James Milner, Naby Keita, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, and Roberto Firmino left the team at the end of their contracts, while Jordan Henderson and Fabinho decided to move to Saudi Arabia, reversing their initial assumptions.
Liverpool, which has largely replaced its midfielders, continues to search for new optimal solutions, including trying Trent Alexander-Arnold in midfield in the preseason. In the Premier League opener against Chelsea, Cody Gakpo was inserted into midfield.
New midfielders Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai performed as expected, and the result was not bad, a draw. Jurgen Klopp reflected on the game and stressed the importance of passing and holding the ball at the right time.
“We had a really good start into the game, I liked it a lot,”
“Everything was there that we were working on. Scored two wonderful goals, one disallowed for offside. It was really close. The build-up to that goal anyway was absolutely top class.”
“But then we opened the door for Chelsea. We lost the ball in one or two situations which was unnecessary. The goal was off a set-piece. The other goal, we won the ball but didn’t clear it enough. It was offside as well but Chelsea were then in the game. It was an open game then.”
“Second half, with the crowd and all these things, we had to dig really deep and fight hard. A lot of spaces to cover and gaps to close.”
“That was actually our problem in the game, we tried to cover the gaps by dropping instead of stepping in, like we did at the beginning. Then they could find (Raheem) Sterling between the lines and (Reece) James was suddenly in the game, Chilwell better in the game. We should have seen it better.”
“But the best way to avoid these kind of things is to control the game better. When we passed in the right moment, kept the ball in the right moment, we created one v one situations on the wing which were really difficult for Chelsea.”
Liverpool, which is struggling to find a defensive midfielder and is also pursuing a left-handed center back, has not been able to reinforce the team as much as it would like.
However, the team is playing well on the pitch, and further reinforcements will help form a solid lineup.