It’s been a strange and frankly disappointing season for all Liverpool fans around the globe.
With 15 games left to play in the Premier League season, the Merseyside club are barely in the top half of the table, out of both domestic competitions, and is on the brink of a Champions League exit following an embarrassing 5-2 defeat to Real Madrid in the first leg of the tie.
As a Liverpool fan, I would be content with the season coming to an end now but alas, that’s not how football works.
Seeing out the rest of the season seems like a long shot given how we’ve performed for the majority of it but there are some possibilities to achieving this.
Keeping the squad fit!
Injuries have no doubt been the bane of Liverpool’s season.
This article would be much longer than I want if I was to list each player who’s gotten injured and how long they’ve been out for this season.
While Diogo Jota and Ibrahima Konate have returned from their respective knocks, the likes of Thiago Alcantara, Luis Diaz and Darwin Nuñez are either currently out with an injury or struggling to be fully fit.
The continuous injuries to the players have been a recurring theme and whether it’s something to do with the medical staff, we may never know, but a change is needed.
Change the formation!
Jürgen Klopp’s loyalty to some players past their best has no doubt been infuriating but his dedication to sticking with the 4-3-3 formation that has not worked this season may be even more difficult to understand.
The lack of quality options in the middle of the park that can perform as a typical ‘Liverpool’ midfielder is scarce, so choosing a formation where three of those options must be fielded is baffling, to say the least.
If we had Jude Bellingham (Borussia Dortmund), Moises Caicedo (Brighton and Hove Albion), and Nicolò Barella (Inter Milan), then great, stick with the 4-3-3, but sadly that’s not the case.
The 4-2-3-1 or 4-4-1-1 has worked better for the team this season yet Klopp remains defiant on the formation that has brought his side the most success during his tenure.
Dropping certain players!
As I previously stated, Klopp has been guilty of staying loyal to certain players in the line-up and not dropping them despite their form being well off the pace.
The likes of Jordan Henderson, Fabinho and Trent Alexander-Arnold at times are a few of those players.
While Fabinho has been rotated of late due to the emergence of Stefan Bajcetic, Henderson has kept his place on the side for the most part and the reason is beyond me.
At 32 years old, the captain is no longer the energetic workhorse who hunted down the opposition, he constantly looks a step behind the players he marks while his technical ability appears worse when playing alongside the likes of Thiago Alcantara.
In Alexander-Arnold’s case, a lack of competition has caused him to get comfortable knowing he’ll play every week.
Calvin Ramsay was bought for that very reason but his injury issues mean the full-back hasn’t been kept on his toes by a backup.
Improving the overall squad depth in the summer is of paramount importance as well as pushing the current players to perform much better than they currently are, and for the squad members who are at the club now, performances certainly must be improve if Liverpool have any chance of salvaging this season.
