Comparing it to the lofty standards Liverpool have set for themselves this season, their defeat against Arsenal on Wednesday night, and the sheer manner of it, was arguably one of their worst displays of the campaign.
Jurgen Klopp’s side looked uncharacteristically sloppy both in defence and further forward, making simple mistakes, and routinely passing the ball out of play when under no real pressure.
And it was of course two major howlers on the part of Virgil van Dijk and Alisson that gifted the Gunners all three points, but whilst the duo had a rare off-night, the central midfield area was an area of big concern.
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Both Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Georginio Wijnaldum in particular failed to really grab the game by the scruff of the neck, and when Arsenal appeared set on defending the width of their penalty area, showed none of the guile or creativity needed to break them down.
Oxlade-Chamberlain – valued at £25.2m- and Wijnaldum – valued at £36m – did virtually nothing all game to threaten the Arsenal back-line, with very few runs made in behind the opposition defence, and no cute passes or trickery to beat a man.
As per Sofascore, they combined for just one shot on target, and that too being a relatively tame half-volley from Oxlade-Chamberlain. They also only managed to pull off one successful dribble between them, and had just 99 touches altogether – to put that into context, Andy Robertson, Liverpool’s left-back, had 128.
The Reds sorely needed one of their more central players to offer up something more than just intensity with their running, and it was quite telling that Liverpool looked a whole lot more dangerous when Naby Keita took to the field. The Guinea international completed all three of his attempted dribbles, and in the second-half, the Reds racked up 17 total shots on goal, compared to just the seven in the first.
Whilst Klopp has clearly found a formula that works, Wijnaldum and Oxlade-Chamberlain’s lack of creativity showed exactly where FSG must look to strengthen this Liverpool squad in the summer.
And despite missing out on striker Timo Werner to Chelsea, there may just be another position the Reds could do with some reinforcements.
