It didn’t make sense then, it doesn’t make sense now.
Jurgen Klopp let Liverpool’s best defender go on deadline day, and they’ve been paying the price for it ever since.
It’s hard to remember the last time a Liverpool side went out without huge question marks over their defence.
Defensive problems were always their Achilles heel when Brendan Rodgers was in charge, and Jurgen Klopp’s biggest task when he took over was surely to at least attempt to shore up these defensive problems.
He hasn’t come close to doing so, and the worst thing is, it doesn’t look like he’s even tried that hard.
Klopp is an entertaining man, a lovable rogue who’s team play an exciting brand of football, which is always good to watch from a neutral spectators point of view.
That’s because it’s bonkers, for the most part, it’s kamikaze stuff.
Klopp has improved Liverpool in so many ways, because their attacking play has been at times wonderful, their passing and movement up front is swashbuckling with Firmino, Coutinho and Salah dovetailing sublimely, but he has failed to solve their most glaring problem.
Defence. He has persisted with Alberto Moreno when he clearly has no defensive instincts and you’d have to wonder why he even bought Andy Robertson if that was the case.
Klopp’s didn’t see eye to eye with Mamadou Sakho, who didn’t obey team ethics who was a law unto himself at times, but what he always guaranteed was a sharp set of defensive instincts
He was a fighter, a warrior and Klopp let him go and has since been persisting with Dejen Lovren and Joel Matip, a pair who simply don’t possess the same defensive qualities.
“Sakho left on transfer deadline day,” Given said.
“Obviously van Dijk was the big story – is he coming, is he not coming – but at that point they knew he was not coming. In my opinion Sakho is a better defender than any of the centre backs they have playing tonight,” he continued.
Are #LFC better served to win a Premier League title under Klopp than they were under Brendan Rodgers? Kenny says they are not! #SPALIV #UCL pic.twitter.com/zu1sHkwbSQ
— eir Sport (@eirSport) September 26, 2017
“So why not think, we can’t get van Dijk but there is a serious problem there so why not make amends with Sakho, water under the bridge, and get on with it. They need someone to clear the ball, head the ball and defend – old school.”
And Given is dead right, because sometimes you have to cut off your nose to spite your face.
Liverpool conceded an early goal in tonight’s clash with Spartak Moscow and go in at half-time drawing 1-1, but the same defensive problems are prevalent.
