Daniel Taylor gives his opinion Liverpool’s attacking options in relation to the rest of the teams challenging for top four.
Four games into the Premier League season and Liverpool have seven points on the board after most recently winning 4-1 against Leicester City. You could argue that it has been a very good start, apart from losing to Burnley. But, how do Liverpool’s attacking options compare to other top four contenders?
In my opinion, the problem Liverpool have had in recent seasons is the lack of goals coming from midfield. If you go back and look at past seasons, Liverpool has had players like Steven Gerrard scoring 10+ goals a season. However, as Gerrard began to adopt a deeper role, it resulted in a lack of goals coming from midfield, and when he left, even more so.
Last season, players like Adam Lallana simply were not scoring frequently enough. This was an issue as other top teams we were competing against did have players helping out with goals from midfield. I felt that this was putting to much pressure on the strikers to score, causing a dilemma when they didn’t.
The start of this season has seen positive change. Despite having just begun the season, Mane, Firmino, Coutinho and Lallana have scored a combined nine goals. Scoring goals has proven not to be an issue after scoring four against Arsenal and Leicester.
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Liverpool has much more strength in depth this year, so if we are getting a large amount of goals from midfield it means we will have very strong bench options with players that will impact the game. It seems to me that teams like Tottenham do not have as strong depth as Liverpool.
The Reds are the second highest scoring team in the Premier league behind Manchester City. Even though it’s extremely early, this is interesting as Liverpool were the sixth highest scoring side in the league last year, which is not good enough if we want to qualify for Champions League football.
A significant reason for the recent change is Liverpool’s big summer signing Sadio Mane. His dynamic movement suits our style of play and the link up with Daniel Sturridge against Leicester was stunning – they have the potential to be a dangerous partnership this season.
Roberto Firmino showed his capabilities last season scoring ten goals and laying on a further seven assists, however, I expect to see even more this season as he could play a vital role as we have seen him play more central as a false nine – where he often plays for Brazil.
With no European football, this year fatigue should not be an issue so we should focus on a strong league campaign and a good cup run; I feel we have the quality in attacking options to do so.
Personally, I have a very good feeling about this season. I feel that we have a very talented squad with a good balance of flair and hard workers. I believe that under Jurgen Klopp’s guidance the squad will be very successful.