A Review Of Liverpool’s Season So Far

Last season at this time of year after playing half of the 38 game Premier League season Chelsea were on a long unbeaten run after Antonio Conte decided that changing to 3 at the back was the key strategic decision for Chelsea.

Also Diego Costa was banging in goals which saw his team leading the Premier League with 49 points.

Liverpool were in 2nd with 43 points with Manchester City sitting in 5th on goal difference but 10 points behind Chelsea last campaign.

This season Liverpool have either looked like they could beat any side in Europe one week then have struggled to even register a shot on goal in games against the so called lesser teams.

Mo Salah leads the PL in scoring and has proven to be the best signing of the season as he has lit up the league with his pace and goals showing Chelsea what a mistake they made to sell him.

With Mane, Firmino, Salah and Coutinho the Reds arguably have as good a front 4 as there is in any of the big 5 European leagues at the moment.

Liverpool finished top of their Champions League group but twice succumbed when leading Sevilla by 3 goals to end up tied 3-3 to finish both games.

The Reds don’t seem to be able to play “boring football” as James Milner called it in a recent interview in order to see out games when they are leading.

Milner was speaking after the recent Arsenal game where Liverpool gave up a 2-0 lead only to end up trailing 3-2 as the Gunners scored 3 goals in a matter of minutes. The Reds did of course come back to tie the match 3-3 and claim a point but it could have been so much better.

Liverpool’s defence has been problematic all season and while the club can get up to play their top 6 rivals they have trouble winning ugly when they need to dig in and grind out a result.

It would be a great move if Liverpool are able to revisit the Virgil van Dijk deal with Southampton as they need a top class centre-half and they could use the leadership a commanding centre-half like the highly regarded Dutchman could provide.

So while Liverpool have played some of the most dynamic and attractive attacking football throughout the season if they can sort themselves out defensively there is no reason why they cannot go deep in the Champions League and finish second in the Premier League behind virtually already confirmed Champions Manchester City and bag automatic qualification to next season’s Champions League.

 

ARIS