{"id":1129,"date":"2017-12-21T18:46:23","date_gmt":"2017-12-21T18:46:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/?p=1129"},"modified":"2017-12-21T18:46:23","modified_gmt":"2017-12-21T18:46:23","slug":"lets-talk-about-liverpools-defence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/lets-talk-about-liverpools-defence\/","title":{"rendered":"Let\u2019s Talk About Liverpool\u2019s Defence"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There is one thing above all else that I continue to be amazed by: Liverpool supporters and their willingness to buy into any given media narrative. You\u2019d have thought that Reds, perhaps more than any other set of supporters, would have learnt to take anything that members of the press say with a pinch of salt. Yet instead of remaining skeptical any time a story seems to pick up a head of steam, our fans tend to jump on board with it and soon enough it is accepted as common wisdom. If you don\u2019t believe me or you aren\u2019t sure what I\u2019m talking about, take a trip back to Rafa Benitez\u2019s time at the club and the way that supporters were so quick to jump on board with the media\u2019s suggestion that he\u2019d \u2018ranted\u2019 at Alex Ferguson or should have been sacked having \u2018not won the league\u2019 in 2008-2009.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-1010\" src=\"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/IMG_0436-533x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"533\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/IMG_0436-533x400.jpg 533w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/IMG_0436-267x200.jpg 267w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/IMG_0436-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/IMG_0436-65x50.jpg 65w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 533px) 100vw, 533px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>That sort of nonsense has manifested itself for Liverpool lately with the criticism heading J\u00fcrgen Klopp\u2019s way after he was less than friendly to Pat Davison when interviewed for Sky Sports in the wake of our draw with Everton in the Merseyside derby. It got to the point that some of our supporters sided with the Sky presenter rather than the club manager, in spite of the fact that the German was actually perfectly polite and even apologised at the end of the conversation. It also turned out that he was right to be so annoyed about the awarding of a penalty, with Dominic Calvert-Lewin quite clearly jumping into Dejan Lovren rather than being pushed by him. Without question, though, the oddest narrative that seems to have taken hold this season is the idea that we have a dreadful defence. It\u2019s not a narrative that I actually think holds much water, so I figured it was time to explore it in a bit more detail.<\/p>\n<h2>Saying We\u2019re Not Dreadful Doesn\u2019t Mean We Can\u2019t Improve<\/h2>\n<p>Before I begin to talk about the defence, I want to make clear that this doesn\u2019t mean I don\u2019t think we can\u2019t improve. Arguing with the narrative doesn\u2019t mean that I think Dejan Lovren, Ragnar Klavan and Joel Matip are the best defenders in the world. Though I agree with the manager\u2019s shout in the summer that there aren\u2019t many better defenders, that\u2019s only because I think he was misunderstood. The point I personally believe he was trying to make was that few defenders around would be a <strong>significant improvement<\/strong> to the players he currently has available to him. Had we gone out and spent \u00a335 million on Michael Keane, for example, would he be \u00a330 million better than Klavan? The Estonian has actually played well during his recent spell in the back four, with Lovren being nowhere near as bad as some of our fans are desperate to paint him as.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">J\u00fcrgen Klopp revealed Jo\u00ebl Matip is back in training this week but should he return to the starting line up? &#x1f914;<\/p>\n<p>Ragnar Klavan &amp; Dejan Lovren have conceded just 1 goals in the last 4 games together as a partnership. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/LFC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#LFC<\/a> &#x1f4aa; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/grrpeF5DId\">pic.twitter.com\/grrpeF5DId<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 LFC Transfer Room (@LFCTransferRoom) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LFCTransferRoom\/status\/943861365445419009?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 21, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Again, though, this doesn\u2019t mean that I don\u2019t think there are any better players out there or that we won\u2019t be able to improve over the next couple of transfer windows. I am no fan of Simon Mignolet, for example, and I think that an improvement in the goalkeeper position would completely change the way our backline operates. Having someone who talks to his teammates would make a massive difference. Believe it or not, you don\u2019t have to declare our entire defence \u2018a complete joke\u2019 every time we concede a goal. Sometimes it\u2019s because of a refereeing mistake, whilst on other occasions the goal is a fluke. Other times still, the other team\u2019s attack just does something good and we aren\u2019t able to cope. How often do we refer to Liverpool\u2019s phenomenal attack but rarely give opposition team\u2019s the same sort of credit? Don\u2019t read this piece, then, and spend the whole time thinking I\u2019m saying that we\u2019re all fine and dandy. My point is simply that things aren\u2019t as bad as some people want you to believe.<\/p>\n<h2>Players Taking To The Press Won\u2019t Jinx Anything<\/h2>\n<p>Another thing I\u2019d like to point out whilst I\u2019m thinking about it is that players speaking to press won\u2019t jinx anything. Likewise, my writing this column isn\u2019t \u2018tempting fate\u2019. We could easily concede two or three goals against Arsenal, but it won\u2019t be because Simon Mignolet has had a chat with the Liverpool Echo. Equally the writing of this piece won\u2019t have anything to do with it, unless Arsene Wenger has decided to print it out and stick it on the dressing room wall, in which case I have a lot more sway in the football world than I currently realise. The reality is that we get a little bit obsessed with linking things, especially if we\u2019re able to point towards it as a negative. In the wake of everyone talking about how well Mohamed Salah is playing, for example, no one pointed to the interviews he did as the reason he failed to score against West Brom.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Our players patting themselves on the back for not conceding goals days before we play a rival <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/xbFgcvyDRD\">pic.twitter.com\/xbFgcvyDRD<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Omar (@Omzlfc) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Omzlfc\/status\/943413177496293376?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 20, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Yet defenders speak to the club website about the fact that they\u2019ve tightened things up a little bit at the back and social media is alight with people saying they\u2019ll embarrass themselves against the Gunners at the weekend. Do people seriously believe that chatting to a paper or website will mean that the defenders walk into the game thinking they\u2019re the big I am? Do we think that Joe Gomez is so naive as to think that Lovren saying they\u2019re playing well at the moment means he can rest on his laurels? Or is it not more likely that heading into a game feeling confident might give the players a bit of self-belief? Certainly they\u2019re not receiving all that much support from people within Anfield at any given moment at present, so I for one applaud them backing themselves and feeling good ahead of a big game. Arsenal have Alexandre Lacazette, Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil. If we concede it\u2019s not because someone spoke to James Pearce.<\/p>\n<h2>A Look At This Season\u2019s Results<\/h2>\n<p>On to chatting about the defence, then, and a look at the results that we\u2019ve notched up so far. Excluding the Champions League qualifying matches and the League Cup against Leicester City, simply because I want to look more closely at the really important games, here\u2019s a list of Liverpool\u2019s results so far this season with the name\u2019s of the teams removed. In all instances, Liverpool\u2019s score is first and the other side\u2019s is the second:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>3-3<\/li>\n<li>1-0<\/li>\n<li>4-0<\/li>\n<li>0-5<\/li>\n<li>2-2<\/li>\n<li>1-1<\/li>\n<li>3-2<\/li>\n<li>1-1<\/li>\n<li>1-1<\/li>\n<li>0-0<\/li>\n<li>7-0<\/li>\n<li>1-4<\/li>\n<li>3-0<\/li>\n<li>3-0<\/li>\n<li>4-1<\/li>\n<li>3-0<\/li>\n<li>3-3<\/li>\n<li>1-1<\/li>\n<li>3-0<\/li>\n<li>1-5<\/li>\n<li>7-0<\/li>\n<li>1-1<\/li>\n<li>0-0<\/li>\n<li>4-0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The reason I\u2019ve decided to remove the names of the teams is simple: it also removes the desire to say \u2018yeah but it was only X\u2019. The list above contains the results of twenty-four different matches across the Premier League and Champions League. Of those twenty-four games, eleven ended without Liverpool conceding a goal. Perhaps even more importantly, only seven of those games resulted in the Reds conceding more than one goal. Given the desire of some to suggest that \u2018if we concede one we\u2019ll concede two or three\u2019, it appears that that is a narrative rather than a fact.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-1032\" src=\"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/IMG_2371-533x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"533\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/IMG_2371-533x400.jpg 533w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/IMG_2371-267x200.jpg 267w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/IMG_2371-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/IMG_2371-65x50.jpg 65w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 533px) 100vw, 533px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Again, I\u2019m not suggesting that Liverpool\u2019s defence is truly awesome. There are obviously some problems with it that will be improved upon only by dipping into the transfer market. What I am saying, though, is that the system J\u00fcrgen Klopp is asking his players to adopt is not part of the problem. More often than not we concede because of individual errors rather than because we \u2018can\u2019t defend\u2019. If other teams are depending on individual errors in order to find the back of the net then it might be time to admit that we\u2019re much better at the back than people are willing to accept. Supporters have kittens every time we concede a corner, but it\u2019s actually been a decent amount of time since we\u2019ve conceded from one. We\u2019re not scoring a lot more corners than we\u2019re conceding, which feels like a genuine change in the water.<\/p>\n<h2>The Tottenham Game Proved A Turning Point<\/h2>\n<p>Having said that I wanted to remove the names of the teams in the above list, it\u2019s only right to talk about how there seems to have been a genuine turn around in how we\u2019ve been defending since the match against Tottenham at Wembley. That Spurs beat us 4-1 might be used to point to our defensive frailties, yet the result is actually the exception rather than the rule. We conceded three to Watford on the opening day of the season, five to City at The Etihad and the four in the Spurs match, meaning that twelve of the twenty goals we\u2019ve conceded so far in the campaign came in three different games. Follow the maths through and the result of that is that we\u2019ve only conceded eight goals in the remaining fifteen league games, which is around half a goal a game.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The reds are conceding 0.4 goals per game in their last 9 compared to 1.7 the previous 9.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Michael Lennon (@Dave_Angel_) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Dave_Angel_\/status\/943442531383115776?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 20, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Even more noteworthy than the lack of goals we\u2019ve been conceding is the lack of shots that we\u2019ve been giving up. Since our collapse at Wembley, we\u2019ve allowed opposition sides twelve shots on target in nine league games. That is the sort of defending that you\u2019d expect from a Manchester United side under Jos\u00e9 Mourinho, putting everyone behind the ball and making the game dour to watch. Instead we\u2019ve been thrilling to watch and yet our defence hasn\u2019t been found wanting on any occasion. If you spend your time terrified of what\u2019s happening any time the opposition comes forward and convinced that we\u2019ll concede with every attack, I\u2019d suggest that this is because of your own confirmation bias rather than any actual facts.<\/p>\n<h2>Conclusion<\/h2>\n<p>Jamie Carragher said recently that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.skysports.com\/football\/news\/11669\/11178403\/mnf-extra-liverpool8217s-tactical-shift-after-losing-to-tottenham-was-vital?utm_source=t.co&amp;utm_medium=referral\">even he\u2019d struggle in a J\u00fcrgen Klopp defence<\/a>. The manager asks so much of his players, giving his centre-backs very little cover requiring a number six that helps the attack as much ad the defence. If a defender of Carragher\u2019s quality fears how he\u2019d look in this backline, might it not be worth bearing that in mind next time we concede a goal and you consider jumping on the back of the players in the side? Those who are most vociferous in their critique of our defence think our players are dreadful, yet give them no credit when a club legend declares that not even he\u2019d look good were he still playing today.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-partner=\"tweetdeck\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Klopp: &#8220;We are a team that is very offensive-orientated, but that doesn&#8217;t mean you have to give any space away. The boys do the jobs now much more often.&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/LFC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#LFC<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Neil Jones (@neiljonesecho) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/neiljonesecho\/status\/943480803589263360?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 20, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The German is determined to point out that this side defends as a team. If we concede a goal then it\u2019s just as likely that it will be because an attacker didn\u2019t press the defence or a midfielder failed to cut out a cross as it will be because of a mistake from one of our centre-backs or the goalkeeper. Next time someone talks to you about our dodgy defence then instead of agreeing with them, ask them to examine the last few goals we\u2019ve conceded. The penalty against penalty shouldn\u2019t have been given. The goal from Willian against Chelsea was a fluke. The penalty against Brighton shouldn\u2019t have been a penalty. Take Willian\u2019s goal out and when did we last concede a goal from open play? The start of November when we played West Ham. Not bad for a \u2018dodgy defence\u2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There is one thing above all else that I continue to be amazed by: Liverpool supporters and their willingness to buy into any given media narrative. You\u2019d have thought that Reds, perhaps more than any other set of supporters, would have learnt to take anything that members of the press say with a pinch of salt. Yet instead of remaining skeptical any time a story seems to pick up a head of steam, our fans tend to jump on board with it and soon enough it is accepted as common wisdom. If you don\u2019t believe me or you aren\u2019t sure [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":173,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1129"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1129"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1130,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1129\/revisions\/1130"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}