sport news GRAEME SOUNESS: Liverpool are miles off where they should be right now trends now
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You can talk to all the modern coaches and analysts you like, apply the latest buzz terminology and fill these sports pages with all the data you can lay your hands on — but the one non-negotiable part of winning football matches is being first to the ball.
At the moment, Liverpool are not doing that. And that’s why they are a mile off the team we have known them to be in Jurgen Klopp’s time at the club.
That intensity of being first to everything is the reason why they have become winners again. They and Manchester City are by far the best two teams in the country at doing this and no one else comes anywhere near their intensity. They can squeeze the life out of teams.
Liverpool made a shocking start to their Champions League campaign with a 4-1 loss to Napoli
But they have gone from a team that can hustle and exhaust an opponent, from the first minute to the last, to a team suddenly second to everything. In doing so they appear to be vulnerable to every attack.
There are all sorts of reasons for this being offered by the people with the data and the big theories. They will tell you about the Liverpool high line. About Mo Salah not looking the same player he was. About Trent Alexander-Arnold appearing to jog back when two of Napoli’s goals went in, during that 4-1 defeat on Wednesday night. But Liverpool just don’t seem to have the same energy.
I’ve certainly not been seeing the same Salah. He has signed the big contract he wanted and I really hope we are not seeing him getting semi into his armchair because of that.
The need for intensity is a collective thing. It has always been that way, going back to my time as a player at the club. They like to call it ‘pressing’ now but when I was playing we just called it ‘closing down’. If one person is not doing it, the whole system breaks down and you might as well drop off and be a team that plays counter-attacking
