All eyes will be on Anfield this weekend, as Liverpool, the reigning Premier League Champions, kick-off their new campaign to newly-promoted Leeds United at home.
Having ended their league drought of 30 years, it remains to be seen if Jurgen Klopp’s men will be able to defend their title amongst the growing competition as Manchester City and Chelsea have dipped into the transfer market to try to close the gap to last year’s runaway leaders.
There will be few seasons that will bring more joy than the 2020/21 season, where Liverpool won the league in such an emphatic fashion. However, it was also a season of missed opportunities. A team that was unbeaten in the league until January and looked ever so strong, got knocked out of the FA cup, Champions League and lost their invincibility cloak in the league by losing to Watford all within 45 days. This was an indication that this Liverpool team still has room for improvement.
Let’s look at three main areas that Liverpool can need to improve going into the new season.
Backup for the front three
This will be the fourth season in a row where the goal scoring burden will largely fall on the trio of Mohammed Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino.
The team has been crying out for a back up to the front three as the drop off in quality is very apparent even if one of the three are not available. While Divock Origi has had his moments, he is not at the required level in terms of quality.
Jurgen Klopp’s interest in German international and former RB Leipzig frontman Timo Werner was significant but the Liverpool owners simply could not make such an outlay citing the virus pandemic and the uncertainty it has brought regarding the revenue streams of the club.
Arguably, Liverpool did bring in an attacker in the form of Takumi Minamino in January, however, he is yet to convince that he could indeed deputize ably for either of the front three.
Creativity from midfield
It is no secret that Liverpool’s main source of creativity is from their two dynamic fullbacks, Trent Alexander Arnold and Andy Robertson. However, goals and assists from midfield seem to be lacking since the departure of Phillipe Coutinho in January 2018. Adding a midfield player who could provide creativity from the middle of the pitch would be the next step in terms of the evolution of this Klopp side.
While Naby Keita has the quality to be such a player, he has been restricted to limited game time due to his injuries. It will not always be possible to rely on creativity from the fullbacks and there will be a need to bring in someone who can dictate play create from the midfield. There seems to be interest in Bayern Munich’s Thiago Alacantara, whose eye for a pass would add another dimension to this Liverpool team going forward.
Centre-back
Liverpool offloaded Croatian centre-back Dejan Lovren to Zenit St Petersburg for a reported fee of around £10 million, leaving Klopp with only three senior centre-backs in Virgil Van Dijk, Joe Gomez and Joel Matip at his disposal.
Keeping in mind the fitness issues of Matip, who made only 9 league starts last season, and Joe Gomez who has had long injury layoffs of his own, it is very apparent that the squad is desperately in need of a fourth choice senior centre-back capable of filling adequately when required. Names like Schalke’s Ozan Kabak and Brighton’s Ben White have been thrown around but as things stand, Liverpool have not made any concrete moves to address this issue.
