It is not a secret that Liverpool is having a poor season, in December 2020 they were in the top four but now with less than 5 games to go they sit 7th in the table and I think they will miss champions league football next season.
So why is Liverpool struggling this season? There are a lot of known and unknown factors that contributed to the red’s poor season but for me, these 5 are the main reasons why Liverpool is struggling this season.
5 Reasons why Liverpool is struggling this season
1. Lack of fans in the stadium
I know now we blame pandemic for everything that goes wrong, but this is true for Liverpool, before the lockdown last season Liverpool was unbeaten, after restarting the League they lost 3-0 to then struggling Watford.
Their home form justifies this, let look at the numbers, on April 23 in 2017, Liverpool lost 2-1 to Crystal Palace at home, they went 68 games unbeaten at home in the premier league when they lost again at home on January 21 2021 to Burnley, they went and suffered 6 defeats in a row at home, reason? you guessed there were no fans to give them that extra push to wins games at home.
According to ESPN, since the start of the pandemic, the away goals have increased by 18%, the home wins decreased by 2%, and the away wins increased by an impressive 26% this explains why some teams are struggling at home, for example, Liverpool.
I understand that this is the problem for all teams in the premier league but let be honest here most teams are intimidated to play at Anfield, but without the fans, it is not the same.
2.The injuries
Liverpool faced one of the worst seasons when it comes to injuries, they do not seem to catch a break, it is injury after another injury, there was a time all of their first-choice back 4 was out due to injuries, the injuries of the likes of Georginio Wijnaldum and Virgil van Dijk left a huge void in the first team that the reserve players could not fill.
3.Virgil van Dijk
Before the arrival of Virgil van Dijk, Liverpool was conceding goals for fun, the arrival of the Dutchman changed that and Liverpool defense became very solid, this is a reason that when it was announced that he will miss the whole 2020-2021 season there was a fear of the worst among Liverpool fans.
They missed him a lot and I hope that when he recovers he will be able to reach the same levels again, which is very difficult to do after such a long injury.
4.The Klopp decision
After losing van Dijk and Joel Matip at center-back, Jurgen Klopp decided to use his best midfielders as center backs, for me, this was one of the worst decisions Klopp made but I understand why he did it.
He did not trust the young and inexperienced defenders to play at the back and he did not have funds to buy new defenders that is understandable but the decision made Liverpool even weaker at the midfield.
We have seen Jordan Anderson, Thiago Alcantara, Fabinho among the other playing at the back, this affected the way Liverpool recovered the ball and the way they constructed attacks.
This is what Arsene Wenger had to say about this.
Arsene Wenger explaining that any team losing Van Dijk would destabilise them, but losing him and then moving your best midfielders into defence is disastrous.
— Watch LFC (@Watch_LFC) February 14, 2021
5. The front three is working less well
The famous Liverpool front three of Sadio Mane, Mo Salah and Firmino is not the same, Mane is lost, he looks like a guy who lacks confidence, the same can be said to Roberto Firmino, the only player who is trying is Mo Salah, but he can not do it alone.
The front three used to score many goals and even when the defense was back they could just outscore the opponent, those goals were so important in turning defeats into draws and draws into victory, but this season they seem to lack their mojo.
Final words
Those are the five reasons why Liverpool is struggling this season, it is not easy to pinpoint which one is the major factor but I think that when you have a lot of things going against you, it is very difficult to get results especially in the league as competitive as the premier league.
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