In the book The Numbers Game: Why Everything You Know About Football is Wrong, by Chris Anderson and David Sally, the authors argue that football is a “weak-link game.”
“Like the space shuttle, one small, malfunctioning part can cause a multimillion-pound disaster. This has profound implications for how we see football, how clubs should be built and teams constructed, how sides should be run and substitutions made.”
Using statistical analysis, the authors argue that it is more beneficial for a team to improve on their weakest player than to buy another striker or attacking player. This may seem like common sense, but then you see Liverpool paying £40m for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, a winger who wants to be a midfielder and who doesn’t improve their team, while their defence drastically needs to be improved.
Liverpool’s 4-1 defeat away to Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday adds weight to the theory that it is more important for a team to improve the weakest part of their side than add to areas where they are already strong.
Jurgen Klopp’s side signed Mo Salah and Oxlade-Chamberlain in the summer, and they managed to keep hold of Philippe Coutinho. However, they still have a back-five consisting of Dejan Lovren, Alberto Moreno and Simon Mignolet. Essentially, you’re only as strong as your weakest player, as Graeme Souness said following Sunday’s match at Wembley. Liverpool showed that, by this metric, it could be a long season for them.
Liverpool have already conceded more away PL goals in 5 games than when they were runners-up in 2008-09 (14) pic.twitter.com/aeTII7PUzw
— Sky Sports Statto (@SkySportsStatto) October 22, 2017
Mignolet was suspect for at least two of Spurs’ goals, and Lovren had the type of game that won’t be forgotten for a very long time. The Croatian probably had the toughest afternoon of his career at Wembley. He tried to play offside and was caught out for Harry Kane’s first goal.
Lovren then gambled and missed the ball when Hugo Lloris threw it towards the England striker, leaving Kane with the entire Liverpool half to run into before passing for Heung-Min Son to score.
When Klopp substituted Lovren for Oxlade-Chamberlain after 31 minutes, it was an act of mercy as much as a tactical change. The 28-year-old has struggled to impress at Anfield since his £20m move from Southampton in 2014, and reached a new low on Sunday. He signed a four-year extension back in April, but if Virgil van Dijk had joined Liverpool during the summer, Lovren’s game time would have been limited.
Brendan Rodgers was manager when Lovren signed in 2014, but, on Twitter on Sunday evening, Jamie Carragher was getting the blame for his arrival at Anfield.
One Twitter user suggested that the former Liverpool defender, who retired in 2013, recommended Lovren to his old club.
What about lovren, jamie? Did you not recommend him?
— Peter C 🖐️☝️ (@peterc80) October 22, 2017
Carragher completely rejected this claim, saying that he merely highlighted Lovren’s performance for Southampton against Manchester United at Old Trafford in an analysis piece on Monday Night Football.
Where has this come from? I get tweeted this all the time! I did a piece on him on MNF when he was outstanding at Old Trafford for Soton!! https://t.co/h36107zAf4
— Jamie Carragher (@Carra23) October 22, 2017
Following the match, Klopp blamed “really bad, bad, bad defending” for Liverpool’s 4-1 loss.
“The whole game the whole result was all our fault,” the Liverpool manager said.
“Tottenham was good, they needed to be good, but we made it much too easy for them. The first goal was a little throw in and we are not really there. It was just really bad, bad, bad defending. The second, a counter attack, when the ball passes Dejan Lovren it is already too late. Coming back in the game with the goal we had our chances, but it’s nothing to talk about today.”
