Our defence

[Supremolad]

Far too much talk and reactionary angst at our attack. One which has helped us be the highest scoring side in Europe with all five forwards well into double figures and numerous assists.

 

Maybe, just maybe if our defence could get their shit together we won't need our forwards needing to score 3 or 4 to win every tough game. Peak Klopp era, we were good at racking up 1-0 or 2-1 wins. But now we concede to everyone even to rock bottom sides like Sheffield Utd. Clean sheets have been a rarity since the turn of the year. Our defence is probably going to be the biggest factor in us not winning this league. A litany of errors and concession of silly goals. We need them to be better.

[3 Stacks]

The difference is that the individual quality of the defenders is not really in question and we'll be buying another CB this summer as well. People talk about Trent and maybe Robertson's decline, but that's really it.

 

It's just really hard to constantly defend on the edge and what people forget is that our setup massively relies on Alisson saving 1v1's and sweeping.

[an tha]

There is only one team in league who have let in less than us so far this season.

 

This isn't like 2013/14 where even though we finished 2nd half the league had a better defensive record than us.

 

We play high risk and reward football - but we don't actually really let in that many - it isn't much of an issue IMO really.

[Code]

I posted this yesterday.

 

There is a lot of talk about our attack, but our attack is not the problem, our defense is.

 

Lets look at the best league seasons under Klopp.

 

18/19: 2. 38 30 7 1 89-22 97p

19/20: 1. 38 32 3 3 85-33 99p

21/22: 2. 38 28 8 2 94-26 92p

——————————

23/24: 2. 31 21 8 2 72-30 71p

 

Its all very understandable as well, lets take a look at our defenders and goalkeepers and how many changes we have needed to do because of fitness and injuries. 

 

We have played 31 games in the league so far, Van Dijk is the one with most starts with 29 out of 31. 

 

Starts in the league:

Van Dijk 29 out of 31

Alisson 21 out of 31

Alexander-Arnold 19 out of 31

Gomez 16 out of 31

Konate 15 out of 31

——————-

Robertson 12 out of 31

Kelleher 10 out of 31

Matip 9 out of 31

Bradley 9 out of 31

Tsimikas 8 out of 31

Quansah 8 out of 31

 

If we compare this with Arsenal it looks like this for them

 

Saliba 31 out of 31

White 28 out of 31

Gabriel 27 out of 31

Raya 25 out of 31

Zinchenko 19 out of 31

——————

Kiwior 10 out of 31

Ramsdale 6 out of 31

Tomiyasu 5 out of 31

Timber 1 out of 31

 

We have been forced to do changes all over our backline all season, while for Arsenal, well they have basically played consistently with 4 out of 5 including the keeper all season and only been forced to changes at leftback due to injuries. 
 

Thats a huge positive when it comes to form an understanding between the playe

[Carvalho Diablo]

Too much chopping and changing. Cohesion and continuity are essential for a top defence.

[Kevin D]

Shipped 11 goals in the last 5 games.

[Lee909]

Just now, Kevin D said:

Shipped 11 goals in the last 5 games.

 

The majority have been very preventable aswell. Some really sloppy braindead shit going on. 

[niallers]

Just thinking, dangerous,I know, that when was the last time we lost by 3 at home to nil? By my recollection, it was against Madrid, 0.3 in Rodgers only champions league season where we rolled out the red carpet for the cunts.

That's 10 years ago.

Also, the following season, we got beat by west ham in the opening weeks of that season which is the last time we got done 0.3 in the league at home. Coutinho got sent off in that game also.

My fucking christ, what a time for us to turn into a fucking Rodgers like team!

And what are the odds that we'd lose back to back European quarter finals at anfield by 3 goals?