The departure of Glen Johnson opened up the opportunity for Liverpool to invest in a new right-back, and boy did they find the right one!
Nathaniel Clyne’s arrival brought excitement and optimism amongst the Anfield faithful. After a solid pre-season and two league games, we are beginning to see why.
Clyne was superb for Southampton last season in every facet. Going forward he offered a real threat down the right-hand side and defensively he was as good as it gets.
His performance on the opening day of the 2015-16 season showed us what a fantastic talent Southampton had. Pace, strength, end product and, most importantly, his defensive ability. He has everything I want in a full-back.
We see too many full-backs in the modern game be fantastic going forward, but sometimes lack the defensive qualities they need. Clyne, defensively, is superb and that is very important to me.
I’m a Liverpool fan, but I do watch a lot of football and Southampton seemed to be always on the television when they played last year. They were a team I enjoyed watching and with that being the case, I saw a lot of Clyne.
The more I watched Clyne, the more I wanted him. Did I believe we would get him? No.
With a poor season last time around, I thought one of the Champions League clubs would swoop for him and there’s no denying there was genuine interest in him, especially from our big rivals, Manchester United.
When Clyne signed for Liverpool for a fee reported to be around £12.5m including add-ons, the thing that impressed me the most was the fact that he wanted to play for the club that he felt most wanted by. The footballing ability was there, and we’ve learnt very quickly that so is the attitude.
His performance against Bournemouth on Monday night was nothing short of brilliant. He was without doubt my man of the match and I’d expect a few more from him as the season progresses. I just felt comfortable every time he got on the ball or was is in a one-on-one situation. I haven’t had that type of comfort for a good while due to the drop in form of Glen Johnson over the years.
The inclusion of Clyne and Gomez as the full-backs has certainly added protection to the back four. Last season our centre-backs were exposed due to the fact that we didn’t particularly have much defensive coverage coming from our full-backs. You get the feeling that Skrtel and Lovren can focus more on their own game now they have two quality defenders alongside them.
We now have a permanent right-back for the years to come and a quality one, to say the least. I may be being biased, but I believe Clyne is at the right club to develop as a person and as a player. Still being a young man, we will only see improvement from him. The one area I think we will see Clyne excel in over the next few years is his goal tally. He has an eye for goal when he finds himself in the right position and I have no doubt he will find the net more than what some may expect. Also an area we will see improvement in is the goals from crosses. Clyne has a decent cross on him and with a presence like Christian Benteke up top, I think we will see Liverpool use that to full advantage.
Six points from six is a very good start to the new campaign, but there’s certainly room for improvement and especially with a trip the Emirates on the horizon. With Clyne being part of the back four that has kept back to back clean sheets, he has certainly played his role and let it continue.
