[article]Any hopes that Diogo Jota could singlehandedly fix Liverpool's attacking woes were firmly extinguished during Fulham's visit to Anfield on Sunday afternoon.
Another abject performance brought with it a sixth consecutive home defeat, and saw the Reds close in on a 12 th hour without an open-play goal in their own stadium. Their last came in the 12 th minute of a 1-1 draw with West Brom back on December 27, when Jürgen Klopp 's side sat top of the division and the future looked far brighter.
But it was hoped that the return of a player who had provided a goal every 104 minutes prior to sustaining a knee injury in mid-December could help alleviate the issue. Unfortunately, Jota began his Liverpool career coming into a side full of confidence, one that was able to consistently put him in on goal in those early months.
And the forwards simply aren't getting that sort of service anymore, a truth that should perhaps result in more scrutiny being directed at the midfield rather than a decimated defence. Klopp has always said that pressing is his teams' best playmaker – a fact he emphatically proved at Anfield in overseeing major improvement despite replacing Philippe Coutinho with more workmanlike midfielders.
It is easy to forget that value of that change had sustained well into the start of this season, when Liverpool were averaging 132 pressures per 90 minutes across a first 14 games that ended with them heading top courtesy of a 7-0 win at Crystal Palace.
In the 14 since, the Reds have averaged just 115 – a figure boosted by the anomaly of an incredible 227 pressures against Manchester City – and slipped down to eighth place as results have suffered. The fact that pressures in the attacking third have dropped from 44 per game to 38 across the two separate halves of the campaign underlines how Klopp's main creator has fallen by the wayside.
And, while it would be easy to point the fingers at the forwards for this, their midfield colleagues often did just as much pressing in that part of the pitch in the past. Unfortunately for Klopp, the pressing energy of his engine room has been lost as a result of the constant defensive reshuffles that have defined the campaign.
Last season, Jordan Henderson and Fabinho averaged 21.4 and 18.5 pressures p90 respectively as a formidable unit in the centre of the park, but they have spent much of this one stationed in defence. And their replacements, Thiago Alcantara (16.8) and Curtis Jones (16), have been unable to pick up the slack despite contributing effectively in other ways at times.
Furthermore, the only constant between last year's midfield and this, Gini Wijnaldum, has seen his pressures p90 drop from 15 p90 to 11.5 this time around, no doubt as a result of ridiculous schedule he has faced. It is interesting to note that Adam Lallana (31.4), Naby Keita (23.4) and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (22.7) were the top three pressers in the entire squad last season.
One has since left the club, one has been constantly injured, and the other appears to have lost the faith of his manager if recent involvement is anything to go by. For that reason, Keita remains the likeliest to make a long-term impact, and has actually sustained his numbers to lead the squad as top presser this term with 25.1 p90.
Of course, the biggest issue for the Guinean has always been getting on the pitch regularly enough, and so you worry about offering him up as a long-term solution to any problem. It is a lack of rhythm after recent injury that is likely to keep him out of Wednesday team to face Leipzig but, even a result that sees Liverpool through that tie should not mask this team's biggest failing.
Keita may or may not be the answer to that, but Klopp will know that his main playmaker must be restored sooner rather than later.[/article]
