Liverpool have had a good season so far in the Premier League, the club currently on course for a top-four finish.
However, there remain areas of weakness within their squad, areas that were highlighted even before the season started that have yet to be plugged.
And the majority of these weaknesses rotate around the defence; Liverpool have conceded 35 goals in just 28 games this season - despite recruiting Joël Matip to bolster their defensive ranks.
So with that in mind, do Liverpool need a powerful, destructive defensive-midfielder, in the mould of Victor Wanyama at Tottenham or N’Golo Kanté at Chelsea to provide extra protection?
Lack of steel and solidity in midfield
Liverpool needed a proper defensive-midfielder at the start of the season and although current first choice no.6 Jordan Henderson and his back-up Emre Can have both done an excellent job there, Liverpool simply do not have a player whose primary job is to tackle hard, screen the back four and prevent goals.
Henderson’s primary role in the team is as a passer and as a deep-lying playmaker. He is a natural box-to-box-midfielder, used at times as even a straightforward attacking-midfielder by Jürgen Klopp and his predecessor Brendan Rodgers.
Likewise, although Can’s primary position is arguably as a defensive-midfielder, he’s rarely been used there by Klopp or Rodgers and has been used as part of a back three, at right-back, or this season as a box-to-box player, arguably the position he’s looked best in.
Even if Can’s good performances in the lone defensive midfield role against Arsenal and Burnley can be taken as evidence that he can play that position, he remains the only player capable of playing that more destructive role, and it still isn’t necessarily his best one as his passing game isn’t suited to the position and he gives away too many free-kicks.
The simple answer is that Liverpool simply do not have that destructive screening force in their team, at least not consistently. And as such, the obvious conclusion to draw from this would be that they need one, and that a player like Kanté or Wanyama would have saved the team quite a few goals this season. However, the reality isn’t that straightforward.
An unnecessary addition
Is a destructive defensive midfielder necessarily the optimal goal for Klopp and his team? The counter-argument to this view comes in three parts.
First, other areas are more important to shore up the defence. Second, that Klopp has had a destructive DM at his disposal but not used him because it is not the most important attribute Klopp is after. And third, that a destructive DM would not have significantly improved Liverpool’s defending this season.
The first point then is that there are easier ways to shore up this leaky Liverpool back-line.
If Liverpool can sign a good central defender to play alongside Matip then that would solve a lot of problems, as Matip has struggled without a decent (or at times even a competent) partner.
Moreover, having security behind a solid centre-back pairing is essential, meaning that Liverpool either need to double down on Loris Karius coming good or sign a new goalkeeper, as they cannot endure another season of having Simon Mignolet as the number one 'keeper.
Another issue remains in James Milner, who simply isn’t technically good enough or tactically astute enough to function at left-back and this issue is causing Liverpool a lot of problems. Having a left-back, a goalkeeper and two central-defenders who are all good enough to play for a top-four side will eliminate much of the need for a destructive defensive midfielder.
The second point to make is that Klopp has actively avoided using a destructive player in that role, preferring someone with a better passing range who can operate as a deep-lying playmaker. Whilst they aren’t in the same calibre, the best analogy is Xabi Alonso and Javier Mascherano, two very different defensive midfielders who operated in the same team under Rafael Benitez.
Klopp has used Can and Henderson together this season, but has always operated with Henderson playing deeper. However stylistically, Henderson is much closer to Alonso in playing style than Mascherano.
As such, Klopp has used Henderson as a deep-lying playmaker, whose primary job in the side is to pass and whilst Henderson can (and frankly has) break up play effectively, it’s his control over the tempo of the side that is important.
Moreover, when Can has been used in the role, he has played much more like Mascherano, the more destructive defensive midfielder who is more focused on screening the defence than passing and that has provoked criticism from fans because of a lack of focus on passing.
Liverpool’s 2-1 win over Burnley highlighted this slight shift of style, where Can was playing in an even deeper role, and having to do a lot of hard defensive graft, but his passing accuracy was much lower than usual.
That’s not to say that finding a defensive midfielder that can both be destructive and act as a deep-lying play-maker is impossible, but finding someone who is exceptional at both skills is incredibly difficult, maybe even impossible for a club like Liverpool.
Even someone like Kanté isn’t the perfect midfielder, and is much better at playing the destructive role than he is the playmaker role. That’s why most teams opt to put both in their side.
But Klopp has utilised a system that inverts the midfield trident, meaning that Liverpool have just one deep-lying central midfielder: Jordan Henderson.
Henderson's repositioning points to Klopp's thinking
The fact that rather than try to sign someone destructive in the summer, Klopp decided to play Henderson there instead indicates that Klopp himself doesn’t want a destructive midfielder who is weaker at the passing game, but wants his deepest-lying player to be first and foremost a creative player and a shielder second.
So it’s not clear that a more natural defensive midfielder would fit into Klopp’s game plan. It’s difficult to see where N’Golo Kante would fit into Liverpool’s current 4-3-3 system, given that his passing game isn’t as strong as Henderson’s.
The final point to address is whether or not a defensive midfielder would have benefited Liverpool significantly this season and the answer is probably not.
Liverpool’s defensive situation has been pretty mediocre behind Henderson all season, and Henderson has done a phenomenal job in that role all things considered.
Only Idrissa Gueye has made more tackles per game this season, with Henderson racking up more clearances than his closest rivals (Gueye and Kante), and conceding less free-kicks, although both players have made more interceptions.
Nevertheless, the fact that Henderson’s defensive stats are on a par with Gueye and Kante, the two best defensive midfielders in the league, is a ringing endorsement of his performances this season.
Moreover, Liverpool’s problems are tactically such that it’s hard to imagine a more destructive defensive-midfielder preventing that many more goals.
Henderson has not been perfect, but he’s been very good and Liverpool’s issue since Christmas has been that teams have exposed their high-line, dropping the ball in behind the channel between the left centre-back, Ragnar Klavan or Lucas Leiva and Milner.
Neither Milner, nor the centre-back have dealt with that issue at all properly, leading to chaos at the back. And whilst Can plugged that gap by essentially becoming a third centre-back against Burnley, Klopp himself came out after the game and said that that was a real problem, as it left them with a hole in defensive midfield, and a huge gap between Can and his two fellow midfielders, Georginio Wijnaldum and Adam Lallana.
Overall, there are a combination of factors to the Reds' defensive issues, but a defensive midfielder would not necessarily solve them.
The impressive performances of Henderson and Can, the fact that shoring up Liverpool’s defence would be a better plugging of the gap than a destructive defensive midfielder, and the simple fact that Jürgen Klopp’s system doesn’t leave much room for a midfielder whose primary attribute isn’t a wide passing range, means that what Liverpool need is not a defensive midfielder, but just about everything else.