From a Liverpool perspective, the performance of the players as a unit was not up to scratch as they lost 2-0 to Leicester City on Tuesday night to leave their top-four hopes torn to shreds.
The defeat has again thrown up questions regarding the quality of this present side. Leicester, however, are on a high, sitting top of the league in the first week of February and with just 14 league games remaining, they dare to dream.
With each passing game they are turning doubters into believers and will now begin to think that what many call the impossible could just happen. Here are a few talking points from last night’s encounter at the King Power Stadium.
Reds' worrying lack of conviction in front of goal
Here we go again, another night, another embarrassing night on the shooting front for Liverpool. It has something every Liverpool fan has now nearly adjusted too. It's expected. Predictable, even.
They had 14 shots on the night with only two on target, with one of these coming from a central defender Dejan Lovren, which tells its own story. It’s all way too panicky and evidence of shooting for the sake of it from this current Liverpool side. Countless shots aimlessly being fired in all directions, into the stands and miles off target.
Leicester gave Liverpool a finishing masterclass at the King Power and could have had more if not for Simon Mignolet. Yes, you could argue that the first goal was a moment of magic from Jamie Vardy, who was magnificent and the second had a stroke of good fortune falling into his on running path, but at the end of the day - a goal is a goal and it’s just not good enough from the Merseyside outfit at present.
Roberto Firmino tried hard but looked ominous, lacking support and not really putting himself in any scoring positions. He found himself quite deep at times and Adam Lallana, who did make some great dribbles, didn’t really offer a lethal goal scoring threat in the way Shinji Okazaki and Vardy did.
It was a huge contrast to the game against Norwich City where Liverpool netted five, but we have to take into consideration that the Canaries are a considerably weaker team. It looked clueless from the Reds in the final third, and Jürgen Klopp may yet regret not signing a striker in the January transfer window, although summer is quickly on the horizon.
Present midfield just isn’t working
It’s something we’ve observed all season and last night’s game just highlighted the fact even more. Too many players within are midfield are underperforming and it’s probably time Klopp gave some young midfielders like Cameron Brannagan and Alex Stewart an opportunity in some competitive Premier League fixtures.
Our midfield offered very little last night, even though we had the majority of the possession and if your midfield isn’t at its best against the likes of Leicester who have very creative and capable players such as N'Golo Kante, Riyad Mahrez and Danny Drinkwater then you’re in big trouble.
There’s way too much side-to-side passing and nobody who can open up a defence with one perfect pass or touch. We need at least two of these types of players in our midfield set-up if we want to be a threat going forward, or else the attacking players up top will be essentially worthless.
Brannagan in particular is this type of player. He has great attacking tendencies and vision and is willing to play risky passes even though they don’t come off all the time. A high amount of these midfield styles in your team will raise the number of chances created vastly, there is no doubt about that and and some of the Reds' younger players could provide that attacking intent.
Klopp's defensive disaster continues
Another huge talking point of Liverpool this season. Inconsistency, disorganisation and a lack of cohesion could be some of the phrases you could use to describe this particular defensive spectacle.
From early in the game, the Liverpool defence always looked on the back foot and it was evident that Lovren was struggling with the pace of Jamie Vardy as he skipped past him down the left and floated in a ball for Okazaki who really should have done a lot better early on.
Vardy’s movement caused the Reds defence all sorts of problems and they were caught out of position a couple of times being dragged into uncomfortable positions across the defensive line. Though Mamadou Sakho is a good player, on this occasion he had a night to forget as he looked uncomfortable on the ball and played a few sloppy passes into our midfielders which put his side under enormous pressure. He let the ball bounce for Vardy’s first and his deflection essentially assisted Vardy for the second of the night.
It wasn’t just Sakho however and the rest of the back line, Dejan Lovren, Nathaniel Clyne and Alberto Moreno must also partly share the blame. More structure and a defensive leader is obviously the missing part of the jigsaw for this back-four.
Final thoughts
Overall, this loss could have just ended Liverpool’s hopes of a top-four finish with 14 games left in the season. Although Klopp won’t be satisfied with this he will know at the back of his mind that the Europa League, Capital One Cup and FA Cup are all to play for.
The Europa League in particular could be an alternative route into Champions League football next year, but based on this performance a lot of factors will have to improve radically within this group of players because there is a lack of quality across the teamsheet at present.
You can’t blame Klopp for team selection as he has not signed any of these players and his hands are tied in this way. He needs time to work his magic and on this evidence, he might need at least six or seven new faces to get Liverpool Football Club back where they belong.