This is not my beautiful house.
That’s what most Liverpool supporters, this team included, are thinking this morning as Liverpool have broken out of the box this season like the starter’s gun is just an overbearing nuisance. other when feeling nauseous. In some ways, it is. Liverpool have not won in their first three games, and while the first two draws can be wiped out, with some underlying despair, as strange things are happening, yesterday’s loss against arch-rivals Manchester United is not just a stain on a scan. It’s an actual symptom of something.
For the second time away from home, Liverpool looked haggard and almost unwilling to energize the opposition. Now, all the outplayed teams look sluggish. They eat each other. That’s why you often hear that the losing teams are described as “bad” and the winning teams are “floating” or some extension of either. But Liverpool have lacked courage, and there are reasons for that that we will have to do.
But whenever Liverpool hit a bad patch, and there’s always a couple of games there that look like they’re going to fail, the usual complaints come up. The full-back is too far forward, the defense is too high, too risky, Trent Alexander-Arnold is not a good defender, you can’t play like this, etc. It repeats itself.
None of this is a secret. This is how Liverpool play, and nobody says anything when they’ve won more than 90 points in a season. Teams know what they face and they know how to deal with it. It’s hardly a secret. Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson will get what looks a bit silly on the pitch, and if you can get the ball and move it fast enough, you’ll hit it into the space behind them where Liverpool have just two centres. their defense and whoever is holding Number 6 to cover. Everyone knows this.
The reason very few teams have been able to actually do this enough to beat Liverpool, is because they already have a cheat code in central defence. Virgil van Dijk made this system work. No one else can. Because his game reading and prediction might be the best in the world, these types of attacks never begin before being defeated. Van Dijk’s ability to stop things before they happen often means he rarely has to sprint in matches, much less handling.
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The margins were always razor thin, playing as Liverpool do, because it only took one good pass to open them up like a cadaver. But they looked much safer and fooled everyone into thinking the margins weren’t as perilous because van Dijk was always on the right side of them. It’s what made him quite possibly the best defender in the world. The whole system’s foundation was him making it OK.
Notice how all those are in the past tense? Because so far this season, he has very much not been that.
Go back to the opening week. The second Fulham goal was the result of a pretty lazy and out-of-sorts patch of defending from van Dijk on Alex Mitrovic. This is the kind of run against van Dijk that most strikers won’t even try. Maybe it was the excitement that boiled over on opening day, perhaps Mitrovic’s giant shoulder chip to prove he belonged in the Premier League, perhaps it was just feeling optimistic on a sunny day like this. so, but Mitrovic noticed, “Fuck, it’s free cake!” and get rewarded in a way that strikers never have against van Dijk.
Looking forward to next week. That’s really harsh for van Dijk, because Wilfried Zaha is bound to be available these days. But watch closely:
We’re used to seeing van Dijk, even in this rather desperate situation, at least force Zaha to be left-footed (though as Villa learned this weekend, that’s not zero either. safe space) and keep him out. Play broke down before van Dijk had to intervene, as when Fabinho was sent his shorts by Eberechi Eze into orbit, opening up tons of time for the latter to pass this on to Zaha. But someone is going to blow up Liverpool’s defense once or twice a game. Van Dijk put out those flames. He never really got there against Zaha, who can line this up with his fancy right foot.
Yesterday was a complete disaster. No, van Dijk had no help from midfield, which essentially needed tennis balls inserted into their buffers to get them moving, but never before had the Dutchman looked legged. so flat. See this first goal:
After Milner slid sideways as if he had finally been lifted onto an ice float, he looked like he was coming shortly, van Dijk just… standing there? He didn’t close in on Jadon Sancho, who never had time to adjust his body to come back with his right foot and pass into the open half of the net. Either way, he could have scored, but this angle has to be closed for sure.
Again, for the second goal it’s hard to blame van Dijk, but that’s his standard, and it’s Liverpool’s reliance on that standard, you can’t leave him completely. Yes, Jordan Henderson was a bit out of position, and his touch was terrible, but van Dijk was beaten by Antony Martial, and van Dijk is almost never beaten in a position like this. That gives Martial always time in the world to get Marcus Rashford through. Van Dijk either didn’t see Martial fly into the center circle, or was too far away from him, or didn’t anticipate Henderson’s touch.
These are the types of margin calls that van Dijk is always on the right side and he has to be, and his greatness is that he is almost always. When he’s in this form… well, this is what Liverpool looks like.
Obviously there are other problems. The injury list is satanic, and almost entirely in midfield. Jordan Henderson is not a number 6 and never really was, and last night’s call to take Fabinho out of the starting line-up was essentially unfounded, regardless of how his season has started. how. The team’s offensive has been built around Darwin Nunez, a genuine No. 9, and he’s only played two innings so far. They were caught between offensive tactics. Van Dijk played with three different partners in central defence.
But the schedule is only getting more oppressive from here on, and there’s no one waiting around. And if Liverpool fans really want to panic, they can keep an eye on Jurgen Klopp’s earlier arc at Dortmund. Klopp had two warm-up seasons there before creating his top four seasons, including two Bundesliga titles and a Champions League final appearance. But in his seventh season at Westfalenstadion, it all fell apart, Dortmund finished seventh, and he left the club after the season. There are several other factors at work. Robert Lewandowski has appreciated it for Munich. So did Mario Goetze, and Nuri Sahin also left. This is Klopp’s eighth game on Merseyside.
Liverpool are clearly still adjusting to life without Sadio Mane, who strengthened their midfield even as a forward last season by dropping deep and assisting in the attacking half. attack before the end of many matches. Like Roberto Firmino used to be but looks incapable anymore. But at Dortmund, Klopp created a great team and couldn’t sustain it in their initial cycle. A lot of the players who led those great Dortmund teams are still there from 2014-2015, except they got injured or didn’t look like Schmeltzer or Piszczek or Hummels. It could just be that playing according to Klopp’s system for a while will take its toll. Henderson, Fabinho, Matip, van Dijk, Robertson, Alexander-Arnold, Salah and Firmino were present throughout. All hurt or look out of it. And that’s after the 63-match season last. It’s too early to say that’s what’s going on. Three games might be just a brief breakdown. But Liverpool fans are lying to you if that thought doesn’t slowly fade away in the depths of their brains.
