Liverpool’s inconsistency is the product of a painful but predictable transition

Having struggled to find a solution to Liverpool’s problems, Jurgen Klopp has at least found the words to describe their situation.

“What you build with your hands, you knock down with your back,” the manager said. “This is not helpful.”

It is saying something. It’s also another way of saying one step forward, one step back – except the latter stumbles and falls pretty unlucky right now. It’s not that Liverpool drop points like an out-of-form team does. It’s because they so often collapse on themselves.

This in itself justifies taking a step back, beware. The first thing to say about Liverpool’s erratic season is that some of it is actually predictable. Klopp has essentially pushed the team to the outer limits of performance for half a decade in order to keep up with Manchester City, and that will inevitably lead to a downside.

It’s a fatigue problem compounded by the fact that team cycles are usually only three or four years old before they expire, and the manager has to take action. This has always been Sir Alex Ferguson’s maxim. The great Manchester United so often tore the team apart and left in a summer. Klopp has actually been trying to replicate that for at least a year. Even Thiago Alcantara was an indication of that.

It’s just that, without City’s ability to spend, Liverpool aren’t really able to make all the big changes needed over the course of a summer. It’s going to bring a transition, and what does the transition look like?

Well, a lot like that, at least in terms of results. It’s the inconsistency and intermittent displays. It’s problems. These are flaws.

However, this is also where it gets deeper – and where the questions really arise. Klopp is still trying to figure out a host of these issues. He’s also in the unenviable position right now where nearly every attempt at a solution causes a problem elsewhere. This is what happens when a team that had worked so perfectly begins to fall apart. It is very difficult to renovate.

Klopp certainly faced many other problems at the same time, and some of them were unexpected. There was, firstly, the very passage of time and growing indications that oppositions had found a way to inhibit Liverpool’s full-backs. They had been the engines of the team, powering this line forward.

That forward line had finally been properly severed with the departure of Sadio Mane, requiring reshaping – as well as significant psychological readjustment – but that coincided with the sputtering engine. Liverpool don’t just have to adapt to Darwin Nunez, a totally different player profile from Mane. They have Trent Alexander-Arnold out of shape and perhaps enduring the inevitable inhibitions that come with so much scrutiny. They have Virgil van Dijk unable to shore up the defense like he used to. They have Fabinho suffering the most sudden and surprising drop of all, and not just not looking like himself in a way no one expected.

This left Liverpool even shorter in midfield, to go with other injuries, which required even more changes than Klopp would like.

This mostly means that there have really only been two major midfielders he wants to play. It resulted in that 4-2-4, which inevitably worked much better against Rangers than against Arsenal. However, once you play something that looks like a top team, it leads to a lot more complications than Klopp’s staff could have imagined.

More infuriatingly, the midfielder loses the ability to press as well as impose himself in any way. It can be seen in the way Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka simply strolled down the middle of the pitch after just 58 seconds to score that first goal. It felt how often Arsenal were willing to let Jordan Henderson on the ball in the middle. The captain has many qualities but dictating a game with his passes is not among his best. There was a moment against Arsenal where he simply took the ball out of play. There was another when he passed it all the way back when Thiago would surely have been looking for something more insightful.

Then there is the most obvious problem of all: the complete isolation of Mohamed Salah. Given that the Egyptian has been one of the most dangerous players in world football for four years due to his ability to cut inside, that makes his positioning all the more confusing. He looked like a 1950s winger, hugging the touchline, rather than a player seen as a potential 2021 Ballon D’Or winner.

Even if it didn’t work out, there is at least some logic in this role. It has been suggested that Salah was placed there to solve the problem of opposition sides scolding Liverpool full-backs, so this theoretically frees up Alexander-Arnold. Rather, it had the opposite effect, albeit multiplied. Salah can be positioned as a traditional winger, but he doesn’t play like one and just doesn’t do that kind of defensive work. This left Alexander-Arnold even more exposed and put him in that attack-defense stalemate much more often. With more defensive responsibilities, he can’t even be that effective in the future. It also means Salah is more isolated, with his position actually dampening his abilities.

The failure of that was reported with the Egyptian taken off, and how many times Alexander-Arnold had been tackled before his own injury-forced substitution.

Nor was it a surprise when Liverpool’s first goal came from the right-back playing a ball over that midfield and onto Luis Diaz.

There was always a sense of life every time the Colombian received the ball, as his very energy makes things happen and creates a connection. This clearly brought more to Darwin Nunez, as the forward benefited so much from Diaz’s move. It was a somewhat enlightening link – but now we have concerns over the Colombian’s fitness. It would almost sum up Liverpool’s season and cap it off should he suffer a long-term injury.

Because, without him, the team would look like an even more disconnected XI. It’s as if different parts operate at very different degrees of efficiency. No wonder they are inconsistent.

It’s much more amazing how Klopp is doing.

No one should doubt him in this regard, of course. It’s not like what happened at Borussia Dortmund in 2014-15. He has more than shown he is capable of resetting Liverpool. Just look at the winter 2020-21 recovery. This may still involve some reversals.