harvey Elliott for a much-improved second period, it was his use of the bench on Wednesday that helped them secure a first-leg advantage against Marco Silva’s Cottagers.
