Jurgen Klopp is maybe having his best season in terms of managerial input. He is a humungous difference maker for Liverpool.

The manner in which he’s improved players, trusted youngsters, inspired comebacks and made tactical changes within matches has been the primary reason Liverpool are joint-top of the table and still in Europe with one cup already won.

That’s before mentioning his insanely progressive use of substitutes and how he regularly uses game-changers from the bench.

So, this isn’t really a criticism of the manager. He’s been incredible. He’s the best. And I think he might well ride off into the sunset with another Premier League winner’s medal.

But I do find the games in which he’s picked Ibrahima Konate and Jarrell Quansah over the past month quite strange.

Let’s take a closer look.

Liverpool 3-0 Southampton (FA Cup) – Quansah full game (Virg and Konate half-each)

Nottingham Forest 0-1 Liverpool (PL) – Konate full game

Sparta Prague 1-5 Liverpool (EL) Quansah and Konate share minutes (Konate gets injured)

Liverpool 1-1 Manchester City (PL) Quansah full game

Liverpool 6-1 Sparta Prague (EL) Quansah full game

Manchester United 4-3 Liverpool (FA Cup) Quansah full game

–Konate plays game for France in international break–

LIverpool 2-1 Brighton (PL) Quansah plays full game

LIverpool 3-1 Sheffield United (PL) Konate plays full game

Manchester United 2-2 Liverpool (PL) Quansah plays full game

The way I look at it is, this: you want your best players available and fresh for the biggest, hardest games.

Konate is part of Liverpool’s best XI. He is one of the top defenders on the planet when fit. In fact, the only criticism you can have of him is his availability. So, it’s obvious the manner in which Klopp rotates him in and out of the side is to look after his fitness. After all, Virgil van Dijk plays every game and is looked after much differently.

But since the end of February, Liverpool have failed to win three games, two in the Premier League and one in the FA Cup. Quansah has started in all of them and Konate has not.

Let’s go through it. Against City in the Premier League, Quansah had to play because Konate got 50 minutes on the Thursday night against Sparta Prague and picked up an issue. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but did we really need Konate on the pitch for that game?

He missed the FA Cup game with United due to that same injury, but he still went away with France right after that game and played well over the international break…

But upon his return, Klopp picked Quansah against Brighton and left the on-paper easier Sheffield United game for Konate, meaning he then had to pick Quansah at Old Trafford again as Konate is seemingly not going to play two games in three or four days.

If it were me, I’d have gone Konate versus Brighton and Quansah against Sheffield United, meaning Konate would be fresh for the Old Trafford tie, and Quansah can come in for the Europa League tie this Thursday with Atalanta… This would then mean Konate would be ready for the more important Crystal Palace tie next weekend, and so on.

It’s possible now that Konate plays Atalanta and Quansah gets Palace, which just seems the wrong way round given the priority should be the Premier League.

It’s important to note that Quansah has been exceptional. His mistake against United last time out aside, the 21-year-old has way outperformed expectations. He’s composed and physical and does well alongside van Dijk whenever called upon.

United target our right-side though, as do most big teams, for a few obvious reasons. Firstly. van Dijk is on the left and they want to avoid him. Secondly, there is often space left at right-back when either Trent Alexander-Arnold, Joe Gomez or Conor Bradley are playing that role inverted or just as a natural attacking fullback.

If I had one criticism of Klopp in this season and perhaps a few that have gone beforehand, it’s an insistence on picking strong teams in dead-rubbers or less important ones before more important ones.

One of Jota’s big injuries a few years back came in a Champions League tie with nothing riding on it. And we’d have beaten Sparta Prague without Konate.

Who knows if we’d have fared better than two draws and one win against United and City if Konate had played. We never will.

But hopefully the Frenchman will at least be fully fit for our most crucial upcoming fixtures. As City and Arsenal will only lose or draw one of their seven games left by my reckoning which means we have to finish perfectly. Old Trafford was the slip-up. No more room for another.

The post Editor’s Column: Klopp’s selection of Konate and Quansah is confusing appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.

Does giving Jayden Danns the moniker of the next Harry Kane pile unnecessary pressure onto his shoulders?

I considered this before writing the headline, but this is a young lad who’s just come on in front of 90,000 fans at Wembley and thrived in the situation. Danns is a kid who’s bagged a brace on his Anfield debut with two of the calmest finishes you’ll see all season….

I reckon he quite likes the pressure, actually.

And besides, I’m not the only one saying it!

The son of former Crystal Palace midfielder Neil Danns was practically unknown just a few weeks ago, but he’s the latest Academy Graduate to announce himself loudly and brashly.

Already this term, Jarrell Quansah and Conor Bradley have become first-team footballers, with Bobby Clark and James McConnell increasingly trusted by Jurgen Klopp in midfield.

Quansah has been quietly exceptional. He’s strong, positionally aware and is composed on the ball like Virgil van Dijk, his mentor. Bradley is our right-footed Andy Robertson. Feisty and quick with lethal end product.

There’s always something slightly more exciting about a youngster coming through when they’re an attacker, though, rightly or wrongly.

And Danns is just that. A Scouser who’s just turned 18, with two goals versus Southampton, a very-nearly-assist against Luton and a League Cup win over Chelsea to his name; having played just over an hour of professional football so far.

Most of the time when a player gets compared to someone who went before him, it’s fairly lazy analysis. Any Argentine under the height of 6ft’ is compared to Messi and Maradona before they turn 20. Bruno Cheyrou was dubbed the next Zinedine Zidane, remember.

But with Danns, the resemblance is uncanny. He runs like Harry Kane. They have the same gait and are faster than they actually look. They sprint powerfully over a few metres and show superb anticipation to where balls will drop. Danns is a no.9 who likes to drop deep and link-up play, too. His finishing is clearly a strong point, with over 20 goals for our youth sides this season, adding to his Anfield FA Cup brace.

His first goal last night showed composure and technical proficiency; chipping the ball over the onrushing keeper without having to even look. Darwin Nunez would have scored 40 goals this season if he had that one in his locker. (The ridiculous scoop versus Brentford is not repeatable and shouldn’t count as evidence of better finishing!)

Danns’ second last night is just as impressive. He shows great awareness and striker’s instincts to get ahead of the defender and slams home with a powerful instep finish. Without wanting to ram the point home too much, it’s exactly how Kane would have taken both goals.

In all three appearances he’s earned himself headed chances in the box, too. This isn’t a fluke. It’s great movement and the timing of his leaps have been great. A real no.9 can score aerially or from the floor.

You can see the stylistic similarities in this video below, showing some of Danns’ youth goals this season. Squint and it’s Kane…

Jayden Danns play football tomorrow pic.twitter.com/CjtLxDOL1L

— Zakz (@LFC_Zakz) February 27, 2024

Unlike the England captain, Danns already has a trophy to his name, of course – and hopefully will add to it this season.

Now, the job for Danns is more minutes and to keep knocking on Klopp’s door for opportunities. I’m pretty sure he’ll feature against Sparta Prague in the Europa League and I cannot wait to see him again. Then, he has to impress a new manager in the summer. One of the saddest things about Klopp leaving is that he won’t see the journey of these Academy lads, but he’ll always be the boss who was brave enough to give them their start.

At the beginning of the season I was convinced Liverpool needed a new right-back, centre-back, holding midfielder and another winger – even after the transfer window shut.

Bradley and Quansah are our new defenders though, and the collection of Clark, McConnell and even the prodigal Trey Nyoni provide enough depth in the middle, even with the most ridiculous of injury crises. Danns is the wildcard. Nobody was even touting him at Christmas so to have an exciting finisher coming through the ranks – someone who can learn off our already world-class attackers – is brilliant.

Perhaps Klopp will see what he has to offer versus Nottingham Forest on Saturday.

The post Editor’s Column: He definitely, definitely plays like Harry Kane… appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.

There was a beautiful moment at the end of the 4-1 victory over Luton last night, where Harvey Elliott lay on the Anfield turf, completely exhausted from his effort in the thrilling comeback victory.

Fellow youngster Conor Bradley came and hugged him back to life. It’s this kind of spirit and togetherness that will keep this group together once Jurgen Klopp, who taught them the value of the hug, is gone next season.

Elliott finished the game with seven key passes, three big chances created, four tackles won and a goal. This is a 20-year-old who’s standing in for Mo Salah on the right-wing and the fact is: he delivered. No player has made more chances (7) from open play in the Premier League this season. It was 100th appearance for the Reds.

And he still managed to deliver despite being on the receiving end of groans and complaints from an expectant and slightly spoilt Anfield first-half. Elliott was grafting. It wasn’t his fault his beautiful lofted pass to Luis Diaz wasn’t converted early on, or that Cody Gakpo’s overhead-kick from his clever cross went straight at the keeper. Despite the setbacks, he continually wanted the ball, cutting inside and dribbling through the middle at the opposition defence. A few of his passes as the first-half wore on became wayward, but Klopp berated the Main Stand for their disappointment. The boss wanted unwavering support and saw the promising situations as evidence a goal would eventually come. He was right.

In the second-half, the stodgy crowd turned exceptional. It was actually perhaps the best Anfield has been all season. What a turnaround – and the team fed off it. Elliott stayed wider in the second, as Bradley cut inside and played an inverted role. Luton couldn’t handle either of them. The energy and frenetic pressing; as well as the speed in which Liverpool were countering Luton was even more impressive considering there were no senior midfielders or attackers on the bench. Elliott went for 90 minutes and he should be immensely proud of his contribution, which was topped off late on with the curling effort that sealed the win.

20 – Aged 20, Harvey Elliott tonight was the youngest player on record (from 2008-09) to score, have 5+ shots (5), create 5+ chances (7), have 10+ touches in the opposition's box (17) and make 25+ passes ending in the final 1/3 (27) in a Premier League game. Everywhere. pic.twitter.com/FSBemDhuid

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) February 21, 2024

Elliott will never play like Salah. Sadly for the Englishman, he doesn’t possess the same physical attributes. He’s not as strong, but more importantly, has no devilish pace, which means he can never make runs in-behind a defensive line or knock it past a defender and get round the other side before him. He has to do it the harder, cleverer way, with jinks and twists and timing.

Liverpool need Elliott to be our Bernardo Silva. A magician with wonderful feet who can play in multiple positions but really just look for pockets of space from which he can create. Off the ball, Elliott is bullish and works hard and this shouldn’t be forgotten. It’s not his natural game to tackle and intercept, but like of all the youngsters featuring in Klopp’s Last Dance, he knows it’s the only way into the team.

Fans need to remember there are only a handful of players under the age of 20 in world football who can legitimately claim to be better than Elliott.

Jude Bellingham, Jamal Musiala, Gavi, Florian Wirtz. Then Elliott is very much in the next bracket, with Alejandro Garnacho, Evan Ferguson, Mathys Tel and Warren Zaire-Emery. That’s elite company, but because he’s English and has been in and around the team for a good few years, we forget his age and potential.

Whoever the next manager is has a jaw-dropping array of young talent to work with. Elliott, Ryan Gravenberch (21), Conor Bradley (20), Stefan Bajcetic (19), Ben Doak (18), Bobby Clark (19), James McConnell (19), Jarell Quansah (21) are all touted for big things. And then there’s the likes of Trey Nyoni (16) and Jayden Danns (18) following them through. This is before mentioning the array of world-class starters currently doing the business of course…

Liverpool’s big squad has proven completely essential this term. Injuries have been regular and seemingly crucial, but the reality is we’ve largely kept on winning through adversity.

It’s the squad players who can come in at a whim and perform to an almost similar level to the starters who will win us this title.

Elliott is a huge part of that. His ability to come off the bench and contribute and step up when it matters, even at the age of 20, shows he could be one of the best players in the Premier League by the time he’s 24.

The post Editor’s Column: Harvey Elliott is one of World’s Best U21s and Liverpool fans should appreciate this more appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.

Conor Bradley is currently grieving the death of his father. The Northern Irishman is only 20-years-old, which is far too young to lose a dad and our thoughts are of course with him.

It’s quite poignant that one of his dad’s last memories would have been watching Bradley’s sublime performance in the 4-1 victory over Chelsea; a game in which the fullback notified the world of his talent with a goal and two assists. Joe Bradley would have died a very proud man.

His son did however return to training this week which suggests he may be available for the tricky away tie with Brentford on Saturday lunchtime.

Trent Alexander-Arnold hasn’t trained, so Jurgen Klopp will pick either Bradley, Joe Gomez (who himself has been absent with flu but should be fine) or the wildcard option of Curtis Jones at right-back.

Jones played there versus Burnley in the second-half after Trent left the field injured and did a surprisingly good job linking play and overlapping Harvey Elliott.

Bradley though would be my choice…

His breakthrough game came in the 2-1 home victory over Fulham in the EFL Cup semi-final first-leg on January 10th, and after that Man of the Match performance, he went from strength to strength. Brilliant against Bournemouth, Fulham again and Norwich, Bradley put the cherry on top of his meteoric rise with the iconic outing v Chelsea. It wasn’t just one of the performances of the season; it was one of the best right-back performances I’ve ever seen.

He’s very, very fast. Bradley can hug the touchline, overlap, dribble and even run beyond opposition backlines, as he did for his goal v Chelsea. The lazy analysis has called him a Trent-regen, but he’s much more like a right-footed and younger Andy Robertson. Quick, feisty, never-say-die and smart in tight situations, with a wicked cross from deep.

Nobody was very good against Arsenal, but we genuinely missed his speed. Trent is obviously wonderful, but he’s not someone who’ll ever get on the end of the pass – he’s the one playing it. He cuts in from right-back and performs as a deep-lying playmaker. Trent is a magician on the ball and occasionally not good enough of of it – like many midfielders who possess his world-class technical qualities.

When Trent is back, he’s not going to want to be a rotation player, and fair enough. Before his injury, he was arguably the Premier League Player of the Season, saving us against Fulham and Manchester City to name but a few standout performances. But it would be a mistake to use Bradley only as a substitute when he was impacting games from the start so brilliantly.

The obvious answer is to allow Trent to play in midfield and use Bradley as a more traditional, running fullback – not the quarterback Trent is.

Trent though shouldn’t play as a no.6 without a defensively-minded player alongside him. This would be too risky on turnovers and in stopping counter-attacks, where Trent is weak. But he could thrive in a double-pivot with Wataru Endo or Alexis Mac Allister, enabling Curtis Jones or Dom Szoboszlai more freedom ahead of them.

If Trent is to anchor the midfield on his own, he’ll need his no.8s either side to play very narrow and non-expansively. There would be just too many empty spaces otherwise.

In fact, it’s probably a conundrum for the next manager (Xabi Alonso?) more than Klopp, who is unlikely to make drastic changes before the end of the season – and will focus on a game by game basis.

His replacement though has the best years of both Bradley and Trent ahead of them.

Alonso currently plays a 3-4-2-1 formation with running wing-backs more akin to Bradley than Trent. There’s no doubt though that Trent could slip into the centre of the midfield in a double-pivot, with a partner beside him, knowing there are three defenders behind him, should the Spaniard take the helm.

This would also suit Gomez, who could perfectly play on the right of the back-three.

But that’s probably looking too far ahead considering we’ve got a quadruple to win and three must-win-points to secure on Saturday.

Bradley will have all the support and love of his team-mates and the fanbase following his horrible news and I fully back him to hit the ground running, although if the player himself decides he needs more time, then he obviously won’t be rushed by the management.

My team for Brentford on Saturday: Alisson; Bradley, Van Dijk, Konate, Robertson; Endo, Mac Allister, Jones; Salah, Nunez, Jota.

The post Editor’s Column: Will Conor Bradley’s brilliance change Trent’s role? appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.

Remember Naby Keita’s first few games after his mega exciting transfer from Rb Leipzig?

He wowed on debut against West Ham in an easy win and already had a full highlight reel following his sparkling performance against Crystal Palace not long afterwards.

Keita was full of trickery, adventure and dribbling early on. It didn’t last long, of course, with injuries and increasingly poor form ruining his promising start. The excitement soon turned into frustration and basically stayed that way throughout his entire five year tenure. At Werder Bremen now, he’s suffering with injuries and has already fallen out with club staff. What a fall from grace.

Jurgen Klopp even admitted that Keita’s issues began when he and Pep Lijnders tried to coach him tactically, instead of asking him to just play his natural game.

“For some reasons it was in the beginning it was very good,” Klopp told Liverpool’s official website back in 2020, two years after Keita arrived. 

“I didn’t speak a lot to him about football, I just wanted to let him do his natural stuff so that was really good.

“Then I started coaching him and he got worse! That’s maybe not the main reason but then he was a bit unlucky with injuries, that was the main reason.

“Naby had to learn the language, to feel really settled in the squad and all these kind of things.”

Is there a comparison to be made with Dom Szoboszlai and the Hungarian’s increasingly indifferent performances following his jaw-dropping start?

Szoboszlai, like Keita, arrived aged 22 from Rb Leipzig with the task of adding creativity and invention to the midfield.

He even took Keita’s no.8 and at first looked like an enormous upgrade. In fact, he almost certainly will be whatever happens next, but there’s undeniably been a drop off.

Early on, Szoboszlai would dribble with the ball through midfield and make driving runs akin to a young Steven Gerrard – which led to huge comparisons which were potentially not helpful. He demonstrated his incredible shooting power with wonder-goals against Wolves and Leicester City, but it was his overall efforts that was leaving Reds purring.

He won the ball back, pressed relentlessly, making clever passes, short and long; while covering every blade of grass. Szoboszlai’s first few months actually made the fact we missed out on Jude Bellingham feel irrelevant, but while the Real Madrid star has gone from strength to strength, Szoboszlai has fallen off a cliff.

The issue seems like it might be tactical. He often has to fill in the space on the right wing to cover for Trent Alexander Arnold, who wants to play in the centre-circle. He’s also overlapping Mo Salah regularly, with the Egyptian using Szoboszlai as a decoy and cutting in and trying to make something happen in the box instead.

It feels as if Szoboszlai’s natural creative instincts are being held back so that other players can take more on-the-ball responsibility. The problem is though that over the past few weeks it seems our chances of scoring non set-piece goals rely on Alexander-Arnold pulling out moments of genius. This is wasting the attacking talent of Szoboszlai somewhat.

Alisson and Virgil van Dijk are having the seasons of their lives, but our attack is floundering. Mo Salah is not scintillating and his penalties make his G/A record look better than it probably is this term. Darwin Nunez hasn’t scored in ten and it’s becoming a big problem. Cody Gakpo has no pace in behind and the decline of Luis Diaz from the most exciting player in our team to whatever he is now is horrible to watch. Diogo Jota has been badly missed and hopefully will be back soon.

Szoboszlai though can score goals from outside and inside the box if he’s given more licence to roam with the ball centrally. Klopp should consider using Endo and Trent as a deep-lying pivot, or Alexis Mac Allister when fit, allowing Szoboszlai to essentially play as a no.10. He has the best shot in the club but we can’t benefit from that if he’s making decoy runs on the right-wing.

It does hint at the fact we need a higher quality defensive midfielder to release his shackles. We also need a right-back so that Trent can be consistently used in central positions and not as a Get out of Jail tactic in the final half hour of games.

We need to get this sorted quickly as the Premier League title is definitely there for the taking.

The post Editor’s Column: Is Klopp stifling Dominik Szoboszlai…? appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.

Remember a few years back, during our title season, when Mo Salah refused to square to Sadio Mane against Burnley?

Mane was raging and kicked off on the touchline. Then, in the tunnel while walking into the dressing room, Roberto Firmino smirked at the camera as our two brilliant wingers blanked each other. It made a great viral clip, but actually, it never mattered that Salah and Mane weren’t very close… That season we romped the title. Their rivalry actually spurred each other on, even if there were some awkward moments between the pair. It may well have resulted in Mane’s eventual exit, which was sad and unexpectedly unemotional, but his subsequent failure at Bayern Munich proved it was a smart Liverpool sale.

Throughout their entire time together, Mane assisted Salah 13 times. Salah assisted Mane 17 times, slightly more often, but not an enormous amount considering the goals both scored and the fact they were basically ever-present for five seasons together.

Darwin Nunez, in one season and a bit, has assisted Salah nine times already. In fact, every one of Nunez’s assists has been to his partner in crime. Salah has made two goals for Nunez, but it would likely be plenty more if Darwin didn’t have such a habit of missing sitters!

But I’d much rather focus on the positives. Opta state that Salah and Nunez have made more chances for each other (19) than any other duo in the Premier League this season.

They clearly have a good relationship off the pitch and there seems to be no issue between the pair in terms of who’s scoring more. Salah and Mane were in a silent battle to be considered the main man, whereas there is obvious hierarchy now with Salah above all the other attackers in Liverpool’s roster in terms of age, status, productivity and ability. This suits Mo. He likes playing with Nunez and the Uruguayan’s immense physicality benefits Salah’s creative attributes.

The Egyptian, who has lost some of his pace, likes now to cut in from his right-wing and play intricate through-balls or lofted passes behind the defence. Nunez can run onto these thanks to his incredible speed and the pair seem to have a an increasingly telepathic relationship, where Nunez begins his run early and Salah knows where he’s heading. Salah used to be a cold-blooded goalscorer first, second and third, but while he’s still an insanely good finisher, he seems more happy to make chances for team-mates than simply get himself into the box. His evolution will see him remain world-class for many years to come.

Nunez is not world-class yet. He simply lacks the composure in front of goal to be regarded as one of the best, but his overall contribution is so, so much better than last season.

His pressing has gone through the roof and his work-rate is arguably the best of any of our attackers. Jurgen Klopp made sure to voice this after our 3-0 win against Brentford, in which Nunez had two goals disallowed.

“Outstanding! Outstanding,’ he said. ‘Everyone can see; look at him how he kept the ball for us, who would have thought he could do that for us last year?” Klopp told the Metro.

“[The] standout was Darwin because Brentford wanted long balls so he started the pressing. [His] work-rate was insane.

“In all the moments we could keep the ball on the ground and we could play football, with Darwin [Nunez] connecting the game for us exceptionally, we were super dangerous,” Klopp added.

Nunez now holds the ball up better, is consistently making great runs and is always involved in our offensive moments. If he had the calmness in front of goal Diogo Jota is currently showing, we’d be talking about one of the best strikers on the planet, but his improvement is enormous and his catalogue of shocking misses demonstrates an ability to be in the right place at the right time, as well a mental-block to score these chances.

Can he change this? Well, he’s learned to hold the ball up from a situation last term where it was bouncing off him, which is surely a trickier task than putting the ball into an open net from six yards out – so I’m holding out hope!

Salah clearly loves playing with Nunez. He provides energy, strength, speed and excitement. He gets his team and the fans going. The relationship between the pair is blossoming and will continue to do so now Nunez has staked his claim as a Premier League starter above Cody Gakpo in the central attacking role.

Gakpo is a lovely player in the buildup and a great option to have, but right now, he’ll have to wait his turn.

Nunez should start against Manchester City after the international break. The fact they’ll play a high-line and dominate possession will actually suit him on the transition. No doubt Salah will provide moments of class to feed his friend, too. It would be a mighty handy time for the 24-year-old to find his finishing boots!

The post Editor’s Column: Mo Salah and Darwin Nunez’s partnership benefits everyone appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.

You will have all heard it by now.

Yesterday, after pressure from Liverpool and the Premier League, the PGMOL released the audios and visuals from the disallowed Luis Diaz offside goal – and you cannot turn on the radio or open social media without hearing somebody else’s opinion on it.

| BREAKING: Here’s the full VAR audio for Luis Diaz’s disallowed goal against Tottenham Hotspur. pic.twitter.com/KDaq4FAT3f

— CentreGoals. (@centregoals) October 3, 2023

What a shit-show, eh? To think, this is where we’ve got to after 150 years of football evolution. This is the best system we’ve come up with.

It’s nonsensical. How does three men anxiously shouting at each other and ignoring what their colleagues have just said create an atmosphere where logical decisions are made? You can hear the tension in their voice. You can hear the reluctance in Darren England’s ‘I can’t do anything,’ when he absolutely could have done something and told referee Simon Hooper to stop the game.

As a Liverpool fan, it’s still frustrating me four days later and will likely continue to do so for years to come. After all, we don’t know what’s going to happen this season. If we’re in a title race, it could well be the defining moment. Just imagine.

When Pep Guardiola is championing Liverpool’s argument, we’re probably in the right.

“I understand completely how upset Liverpool must be in that case,” he said.

“Everyone knows they made a mistake and Liverpool suffered the big consequence of that. In this type of game, it is so important. But, no worries, the consequences will be on the players and the managers.”

What really makes me angry about this whole thing is not actually the incompetence of the officials on that day, though. I genuinely don’t think they did it on purpose and froze after making such a calamitous error. It’s not corruption. It’s people being very bad at their job. There’s a small part of me that feels sorry for them, given the backlash.

The thing that has riled me most is the reaction from the football universe to the fact Liverpool tried to do something about it. And this isn’t just from fans of rival clubs on the internet; it’s from respected, normally coherent journalists. It has baffled me.

Let’s take this chronologically, to show you where I’m at. The incident happened and literally everyone said it was horrendous and that Liverpool have been stitched up. Everyone said there is something categorically and functionally wrong with VAR and football’s use of it, if that can happen in a Premier League match.

Fine. We’re all on the same page. We all want something to change. It’s not a Liverpool issue – although we’re bore the brunt of it on this occasion – it’s a football issue.

Liverpool agreed and released the following statement: 

“We fully accept the pressures that match officials work under but these pressures are supposed to be alleviated, not exacerbated, by the existence and implementation of VAR.

“It is therefore unsatisfactory that sufficient time was not afforded to allow the correct decision to be made and that there was no subsequent intervention.

“That such failings have already been categorised as “significant human error” is also unacceptable. Any and all outcomes should be established only by the review and with full transparency.

“This is vital for the reliability of future decision-making as it applies to all clubs with learnings being used to make improvements to processes in order to ensure this kind of situation cannot occur again.

“In the meantime, we will explore the range of options available, given the clear need for escalation and resolution.”

I’ve read this again and again and I honestly think it is completely reasonable. We need change. This statement applies pressure on the PGMOL to implement change.

Good, right? That’s what everyone wanted.

Apparently not. What followed was two to three days of utter, tribal rubbish from the same people who said the incident proved the system is inept.

There are literally millions of tweets that entirely miss the point, but here’s a select few.

replay spurs v liverpool. replay the 2005 champions league semi final. replay france v ireland. replay the beachball game. replay the entire 1978 world cup. actually on reflection let’s just start the whole sport again

— Jonathan Liew (@jonathanliew) October 1, 2023

They should replay that game with the beachball goal

— Barney Ronay (@barneyronay) October 2, 2023

Where in Liverpool’s statement does it suggest the club want a replay?

Nobody wants a replay. I don’t want a replay. It would tarnish any success we had this season if the game was replayed. So, these sarcastic straw-man arguments from Guardian journalists are completely unhelpful and simply poke at the embers of a ‘Liverpool versus everyone else’ fire. That’s not what this is.

Here’s BBC Sport’s Tim Vickery acquainting an administrative VAR error that failed to award the Liverpool goal against Spurs to a contentious handball from years back.

How can a journalist not know the difference between a subjective and an objective decision?

silly statement from Liverpool
what options do they want to explore? Does this include replaying the final of the 2019 Champions League because of the wrongly awarded hand ball penalty at the start of the game?

— Tim Vickery (@Tim_Vickery) October 1, 2023

The Liverpool error is like the scoreboard in the game accidentally malfunctioned and said it was 2-1 rather than 2-2, and everyone just went, ‘Ah, that’s a mistake, but nothing we can do now! Look, it’s up there already!’ 

It’s not the same as a dodgy handball.

Then you started to get the predictably stupid stuff from former pros, who went with the, ‘Yeah but what about that time Liverpool got a bad decision in their favour?!’ nonsense.

So Liverpool FC are going to explore all options open to them after the decision yesterday, presumably they are going to explore all bad decisions that have gone in their favour too or is it only them that have had a bad decision. Very poor I must say.

— Micky Hazard (@1MickyHazard) October 1, 2023

I’ve got a timeline full of Liverpool fans moaning ‘The game needs to be replayed’ ‘Sign this petition’ … just bore off.
Someone made a big error and said sorry. It’s a mistake so move on.
There’s been plenty of mistakes this season with red cards, penalty decisions and goals…

— Jonathan Walters (@JonWalters19) October 2, 2023

Before Liverpool’s statement, the football world was furious at VAR for ruining their game, but as soon as Liverpool insinuated they wanted to do something about it, they changed their story.

Why? Simon Jordan on talkSPORT spoke of Liverpool’s victim culture and explained our reaction to the injustice as a result of this inherent trait. Yep. He said those words.

Can’t they see that this isn’t about Liverpool? If your club was hard done by last season and you didn’t say anything, you should have. You should have rallied around each other as a club and applied pressure. This invokes change.

FSG wouldn’t have have lowered ticket prices if Anfield hadn’t walked out back in 2015. The government would never have issued an apology for the failings at Hillsbrough had we not pushed for one. Liverpool fans are good at standing up for what they believe in and making things happen. Football would be better if everyone did it. We’re more alike that we’re different.

Whataboutery is the least helpful thing in football.

Like when people who supported the Qatar World Cup said, ‘Well, it was illegal to be gay in England in 1966, so…’ 

Yeah, and this was a terrible thing. So people spoke out, protested and implemented change for the better. Now it’s not illegal to be gay in this country. That’s good. Can’t they see this is how things get done? YOU SPEAK UP.

The situation reminds me of when people get angry at nurses and doctors on strike, and go, ‘Hang on! She already earns more than me!’

So maybe you’re not paid enough either. Do something about it. Support each other. Speak up against systems that keep you subservient, quiet and skint.

Liverpool’s noise made the PGMOL release the audio. This is a start. This has showed people how confusing awkward and crude the VAR system is.

Shall we maybe get it sorted then rather than farting about the topic and approaching everything with a can’t-do attitude?

Much sympathy for Liverpool on those calls yesterday but you can’t “escalate and resolve” a refs cock-up. https://t.co/qEIieivuv5

— Adam Crafton (@AdamCrafton_) October 1, 2023

And to Adam Crafton, I’d say, ‘Yes. Yes you can.’

The post Editor’s Column: The VAR audio is embarrassing but it’s national journalists who’ve really let themselves down appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.

I know he hasn’t achieved what the likes of Alisson, Virgil van Dijk and Mo Salah have for Liverpool, but in some ways, Thiago is my favourite player of the Jurgen Klopp era.

He joined after we won the Champions League and Premier League, and despite a fantastic season in the middle of his three for Liverpool in which we nearly won the quadruple, he’s largely had to play in underperforming sides in 2020/21 and 2022/23.

He’s also been very injured and therefore very frustrating. You can’t rely on Thiago. He doesn’t play enough games and even when he’s in a good run of form, the next injury is just around the corner.

But there’s something about the way he controls a football and shimmies past an opponent that makes him so easy on the eye it makes you chuckle. He makes other professional footballers look clumsy; he’s that composed technically.

I remember an FA Cup tie against Aston Villa during his first season. Villa were playing their kids but took the lead, before Liverpool ended up 4-1 winners in front of no supporters. Watching the highlights back is so grim. As if we endured football with no fans for so long?

Anyway, there has never been a more literal and figurative interpretation of ‘Men against Boys’ than Thiago against these youngsters. He only played a 30 minute cameo, but it was like he was playing a different sport to his team-mates and the opposition. The Spaniard had just come back from his first long injury at this point, but the manner in which he took the piss with everything he did whet the appetite. Months earlier of course, Richarlison had recklessly scythed Thiago at the end of the Merseyside Derby that also saw Virgil van Dijk brutally fouled and injured. Who knows how the course of football history would have differed over the past few years if we’d simply won that game without any issues? We held on until Christmas without van Dijk, but then the wheels fell off and Thiago was often named a scapegoat despite being easily our best midfielder for the remainder of the campaign.

Another brilliant performance comes to mind. Liverpool battered Manchester United 4-0 in the 2021/22 season and Thiago’s highlight reel from that wonderful Anfield night is the kind of stuff you should one day show your kids to explain how good this lad was. Watch it below. Honestly, it’s genuinely soothing. Look how many times he breaks the lines with passes nobody else would even see. Look at the way he turns into space when there seemingly isn’t any as United midfielders press him.

Thiago vs Manchester United.

What a performance this was. pic.twitter.com/EoTVQTyWHG

— The Anfield Buzz (@TheAnfieldBuzz) July 17, 2022

Imagine if Liverpool had THIS Thiago fit and firing week in, week out. He’d be regarded as our best player. There’s still a strong argument to say that nobody else is more talented than Thiago, fitness problems aside.

But the sad reality is we cannot discount Thiago’s body and his age. At 32, he’s not going to get any faster, stronger, or most importantly, any more available.

There is reportedly an offer on the table from Saudi Arabia. So what do Liverpool do?

He’s got one year left on his contract which includes very hefty wages. He’s one of our highest-paid players and in terms of overall money to minutes, he probably isn’t worth what we’re paying him.

Liverpool messed up by allowing Naby Keita and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to leave for free when we should’ve cashed in on both a few seasons back and brought in better replacement options with the transfer fees. Instead, we let them run down their deals and leave for free. That’s not smart, considering neither contributed anything in their final season.

Thiago though is a better player than both and there are other considerations on the table. We have signed younger midfielders in Alexis Mac Allister and Dom Szoboszlai, so perhaps keeping around a legend with multiple Champions League medals for them to learn from would help our transition. He has also just finished his surgery for his latest injury and will have a full pre-season, which will hopefully help him hit the ground running in 2023/24. There’s also the thought that Thiago is quite simply a brilliant footballer, and letting him leave now would weaken us.

But when a Saudi club is offering £30-40m to take him off our hands and provide the financial possibility for us to reinvest in a younger, more available, long-term option, the club might see this as the smart play. Obviously, Thiago might not choose to take the money like Roberto Firmino and Steven Gerrard did, but the evidence so far suggests everyone has a price – regardless of the ethical concerns of selling your trade to the Saudis.

I think Liverpool would probably like to cash in, truth be told. Thiago doesn’t fit naturally into our new formation, in which a properly defensive anchorman plays next to Trent Alexander-Arnold in the pivot and two ball-carriers play in advanced roles on the left and right of the box. The most natural spot would be the one next to Trent, but he struggles with recovery pace and isn’t big enough to be a physical presence in this spot.

While Liverpool would take the money in my opinion, Thiago might just want one more year to prove himself. He can leave on a free for the money next summer, so for him, there’s no rush.

Personally, I’m torn. But I’d quite like to see Thiago live at Anfield again so if he sticks around, I’m happy.

The post Editor’s Column: Should Liverpool cash in on Thiago? appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.

We were all beginning to get a bit tetchy on the transfer front, right?

Watching Arsenal bring in Declan Rice and Manchester United sign Mason Mount, while Liverpool seemingly waited in the shadows, frustrated many…

But sporting director Jörg Schmadtke has taken advantage of his Bundesliga connections to wrap up a deal for Rb Leipzig attacking midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai.

Liverpool will pay the Hungarian captain’s €70m release-clause and with personal terms already agreed, the deal is now a formality, says Fabrizio Romano. 

So who is Dominik Szoboszlai?

He’s a real talent, actually. At 6ft.1′, Szoboszlai (a name we’ll all now have to learn to spell) is not your standard playmaker. He’s tall and rangy. More Kai Havertz than a traditional no.10, like the man we just loaned Rb Leipzig, Fabio Carvalho, who struggled with the physicality of the Premier League and was deemed surplus to requirements by Jurgen Klopp. Havertz was a brilliant no.10 in Germany though and failed to find his true position for Chelsea before Arsenal decided to give him another chance this window, so hopefully Szoboszlai’s transition will be smoother.

For Rb Leipzig, he played almost entirely in the no.10 role last season, although he’s also versatile, spending time on both flanks at certain points in his career and even in central midfield.

WhoScored suggests his strengths lie in crossing, passing, dribbling, long-shots, set-pieces, and crucially for any player in a Klopp side, defensive contribution. The only weakness labeled is discipline, but there’s nothing wrong with a Premier League player being unafraid of getting stuck in, so for now, I like this – provided he doesn’t get sent off for a Darwin Nunez-style headbutt on home debut…

Szoboszlai already captains his country and has 62 goals in 216 career club appearances – which is a real plethora given the fact he’s still only 22-years-old.

Where will he play for Liverpool? 

Liverpool have signed two midfielders this summer in Alexis Mac Allister and Szoboszlai, players with attributes that were not necessarily on the required lists of many fans. Based on last season’s midfield shambles, the Reds visibly needed defensively-minded, physical battlers. Players who can track runners.

After all, our biggest disappointments were Fabinho and perhaps Jordan Henderson, one player always at the base of midfield and another occasionally in the deep-lying role.

But it appears Klopp will trust Fabinho, Henderson, Thiago and wildcard Stefan Bajcetic as the options for the holding role, with Trent Alexander-Arnold joining the double-pivot from right-back.

The ‘two no-10s’ will likely be Mac Allister and Szoboszlai, with Curtis Jones and Harvey Elliott fighting for minutes in these positions, too.

Interestingly, both Mac Allister and Szoboszlai are more obviously suited to the more left-sided no.10 spot, although the smart money would suggest the more versatile Szoboszlai will be the candidate to play on the right, with Cody Gakpo dropping deep as the false-9 and providing link-up options.

What does it mean for the 4-3-3?

At the end of last season, Klopp abandoned his famous 4-3-3 and went for an exciting formation which saw Trent given a hybrid role as a right-back when defending but a central midfielder in possession.

The other holder, Fabinho, plays next to him, but the other midfielders are no longer involved in the build-up. They stay in advanced roles and look to pass and provide for the forwards rather than come back for the ball. Often, the pass to get the ball up to them is a long one.

Szoboszlai and Mac Allister are transition players. They can carry the ball, play through-passes and keep possession in tight areas. They are different kinds of midfielders than the ones we’ve traditionally done well with. All-energy pressers like Gini Wijnaldum, Henderson at his best, or James Milner.

It looks like Klopp is going for technical players with more of an eye for goal, but as we experienced last term, this doesn’t work in the 4-3-3 as it leaves the defence too exposed, given we always used to leave the fullbacks up. Now, Andy Robertson will stay deeper and there’ll be two players in central areas to protect the back-three on the turnover.

What do we need next?

Szoboszlai is a fun signing, no doubt. But it doesn’t fix all our issues. We badly need a right-back, as we surely can’t expect Trent to play two positions all season. Buying a right-back enables us to use four at the back with Trent in midfield still.

We also need a long-term anchorman, someone who is an upgrade on Fabinho and Henderson. Perhaps Klopp sees Kephren Thuram as this player, but time will tell if he’s next on this list.

The post Editor’s Column: €70m Szoboszlai transfer hints it’s the end for Liverpool’s famous 4-3-3 appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.

Liverpool look set to make Alexis Mac Allister their first big signing of the summer.

The Argentine, who played a big part of his country’s January World Cup triumph, has outgrown Brighton and is closing on an Anfield switch.

Fabrizio Romano says personal terms are all but agreed and finalising a deal with Brighton will be easy because there is a release-clause in his current contract.

Argentine journalist Gaston Edul goes a step further and says the deal will be wrapped up before June 10, when Mac Allister will go international duty for two games before beginning his summer break.

Jurgen Klopp always likes his transfers done as early as possible, so the players can do a full pre-season and get integrated into the squad and crucially, begin to adapt themselves to his physical and tactical demands.

Brighton play an aggressive, pressing style anyway, which will help the 24-year-old, but so did Naby Keita at Rb Leipzig and five years after his arrival, the Guinean is leaving on a free transfer having never lived up to the hype.

Mac Allister won’t be the only new midfield signing, of course.

“Liverpool believe they have a chance of landing Chelsea star Mount,” Neil Jones says.

“Gravenberch would be of interest if Bayern Munich opted to sell, while Teun Koopmeiners (Atalanta), Matheus Nunes (Wolves) and Khephren Thuram (Nice) are among those admired,” he says. 

These players are all no.8s who roam and create, bar Thuram, who is more defensive minded.

The assumption would be that Liverpool will buy Mac Allister, another similar link-man between defence and attack and then an out and out defensive midfielder, like Thuram.

The Nice star is 22-years-old and the son of France legend Lillian. His brother Marcus plays in Germany for Borussia Monchengladbach. He won his first cap for France this season and is someone who matches both defensive traits with guile and simple passing on the ball.

Considering the overall seasons endured by Fabinho, Jordan Henderson and Thiago, in terms of poor form and injuries, a new anchorman is essential.

The emergence of Curtis Jones helps us in terms of no.8 options, with the hope the position will eventually be one Harvey Elliott can thrive in too, although at times this term he’s lacked the defensive nous or physicality to play there. Mac Allister and one other will provide superb depth in this role and the manner in which they adapt will likely define how we start 2023/24.

Klopp’s team is in good form, largely because of the success of the tactical decision to move Trent Alexander-Arnold into midfield when Liverpool have the ball. He’s pulled strings from deep and is improving in the hybrid role week by week.

Trent currently joins Fabinho in a double-pivot in possession, allowing the two no.8s to head forward and allow the back six (including Alisson) to buildup the play.

The Scouser even described it a few days back to the Athletic, which in turn helps understand what kind of players Liverpool will go for this summer.

“This position just opens up the whole pitch for me. I’m able to kind of dictate the flow of the game — where we attack, how we attack and at what pace. That’s exciting. I really like being able to do thatm” he began.

“Others further up the pitch have more responsibility. Hendo and Curtis (Jones), who have played the majority of recent games, have been told to kind of stay away — don’t drag players into it. So we build play with a five, six including Ali. Let us build up and we will get the ball to you guys. It’s working well but it’s a full team effort both defensively and with the ball to make it work.

“Who knows whether we would have been able to go on this run without the change of system. Everyone has bought into it and we’re also performing within it as a team. Without the performances, it doesn’t work. And, potentially, without the formation change, the performances don’t come either. They go hand in hand.”

So, two Mac Allister, another no.8, an anchorman, a right-back, a centre-back and a backup goalkeeper. The attack is stacked even with the departure of Roberto Firmino, providing Darwin Nunez can keep himself fit and fix up over the summer.

Manchester City are going to win a treble this season, which hurts. But if we get these deals right, our future is hopefully just as bright, and without 150+ financial cheating charges hanging over us.

The post Editor’s Column: Mac Allister almost done, but who’s in next for Europa League Reds? appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.

The penalty that won us last night’s game with Fulham was Mo Salah’s 29th goal of the season. With four games left, he’s almost certain to hit the 30 goal mark for the third season on the bounce. Interestingly, the two seasons where he scored 27 and 23 for us in total were the Champions League and Premier League winning ones.

In total, he’s notched 185 Liverpool goals and is now our all-time top Premier League scorer. Not bad considering he was 25-years-old when we signed him and is yet to reach his 31st birthday.

The narrative throughout this campaign surrounding the Egyptian is that he’s been largely off colour. At the beginning of the term, there was noise that he’d stopped giving it his all after being awarded a monstrous new contract, Mesut Ozil style. But then Salah just started scoring all of the time and people stopped talking about him.

That’s what happens. His goalscoring feats and his repeated excellence have become boring to the mainstream football media. But scoring 29 goals from the right-wing would be one of the greatest seasons of a mere mortal’s career. Salah does it every season.

Perhaps the most exceptional thing about Salah is that his body allows him to play in every game. Since we signed him in 2017, he’s missed just four games with injury or illness. That statistic is almost more impressive than his goalscoring. Like they say, the best ability is availability. Compare Salah to the likes of Naby Keita and Thiago. Two exceptional midfield talents whose bodies continually let them down, versus one exceptional talent who has utter faith in his body and his physical attributes.

Another forward like this is Luis Suarez. For eight years at Liverpool and Barcelona, during his peak, he missed just a handful of games. It builds rhythm, robustness and ultimately a trust in your body to sprint and compete. Not being injury prone is a big part of Suarez’s greatness and now Salah’s.

Salah though has scored more than double the goals Suarez did and has won things for us, to boot.

He’ll now be part of the rebuild. A Liverpool 2.0 with new blood and new tactical ideas. Salah’s role however will remain the same. Starting on the right-wing, he’ll look to make runs into the box, stretch teams, and get shots off on his left-foot. As he ages, we’ll probably need to see him starting a little closer to the goal. He’s losing his pace, so there’s no point in him being stuck on the touchline for large periods, with no team-mates close to him to link with. We saw this issue at the start of this season, but luckily Klopp fixed it.

What’s more, it seems he likes playing with his new attacking team-mates. Darwin Nunez is an enigma but he and Salah dovetail nicely, while the promising Cody Gakpo can help create for Salah in the same way Roberto Firmino did for many a season. Diogo Jota shares Salah’s poaching instincts, but he starts from the left so doesn’t take up the same spaces, while everybody loves playing alongside the maverick Luis Diaz.

Where Liverpool are most likely to enter the transfer market is in midfield, of course. Alexis Mac Allister is a big target, as is Ryan Gravenberch and Manuel Ugarte. The first two names linked are creative players capable of threading passes, which will theoretically provide even more opportunities for Salah to score.

Since Klopp changed our formation to accommodate Trent Alexander-Arnold in the double-pivot in midfield when we have the ball, there have been two advanced and slightly wider midfielders ahead of them, usually Jordan Henderson and Curtis Jones. These are the spots likely for the upgrades – and it shouldn’t be ignored how exceptionally Trent has done in his new role – running games and providing assists galore.

Usually, when an attacker was approaching 31, you’d consider them in decline. Sadio Mane lost his spark towards the end and is struggling now at Bayern Munich, while injuries are taking their toll with Roberto Firmino.

Salah though is showing no signs of slowing down in terms of his goalscoring. He has lost a tiny bit of pace, but his movement is smarter now and he’s so good with the ball in tight spaces, he can wriggle out of situations and make things happen from a standing start.

29 goals and counting for the fittest footballer we’ve maybe ever had. Not bad for an awful season, eh?

The post Editor’s Column: Mo Salah is a machine and his brilliance taken for granted appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.

Luis Diaz has only played 49 minutes across three games since his return from six months on the sidelines.

He hasn’t scored or registered an assist. In truth, he hasn’t done much, but there’s a feeling he conjures that none of our other attackers create.

He’s got magic in his feet and that special dribbling ability that makes defenders fear for their lives.

Darwin Nunez is rapid but can’t beat people in tight spaces – he needs room to run in to. Diogo Jota’s dribbling style is more hustle and bustle – bouncing the ball off the legs of the defenders and hoping to squeeze through gaps. Mo Salah dribbles less nowadays, while Cody Gakpo and Roberto Firmino are not expected to run at players in their false-9 role.

Diaz though has that spark and insane technical ability that makes him unpredictable. The Colombian can beat a player on the outside, inside, or simply just dribble infield and create different passing angles. Sometimes, he looks like a right-footed Arjen Robben on the left-flank, able to waltz into a shooting position by cutting repeatedly infield, but unlike the legendary Dutchman, Diaz often passes from these areas instead.

Luis Diaz v West ham

He's doing so well for a player who just came back.

A goal vs Tottenham, I want it and I think I deserve.pic.twitter.com/D5ZI6ODE3Z

— ⁴ (@TheVVDRole) April 27, 2023

Before his injury, he was our best player, but the injury picked up in the unfortunate 3-2 loss to Arsenal signalled the start of their rise and our demise this season. Diaz is great on the counter-attack and unlike Nunez, doesn’t overcomplicate exciting situations. Nunez has been diabolical from the bench recently, sadly. At the beginning of the campaign, he was getting into loads of brilliant positions and then missing his chances, but now he’s simply losing the ball and making poor decisions. With Diaz and Diogo Jota better options on the left, there’s big questions to be asked about how to use the Uruguayan next term. And perhaps most poignantly, why we spent £80m-odd on a striker who doesn’t play the false-9 system we use when we could have used that money on Jude Bellingham. But that’s for another day, perhaps.

Diaz has only played a bit-part role, but he has contributed to three Premier League victories on the bounce for the Reds. Our hopes of top four rely on either Newcastle or Manchester United collapsing, while we win all of the remaining seven games, but stranger things have happened.

Newcastle might get tight, and have to play Spurs, Chelsea and Arsenal. United have injury issues and an FA Cup Final on the horizon. It’s not in our hands, but if we carry on winning the pressure might grow.

Diaz will play a big role in that. Jurgen Klopp seems happy with his front-three right now of Salah, Jota and Gakpo, but it won’t be long before the former FC Porto man is knocking at his door to play from the beginning.

Interestingly, Klopp hasn’t solely used him from the left since his return. Diaz has got minutes on the right and against West Ham, kept popping up in central areas. From this position, he holds the ball up well due to his excellent feet, although he’s not a back to goal player and it’s better to have him running at people. There is a possibility he could perform as our false-9 however. He’s creative, happy to drop deep and has excellent feet to get out of tight situations and make quick, telling passes. It’s an option for Klopp, for sure.

Had he been fit all season, it’s likely Liverpool would be in the top four right now. Our problems are still systemic and we wouldn’t have fought for the title – but a healthy Diaz, our most exciting player – changes everything.

Liverpool need to get pre-season right this time around to avoid any early injuries. Lots of players with injuries has effectively ruined two of our past three seasons. We get more injuries than any other club and it might not be an accident.

Right now though, the roster is largely full and healthy. Sadly, we’re running out of games to use them.

Diaz though gives us something to inspire the seven wins required to do something crazy and against the odds.

The post Editor’s Column: Luis Diaz is brilliant – his return shows us what we’ve desperately missed appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.

If Liverpool win the next eight, they’ll get top four. This is a massive ask, but I honestly feel there are enough slip-ups from the clubs above us to ensure that nine wins on the bounce, including Monday’s excellent victory over Leeds United, will be enough for the Champions League spots.

Manchester United will probably qualify, meaning we need Newcastle United to drop nine points, or lose three matches of the next eight, assuming they win the other five. Tottenham shouldn’t be in the discussion; they’re dreadful and inconsistent. Aston Villa are on a fine run, but we’ll be on the same points as them by winning our game in hand and have a much better goal difference – largely due to our freakish 9-0, 7-0 and 6-1 wins this season.

Obviously, the large caveat to this is the fact that Liverpool haven’t looked anywhere near capable of putting together a run of wins this season. We’ve been abysmal away from home and outrageously, the six goals we scored at Elland road were our first against a side in the bottom half of the table, on the road, all term.

But with 24 points available, and a Newcastle side who just lost 3-0 to Villa as the rival, it’s on. It’s a massive long-shot, and any more dropped points definitely make it impossible. But right now, there’s a glimmer of hope.

So what is there to be positive about, given this monstrosity of a season?

Well, Jurgen Klopp has seen how ludicrously open we were upon losing possession, and changed it – in turn, releasing the creative genius of arguably our most talented player: Trent Alexander-Arnold.

Here’s how the new shape works…

When the opposition have the ball for a spell, Trent sits at right-back, in line with the rest of the back-four, just like you see on the Sky Sports infographic.

But as soon we gain possession, the 24-year-old moves into midfield as part of a two-man double-pivot. So far, he’s done so alongside mostly Fabinho but also Thiago from the bench, with the other two midfielders (Jordan Henderson and Curtis Jones) further up the field. When we have the ball, the formation is effectively 3-2-2-3.

When we lose the ball, which happens often, Klopp obviously wants an immediate counter-press to regain it, but when this fails and opponents counter-attack, Trent has been relieved of his defensive responsibilities on our right flank. Ibou Konate heads to the right, with Virgil van Dijk in the centre and Andy Robertson defending our left-flank. Trent and the other midfielder then head back to defend the half-spaces.

For most of our defensive nightmares this season, we’ve left only two players back: van Dijk and Konate. The fullbacks (Trent and Robertson) have been well up field and out of position, with Fabinho and Henderson’s lack of pace lessening their ability to track back. That’s why so often there’s been an innocuous losing of the ball in midfield and suddenly our opponents are in, with one fast ball to the flank exposing the space left by Trent, who was up-field on the right. That space still remains, but Konate is closer to it, and his pace and physicality enables him to defend it better than Trent was. So far, so good. Ignoring his mistake versus Leeds for the goal, Konate was exceptional at fulfilling this new instruction.

Robertson is no longer staying up field, but holding a position in the backline more regularly, with Trent allowed the space at the base of midfield from which he can create. Against Leeds, he was genuinely sublime. He ran the game like Andrea Pirlo in his prime. He got two assists. He mad TWENTY passes into the final third and TWELVE accurate long passes. If you’re not familiar with match-stats, these numbers are practically unheard of.

Obviously, it massively helped that our forwards took their chances. Annoyingly, we’ve scored our goals this term in gluts, when games have already been won. We battered Rangers 7-0 in the Champions League too to go with the three Premier League wallopings. In those four games, we’ve scored 29 goals. All season, we’ve only got 56 domestically.

But remember, the 7-0 win against United felt like a new dawn in itself. Then we lost to Bournemouth a week later. So, this might be blindly hopeful, and I might change my mind after we lose to Nottingham Forest on Saturday, but you need something to fight for in April and this is all we’ve got!

Eight wins out of eight gets it. I stand by that. Trent being a world-class playmaker in midfield and Mo Salah scoring every week (he’s got 26 this season, by the way) will help, too.

The post Editor’s Column: Klopp’s formation change gives Liverpool a slight, but real chance appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.

Before the start of this season, I would vehemently support Trent Alexander-Arnold when people who watched him much less carefully than I do criticised his defending.

He’s not a bad defender. He just isn’t. Jurgen Klopp wants him in those positions. Etc. etc.

I’m not sure if I was wrong or if Trent is just having a nightmarish season, but I can no longer claim he’s good defensively on the back of this campaign.

The problem is it looks like he just doesn’t want to do it anymore. I’m a massive Alexander-Arnold fan, but his defending has simply not been up to scratch. He’s struggled in one on ones, positionally and has for some reason decided not to track runners. It’s not been good enough. At times, it’s actually looked like he’s not trying very hard, which is a horrible accusation and one I don’t even feel comfortable putting into writing. But the body language has been poor.

Of course, this is a generational talent we’re talking about. One of the most skilful, technical players Liverpool have ever produced and someone Jurgen Klopp will always want in his side for what he offers creatively.

We’ve still seen the absurdly impressive cross-field passes, some great crosses and wonderful long-balls this term. It’s not his ability going forward; it perhaps hasn’t reached the heights he has in previous seasons but it’s not a weakness. It’s just the defending.

So what do we do?

Well, he needs a spot in the side. There’s too much potential for brilliance. He’s a match-winner. But the question is whether fielding him in the back-four is too much of a defensive risk. I was always of the opinion that if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it. Why would we move Alexander-Arnold into midfield when he’s already providing all these assists at right-back and Liverpool are winning nearly every game as a result…?

Now though, Liverpool are broken. The confidence has been lost this season and as soon as something goes wrong in a game, we crumble. Trent is one of the biggest crumblers during negative moments, too.

As a result, there is a legitimate argument for probably the first time that he should move further up the field.

With Liverpool usually playing 4-3-3, there are three potential positions. As the deep-lying no.6, or as one of the more advanced no.8s, with the role to the right of the DM the more obvious one for Trent.

Back in 2021, Klopp hinted that he would prefer Trent in the central role, although in the same sentence seemed to dismiss the idea as a mistake.

“In a game that we are that dominant that Trent could play in midfield, I would rather he was the six than in this case the eight,” Klopp said, regarding Gareth Southgate’s positional experiment.

“That is possible but why would you make the best right-back in the world a midfielder? I don’t understand that really.

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The sweetest of all the goals in the 7-0 shellacking of Manchester United was probably Roberto Firmino’s. Not for its aesthetic beauty, but because of the scorer. No footballer has made more appearances for Liverpool under Jurgen Klopp than the Brazilian, whose energetic, selfless, creative approach to the game symbolises the very best parts of the Klopp era.

It was announced late last week that the former Hoffenheim forward would be departing on a free transfer, so for the crowd favourite to come off the bench and put the icing on the cake with a tidy finish sent Anfield even more berserk and saw United further descend into a high-velocity, emotional headloss – one that’ll hopefully have further ramifications on their season.

But while Firmino’s goal was the funniest, the one that led to the most singing and bravado, Cody Gakpo’s opener was the most important and his second, the most special.

There’s a legitimate argument to be made that United were the better side in the first-half before the Dutchman received Andy Robertson’s beautiful pass, cut inside the box with one touch and curled into the bottom corner.

The goal though changed everything and by the time he’d broken down the field early in the second-half, linking up with Mo Salah to then chip over David de Gea from an absurd angle, the game was over as a contest and the fun could begin.

Gakpo’s performance was sublime and it feels telling that he produced an outing Firmino himself would be mighty proud of in the false-9 role.

Interestingly, when Bobby arrived from Germany in 2015, Brendan Rodgers had no idea how to use him. He was initially put on the left-wing and his lack of pace was obvious and his early impression wasn’t spellbinding. Klopp though decided to stop using Christian Benteke or Daniel Sturridge as his first-choice centre-forward and instead opted with Firmino in a deep-lying, manically pressing, creative-forward position. Lionel Messi was doing something similar for Barcelona with more goals and less defending, but Firmino put his own spin on the false-9 and his impersonation of the role is now arguably its iconic representation.

Similarly, Liverpool fans saw Gakpo on the left-wing for PSV and saw multiple highlight clips of him coming off the wing and shooting into the far corner. As a result, there were questions asked in January as to why we bought another left-winger when we already have Darwin Nunez, Diogo Jota and an eventually returning Luis Diaz in the position.

But it didn’t take long to realise Klopp had other plans. Apart from his debut in a 2-2 draw with Wolves, Gakpo has pretty much been used centrally on every occasion. And importantly, the boss has persisted even when the Dutchman put in some fairly meek early performances. He didn’t score or assist against Wolves (three times), Brighton (two times) or Chelsea in his opening six Liverpool matches.

He did, however, find the net versus Everton in the Merseyside Derby and ever since, Gakpo’s confidence has grown, along with his understanding of his new position and his attacking teammates. Four goals in six games have followed, but it’s his overall contribution to a far more balanced Liverpool side which is most impressive.

Unlike Darwin Nunez, a pace-merchant who loves to run in behind, Gakpo likes the ball into feet and is technically strong enough to hold it up and pop it off to midfielders or fullbacks. Firmino could do this in his sleep and the manner in which Bobby dropped deeper and created space for Salah and Sadio Mane to come off their wings into the box was crucial to our offensive setup.

There were definitely elements of this in the win against United, with Gakpo dropping deep and Nunez playing the more advanced role coming off the left-flank. Salah, too, looked back to his absolute best. Perhaps he needs a teammate who sits between the lines and lets him run on or come inside, rather than a striker also trying to get behind the backline, as Nunez was earlier in the season when used as a centre-forward.

Where Gakpo offers a potential improvement on Firmino though is in his sheer physicality. He’s 6ft 4′ and there were times at Anfield on Sunday where he man-handled United’s midfielders and drove towards the defence with a dynamic dribbling style. It was ferocious and exciting, while Firmino’s dribbling is silky and full of flair without huge forward progression.

The finish for Gakpo’s second was also a beautiful Firmino impression, dinking the onrushing goalkeeper into the far corner after a cleverly timed run. It appears he might be able to offer a bit of the brutish, physical qualities our team has lacked this season but also the finesse with which it purrs when all are confident.

Klopp has a knack for buying a player from one position and spotting that he could be perfectly adapted into something to suit his tactic. Gini Wijnaldum largely played on the wing for Newcastle. The Firmino example has been heavily discussed, but Trent Alexander-Arnold was a midfielder at youth level before his right-back evolution.

The manner in which Gakpo linked with Nunez and Salah and also maximised their space is very exciting and shows that Klopp may have devised an attacking plan to save our season. We’ll have a returning Diaz as an option on the left soon, a more skilful, creative player than Nunez, who will provide a different option to Darwin’s chaos and energy. Both will be needed and the option of Jota or Firmino off the bench will also ease the pressure from Gakpo in the middle.

The transfer now makes sense. And at 23-years-old, the same age we signed Firmino, there is a clear path and a position in the second version of Klopp’s Liverpool for the Dutchman. For maybe the first time all season, I feel very excited about what’s to come.

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