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James Milner No Solution at Left-Back as Liverpool Fall to Burnley Defeat
- Updated: August 20, 2016
“Consistency is the only way to be successful,”Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said before the Reds’ Premier League opener away to Arsenal last Sunday, according to the Guardian. But following that 4-3 victory at the Emirates Stadium with a 2-0 defeat to newly promoted Burnley on Saturday afternoon, the Reds served up the opposite of consistency.
“All of these big jumps in performance, up and down, don’t help,” the manager had continued to explain. “It’s possible because we are all human beings and things can happen that should not happen too often.”
As Klopp attested, there are variables out of his control that will lead to inconsistency within the performances of his Liverpool side—but a self-imposed consternation at left-back is not one of those.
Goals from Sam Vokes and Andre Gray sealed a priceless win for Sean Dyche’s Clarets, with the Reds producing little in terms of incision in response, and there were troubling elements across the field, as Klopp’s 4-3-3 system struggled to make its mark.
But such was the focus before the game, Klopp’s decision to field James Milner in place of Alberto Moreno at left-back serves as the most prominent talking point from this latest Liverpool defeat.
The 30-year-old, deployed in an unnatural role, failed to convince as a solution to Klopp’s left-back woes, and with just 11 days left of the summer transfer window on this disappointing loss, Milner’s role in Sunday’s result may have come at a crucial juncture.
Continuing his pre-season address, Klopp highlighted the need for his Liverpool side to be “independent,” and not be troubled by the varying styles of play of their Premier League opposition:
It’s the Premier League and your own shape is only one of the things that is important, the shape of the other team is pretty important too.
That’s what we’ve tried to do in pre-season—to be more independent to the style of play of the other team. If they defend deep, we cannot change it—we cannot say, “come on, it’s boring, give us a little bit of space to play”.
If they only play counter-attack, if they play high-pressure, all that stuff, you need to always have a solution. That’s what we were working on.
While opening-day opponents Arsenal may play more expansive, progressive football, and Liverpool will face off against similar sides throughout the campaign, there will be plenty of other challenges along the way: Leicester City’s incisive counter-attacking play, Crystal Palace’s direct, width-based approach, and Burnley’s low block are three examples.
Speaking to Sky Sports before the game, Klopp acknowledged that Burnley “have a specific style of play, and they stick to this plan,” later resolving that “we need to be ready for this.”
Unfortunately, this failed to be the case, and a dogmatic approach from the German played a significant part in Liverpool’s failure.
Despite injury to key winger Sadio Mane, Klopp stuck with the same 4-3-3 as in Sunday’s victory at the Emirates, merely replacing the Senegalese with Daniel Sturridge, who started out of …
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