Michael Cox, one of the best football analysts around, as penned a lengthy essay in the Athletic on Liverpool’s defending this season.
He’s stated that on multiple occasions we’ve simply been unlucky, but has explained how individual errors have essentially been the crux of our problem – with Joe Gomez making more than anyone else to date.
In four games, we’ve let in 11 goals, so obviously there is an issue at the back.
Most commentators are lazily referring to our high-line, but it hasn’t changed from the beginning of last season, as far as we can tell.
‘Most obviously, Gomez needs a break from the first-team,’ Cox concluded.
‘The arrival of Thiago means Klopp has extra freedom to use Fabinho at the back, which currently seems a much preferable option to continuing with the error-prone Gomez.’
We don’t want to criticise Gomez too heavily. Yes, he was abysmal against Aston Villa, but who wasn’t? Maybe Mo Salah – but that’s it…
The Englishman is a defender who performs better after a run of games – and we shouldn’t forget he’s not long back from an injury that meant Fabinho played in central defence against Chelsea…
He does however need to get out of the habit of showing strikers inside onto their favourite foot, which has resulted in three goals already.
Fab did well at Stamford Bridge, and we’re not worried about him filling in – but would equally not wish to damage Gomez’s confidence.
Whoever Klopp picks, we ultimately need to get behind them and make sure Sunday’s horrorshow was a one-off and not evidence of underlying issues.