This season, Liverpool has suffered horribly on the field, and their midfield, in particular, has fallen short of the high expectations many had for them, including Thierry Henry.
Ask any Liverpool fan where the Reds’ most glaring problem area on the pitch is and almost all of them would say their midfield.
Jurgen Klopp’s men have endured a torrid time of it this season and as a result currently sit 10th in the Premier League table, a whopping 11 points adrift of fourth-placed Newcastle. Liverpool’s last league outing came in the form of an away trip to Wolves, which ended in a 3-0 defeat in what was a dismal display from the Reds.
Of the usual midfield trio that often consists of club captain Jordan Henderson and former Real Madrid man Fabinho, just Thiago Alcantara featured. Naby Keita and Stefan Bajcetic stepped in, but struggled to deal with the likes of Ruben Neves and Mathues Nunes.
That’s not to suggest the usual three of Thiago, Henderson and Fabinho would have fared much better. That three-man midfield has struggled to get to grips with things this season and certainly have to shoulder some of the responsibility of why the club find themselves languishing in mid-table mediocrity.
To put into context their shared struggles this season, not one of Fabinho, Henderson and Thiago have managed to register a single goal or assist in the league this season despite all of them featuring in at least 17 of Liverpool’s 20 games.
The three-man midfield have fallen drastically short of expectations, particularly Thierry Henry’s, who waxed lyrical over all of them last season.
“The scary thing about that Liverpool side is that Fabinho, Thiago and Henderson have played just three times together,” before the festive period last term.
“If they start to really click and understand each other I don’t know how you’re going to stop them.”
This season has seen minimal clicking between the trio. There isn’t even an argument to suggest that all three have sacrificed attacking contributions to help sort the defensive side of things.
Fabinho and Thiago have both failed to score or assist a single league goal this season
The Reds have shipped 28 goals so far, the same amount of goals conceded as their local rivals and relegation strugglers Everton as the second half of the campaign gets underway.
These same midfield problems have not come as a shock to most, with many calling for Liverpool to bolster their options in the middle of the park in the summer and more recently in the January transfer window.
In response, the best the club could do was to sign Arthur Melo on loan from Juventus. The Brazilian has since made one 13 minute appearance before spending the majority of the season on the treatment table with injury.
source: www.mirror.co.uk
