On the Volley: What’s Wrong With Liverpool?

By Charlie DeMatteo

Liverpool and their manager Jurgen Klopp’s ability to compete in the Premier League with juggernaut Manchester City over the last five seasons has been nothing short of remarkable. While City spends upwards of 100 million pounds in every transfer window, Klopp’s ability to maximize the talent at his disposal warrants applause.

With that being said, after coming within one point of the Premier League title last season, it appears Klopp and his men cannot continue their monumental efforts to keep up with City. Liverpool sit 10th in the table after eight games and are 13 points off of their rivals City. The question must be asked: What’s going wrong?

When trying to dissect the issues that Liverpool are having this year, the first place to look is actually the end of last year. Liverpool played in four competitions: the Premier League, the Champions League, the Carabao Cup, and the FA Cup. Liverpool won the Carabao Cup with a win over Chelsea, and repeated that accomplishment again in another win over the Blues at Wembley to take home the FA Cup.

In the Premier League, they finished the season one agonizing point behind Manchester City to place second, and they made it all the way to the Champions League Final before falling to Real Madrid. While Liverpool fans and players will be happy they brought home two cups, I can’t help but think the proximity to footballing immortality and winning a quadruple has taken a toll on Jurgen Klopp and his players.

Liverpool under Klopp have dealt with failure before. In 2018, they lost the Champions League Final to Real Madrid; however, they came all the way back and won it the following season. That same year in 2019, they were one point away from being crowned Premier League champions, but their herculean 97 points were not enough to take the title from Man City. In 2020, Liverpool stormed through the league and won the Premier League for the first time in 30 years, putting up a remarkable 99 points. Yet, despite their triumphs in recent years following defeats, this time feels different.

After playing the maximum games possible last year, Liverpool have stumbled out of the blocks both physically and mentally, and I don’t blame them. The Premier League season is grueling for players who aren’t in other European competitions, let alone those who make it all the way to the Champions League Final. With a short offseason, Liverpool’s lack of pressing intensity so far I would think has something to do with the number of games played last year.

On top of that, overcoming the mental toll of losing the league and Champions League in the manner they did probably plays a role in a lack of motivation amongst the squad. While mental and physical fatigue plays a role in Liverpool’s lackluster start, I do think there are some tactical issues amongst the squad that needs to be dealt with.

The first issue at hand is the persistence to start players such as James Milner and Jordan Henderson. While the majority of the games Milner has played were down to injuries in the team, the same cannot be said for Henderson. No one was more impressed than I at the resurgence made in the career of Henderson, who has been the captain of this Liverpool team throughout all their recent success. With that being said, if this squad is to continue to move forward and have success, Henderson needs to be replaced. A perfect choice would be Jude Bellingham, the 19-year-old English phenom currently playing at Borussia Dortmund. If Liverpool can get their hands on Bellingham, it could be the start of their revival.

The last major issue currently at Liverpool is not getting the best out of two of their top players; Mohamed Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold. It is not crazy to say that at their best, these two are the best in the world at their position. However, both of them are out of form. For Salah, he seems to be positioned too far wide for his liking and can’t influence the game as he normally would. For Alexander-Arnold, he is consistently being exposed at the back, and his defensive inefficiencies are outshining his elite creative play. If Liverpool have any chance of salvaging their season, Klopp needs to get Salah and Trent back at their best.

Liverpool still have time to turn things around. However, for them to do so, they need to flush last season down the drain and remember how good of a team they truly are. While the title may be lost already, don’t discount another deep run in the Champions League for the Reds.