DIVOCK ORIGI IS NOT TO BLAME!

Liverpool FC’s pack of cards built at Anfield finally came crashing down earlier this week when Liverpool met with Burnley FC and lost with a lone goal.

Its easy to blame Divock Origi for losing the cleanest goal opportunity football fans have ever seen in a long time but one must also be objective to the fact that Origi has not scored in 18 games played this season and neither has he assisted any goals too, so his goal scoring and assists stats so far this season remains at a strong 0%.

So, who is to blame for Liverpool’s collapse? The weather, Burnley or Klopp?

We will come back to who takes the blame but first of all let’s review possible causes for the eventual collapse of the Anfield fortress which has also led to Liverpool’s ongoing EPL campaign being derailed.

The first possible culprit will be Firmino.

Roberto Firmino has not been the best striker we have seen in recent times and neither has he been impressive either in terms of goals or assists. How he still wears the No. 9 shirt for a manager and team that have very high standards still remains a mystery mainly because he seems to have no serious competition for that spot even though his inconsistency has been consistent in the past many weeks.

And that will explain why poor Origi got pulled out from his hole like a magician will pull out a rabbit out of his hat to marvel onlookers. Instead, Origi amazed onlookers with his rustiness. To be frank, Origi is also not an impressive striker that can give Firmino a run for his money even if he played every week.

Other possible culprits are the backline.

Trent Alexander-Arnold is also not to blame though his performance in recent weeks might make you wonder how he got into the Liverpool team in the first place. Continue reading below to understand why his performance has dropped.

The continued absence of first choice centre-backs Virgil van Dijk and Joel Matip have not helped the Liverpool campaign. However, the problem in the past few games have not been related to conceding goals but their inability to score goals, even if they are crappy goals.

I will leave Liverpool’s midefield out of the blame-trading topic as they have been very busy and hardworking in the past few weeks and neither the defense nor forward have been able to cement their efforts.

VERDICT:

Jurgen Klopp is to blame.

It is a good thing he accepted the blame in his post-match interview though he said it as a leader who want to protect his team and not trash them in front of the media.

Maybe also because Klopp has never led a top team in a VERY COMPETITIVE LEAGUE to back-to back TOP honors in back-to-back seasons, he does not know that fatigue is always bound to set in as winning teams exert a lot of energy to reach the peak and that means they always need reinforcements or backups to key players as they usually burnout and that leads to serious under-performance which eventually makes the Manager look like they have lost it.

Typical examples are Mourinho at Chelsea, Guardiola’s 1^st few seasons at Manchester, Zidane’s first two seasons at Madrid, Benitez’s season at Inter Milan, Ranieri at Leicester City e.t.c.

SOLUTION:

Jurgen Klopp needs to reinforce his key players with back-ups especially as the season goes into crunch times when injuries are bound to take out even the most consistent players in the game.

Klopp needs to rotate the roles of his forwards while benching Firmino. Let Salah and Mane both have the chance to play the CF roles in less difficult games so that he can test other wingers in those open spots when he flips the coin on his forwards, that way he has a frontline that is versatile, sharp and hard to predict.

Klopp needs to shop for a proven striker or get a promising prospect to cover or bench Firmino or possibly make Origi play more games by dedicating each striker to different competitions like Arsene Wenger did with his strikers. Firmino to EPL and Origi to FA Cup et al. That way, he will always have solid and sharp strikers at his beck and call.

Find proven back ups for Virgil van Dijk and Joel Matip or switch them during less important games. He has been forced to play without them in the past few week so it will be no big deal if he intentionally plays without them in certain games to keep them fresh and injury-free.

The season is not yet lost for Liverpool but it surely will be very difficult this season to rise back to the top of the table and main that position till season end as Manchester City, Manchester United, Leicester City FC and Tottenham Hotspur all want that crown and no one is ready to step down for the next opponent to grab it.

Liverpool does not need to walk alone if only they can reinforce in this about-to-close transfer window.

Liverpool FC currently sit at 4^th position with 34pts from 19 matches which is 6pts behind League leaders who have 40pts from 19 matches too.