Analysing the opening day of the Premier League season, with Arsenal maintaining their upward curve and Leeds impressing even in defeat at champions Liverpool
Ahead of their season-opener against Leeds, Jurgen Klopp promised Liverpool would “attack” their Premier League title defence and that they certainly lived up to those words in their 4-3 victory. Mohamed Salah’s hat-trick eventually sealed victory, but it couldn’t disguise the issues Klopp’s side have at the rear .
Trent Alexander-Arnold and Joe Gomez were exposed on variety of occasions by Leeds, while the usually reliable Virgil van Dijk produced a costly error as once more the defensive frailties that had crept in towards the top of last season were exposed. Liverpool have now conceded 3+ goals in back-to-back home league games for the primary time since September 1982 and Klopp knows his defenders must improve if they’re to retain the title.
“It is pretty rare you see that a lot of goals during a game, we’ve left space for improvement in our defending but that’s commonplace for a primary game. The opponent forced us to form mistakes, we will do better, we’ll do better.”
But will that improvement come from the players already has at his disposal? Or will the German be forced into the transfer market to inject some new blood into his back line?
Liverpool are already a centre-back down after Dejan Lovren’s departure this summer, but Klopp insisted before the sport he had enough options at centre-back, even talking up Fabinho within the role. However, Liverpool’s defensive performance within the season opener may have changed his mind.
