In their latest pre-season friendly, Liverpool lost 2-1 to Roma at the Busch Stadium with goals in either half from Edin Dzeko and Mohamed Salah. Sheyi Ojo got the only goal for the Reds.
While the game itself was unspectacular, as typical of a pre-season match, it did show some concerns for the upcoming season.
Liverpool looked good in possession without really threatening the goal for the first 20 minutes. They created chances but struggled to take them early on.
Roma looked threatening throughout the first-half, continuously breaking through the back four and making Alex Manninger work early on. Within 29 minutes, the deadlock was broken with a good finish from Dzeko.
Late in the first-half Liverpool made the most of a corner kick with Ojo getting the final touch to get them level before half-time.
The chances in the second-half kept flowing for both teams, but it was Salah who decided the tie with a simple tap in after some very questionable defending.
These are my four findings from the match:
Defensive struggles a concern
Liverpool may have only conceded three goals in pre-season but the defending in this match gives some cause for concern.
The Reds were disorganised, open and gave Roma too much time on the ball.
The two goals conceded could have been easily prevented if not for some shoddy marking and positional play. Particularly at left-back with neither James Milner or Alberto Moreno doing much to prevent the attacks.
I wouldn’t take too much from the second-half considering Andre Wisdom and Kevin Stewart played as centre-backs, however, the first-half pairing didn’t fair much better.
This may be something Klopp looks to work on in training with less than two weeks until the opening game of the season.
Mignolet fails to convince
With news that Loris Karius is going to be out for 8-10 weeks, you can forgive fans for feeling discouraged with Simon Mignolet looking to start the season in goal.
Unfortunately, with his blunder for the second goal, he hasn’t done much to help settle those nerves.
After a cross into the box, he managed to stop the initial shot on goal, however, he failed to deal with the second shot as he failed to clear the danger.
Looking back, it may be a bit of miscommunication with Wisdom at the time, but he’s yet again failed to convince fans that he deserves that number one spot.
Wijnaldum may suit a three man midfield
I was really impressed with Wijnaldum in his first appearance against AC Milan. He was direct, had good link-up play with the forwards and was always involved.
Last night I didn’t see him as much. He seemed to drift in and out of the game and I rarely saw him make a forward run in the final third.
Maybe it’s because he was partnered with Can who seemed rusty and he needed to do more defensive work, or it could be he is better in a three-man midfield. At Newcastle and PSV, he was best utilised on the left side of midfield or in the three behind the striker.
With Klopp looking towards using both the 4-2-3-1 and 4-3-3 formations this season, Wijnaldum could be the key to making this Liverpool team click.
Ojo showing he can make an impact
Ojo got on the scoresheet last night and again showed fans that he has the ability to make an impact in games.
He wasn’t as explosive as in the Milan game, but he still got involved and positioned himself well to head the ball into the net to draw level.
Questions of offside perhaps but he still took the chance when it came to him.
If he continues down this path, I’m sure we’ll see more and more of Ojo come the start of the season.