Liverpool Mid Season Review 2020/2021

After ending their 30 year wait to be crowned champions of England last season, the Merseyside club didn’t rest on their laurels. The signings of Jota and Thiago left rivals seriously fearing this could just be the start of a dominant era for the Reds. But football has a funny way of throwing up surprises. Instead, we are somehow here applauding Klopp for keeping his men just 7 points off City in top. This is because he has done it without Van Dijk, Gomez and Matip for the majority of the season.

Weaknesses

Six clean sheets from twenty two is not good enough for a team with title winning aspirations. In such a difficult league, it’s a tall ask to be expected to always score at least twice to get all 3 points. Any title winning manager will tell you it’s the ugly 1-0 wins that really get them the trophy come the end of the season. Had they managed to avoid conceding in their 1-1 draws against relegation candidates Brighton, Fulham and West Brom, they’d be 7 points better off and joint on points with City.

Just two goals from midfield is woeful. I fail to see it improving much in the remainder of the season either. None of the options from midfield have a history of scoring consistently. This means they are completely reliant on the front three.

January Transfers

With their injury crisis at centre back, the aim this month was always going to be bringing in one, if not two centre backs. They have managed to do that signing Ben Davies from Preston and Kabak from Schalke. But fans will be scratching their head thinking why it was left until the last day of the window?

Two defeats and a draw this month does suggest they were right on this one. The two men that have arrived will hardly excite them either. Unlikely to have any chance of pushing for a first team spot, when the others recover. At the age of 25, few will ever get their first taste of the Premier League wearing the Champions colours. Ben Davies is about to be one of the few that live that dream.

Kabak is harder to judge. The youngster has notched up an impressive amount of games at just 20 years old. But having been on the winning side less than 20% of his Bundesliga career, is he prepared to be starting at a team that expect to always win?

Predictions

I think Liverpool will safely finish in the top 4 and most likely the top 3. But to think they can seriously catch City is wishful thinking in my opinion. Having said that, only a fool would completely write off Klopp. He’ll scrape every drop of energy out of his men and won’t make life easy for Pep. If he somehow manages to pip them to the title, he’d cement his status as the clubs greatest ever manager.

“Liverpool Football Club” by Gene Hunt is licensed under CC BY 2.0