This weekend in the Premier League, Liverpool’s defense let them down again against Swansea, Pep Guardiola was left to rue refereeing decisions against Tottenham and Arsenal edged Burnley in a thriller. In our weekly roundtable, FanSided’s soccer staff share their reactions.
Liverpool’s defense lets them down again
James Dudko, @JamesDudko
Liverpool’s shaky defense being the bane of their challenge for the Premier League title is hardly new news, even if not many would have thought relegation-threatened Swansea would score three goals to win at Anfield. An inability to keep clean sheets has plagued Liverpool all season. The real news is how manager Jurgen Klopp can’t do a damn thing about it.
Klopp’s hands are tied when it comes to improving his defense because of the one thing his squad doesn’t have. Namely, a calming influence. There apparently aren’t any Rudyard Kipling fans in Klopp’s Liverpool team. No players who live by the line: “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you … ”
There’s no eye of the storm in this squad. Instead, this season’s Liverpool know only one speed, one action. It’s to run. And run and run and run.
If you want a shorthand reason for why the Reds remain so vulnerable defensively, look no further than Klopp’s Gegenpressing strategy and the players who execute it. When 10 outfield payers approach their pressing in such a frenzy it’s no wonder there are so many gaps behind them.
Nobody’s suggesting Liverpool boast otherwise quality defenders let down by a gung-ho strategy. There’s no Sami Hyypia or Alan Hansen holding down the fort for Klopp. His back five struggles because Ragnar Klavan is out of his depth in England’s top flight, because Dejan Lovren is inconsistent, because James Milner is a game professional but he’ll never be an accomplished left-back, because Nathaniel Clyne has forgotten defending is still part of the job description for any full-back.
However, lamenting the personnel is too simple an indictment of Liverpool’s shoddy defensive record this season. The bigger problem is the lack of protection from midfield. Or more accurately, the absence of a midfielder with the right temperament to shield a back four.
There’s no holding player in the middle of the park for this Liverpool. Instead, there are runners, relentless energizer bunnies who don’t stop running long enough to notice when a gap needs filling at the back.
Actually, Klopp’s midfield contingent resemble greyhounds with one track minds. Jordan Henderson, Emre Can and Georginio Wijnaldum are more like terriers given the order to kill (or press, in gegen parlance).
The problem is there’s no recall word for these terriers. There’s also no inclination among the trio to stay back and hold a position at the base of midfield and in front of beleaguered center-backs. Claude Makelele these guys ain’t.
The irony is Klopp knows exactly the type of midfielder he needs. He used to have one at Borussia Dortmund. Nobody pressed quite like Klopp’s Dortmund because no midfield runners had the freedom Sven Bender allowed them. He was the de facto third centre-back who supplemented the defense while the rest of Klopp’s midfield hunted the ball in packs.
Yet there isn’t any stabilizing force in Liverpool’s squad. Lucas Leiva isn’t it, no matter how many times he fills in at the heart of defense.
Without the right holding player, there will continue to be too many gaps in front of the back four for teams who bypass the press with direct passing, the way Swansea did, to exploit. Klopp’s system won’t work until he finds a midfield anchor to direct those chasing canines back when the defenders need some help.
Questions remain for Guardiola after Tottenham draw
Rory Masterson, @rorymasterson
In a weekend chock full of — well, absurdity seems a little strong, but given how things broke for Arsenal, Swansea and Manchester United — absurdity, what happened at the Etihad between Manchester City and Spurs staked its claim as the match most emblematic of the Premier League in 2017 thus far. Fresh off a confoundingly resonating loss to Everton the week before, City were in no position to leave anything on the table, especially at home, especially to an opponent as dynamic as Tottenham.
Pep Guardiola has never been one to take embarrassment lightly. Make no mistake, the 4-0 pounding Everton put on City last week was thorough and, indeed, nothing short of an embarrassment, particularly for such a highly-touted individual in such a highly-regarded managerial position.
While not back-breaking in terms of the table — Chelsea having probably undone any real shot at the title City had during a 3-1 victory in early December — losing that spectacularly to what many believe to be a lesser opponent, even as streaky as Everton have tended to be, was not what the City board signed up for when they nabbed Guardiola from Bayern last summer. Immediately, he had to change something.
As others have noted, many managers may have focused purely on defense, four goals being the tipping point for a change. That approach certainly makes sense; if something is wrong, you fix it to the best of your abilities, John Stone be damned.
Yet, Guardiola went the other way. 4-0 reads as four goals by the opponent but also as no goals from your own side, right? His approach for this game included tinkering with the offense. Namely, he deployed Yaya Toure primarily as a defensive midfielder, operating out of the back with an eye toward the forwards and wings scurrying ahead of him. It was a bold move, and one which yielded the opportunities City needed to score their first two (with a little help from Hugo Lloris).
Playing out of his natural position, the 33-year-old Toure played all 90 minutes, performing mostly admirably. Even he could only do so much, however. Dele Alli’s header breathed life into the Spurs cause, and Harry Kane’s impressive backheel pass to Heung-min Son for the equalizer stole the point. Defensive breakdowns allowed both.
A moment of controversy arrived just before Son’s goal. On a breakaway, with the chance to seal his team’s fate, Raheem Sterling flew into the box, got pushed, wound up and shot a weak strike directly at Lloris. Almost certainly, had Sterling fallen at the shove, he would have been awarded a penalty, and it wouldn’t have been entirely undeserved. As it was, however, he presented a strong case in favor of diving, perhaps to the detriment of future players in similar situations struggling with crises of integrity and moral value.
So now, City sit fifth, having lost to three of the four teams above them. Guardiola seemed to have cracked in the postgame presser, apologizing to his players while simultaneously defending his managerial decisions. Wouldn’t you, if you went for a contrarian method that worked all the way until it didn’t? In fairness, it was the best he could have done, but then, that may just be the problem.
What follows is an extraordinarily scorching, mercury-melting take that I present not as my own opinion, but merely to open up a possibility no one, Guardiola himself aside, seems to consider: what if Pep Guardiola simply isn’t the world-class manager his resume suggests he is?
His three senior-level managerial positions are as the head of perhaps the best club team ever assembled, in charge of the club proxy of a World Cup-winning national team and, now, with Manchester City. That 2008-2012 Barcelona run included a pair of trebles and numerous other trophies. The Bayern team, at the peak of their powers, were fresh off a Champions League title when Guardiola arrived and haven’t returned to the final since. In both cases, whispers of a too-strict adherence to style over substance escaped club walls, albeit after the fact. Guardiola has always been one to try to fit players to his style rather than vice versa.
This City side has the talent to win, and Guardiola hasn’t had the benefit of even a full year of transfer windows to pluck hand-picked stars from other clubs with the wealth behind him. His domestic successes at the previous stops give him plenty of leeway anyway, and he’s got time to go along with his remarkable reputation.
Still, with a reputation comes its dangerous cousin, hype. Guardiola himself alluded to the overblown expectations in Manchester upon his arrival, and it can’t help that his personal foil, Jose Mourinho, occupies another high seat just across town. His deal goes through 2020. If he wants to see that through, it may be worth making tactical adjustments not to his team, but to his own style.
Arsenal go old school in Burnley win
Dan Voicescu, @fiveboroball
The similarities between Arsenal and Burnley don’t go beyond their skin-tight, nipple-friendly Puma jerseys. Their respective approaches to the game are decidedly contrasting in style.
Every game involving Burnley has the throwback feel of the earlier Premier League era, a time before the continental influence began to make its mark on the English game, what with its possession-oriented, ball-on-the-ground approach.
Burnley get stuck in to tackles and take the most direct route to goal by way of the long ball. Sean Dyche’s men never saw a corner they didn’t like. They’ll buzz around pressuring opposing fullbacks and midfielders with the mentality that sprouted the saying “yes, but can they do it on a rainy night in Stoke?”
In a way, Burnley are soccer porn for the Brexit generation. Is there any doubt Nigel Farage pumps his fist in jubilation every time the Ben Mees of the world crunch into a tackle on twinkle-toed opposition forwards?
The Clarets featured only one player from continental Europe — Belgian midfielder Steven Defour — with the rest of the squad made up of English, Irish and Scottish players. These men know who they are. There’s no search for identity here, no half-measures, no dabbling into silky smooth passing and champagne football. Burnley are not here for your tiki takas. Gegenpressing is just a fancy term for what teams like the Clarets have always done: get stuck in.
As expected, Arsenal’s approach was to rely on their superior possession, shifting the point of attack to create numerical advantages on the flanks in order to penetrate the back line. The Gunners dominated possession by a ridiculous 74-26 percent margin, but in the end it was a traditional set piece that put Arsenal on top initially, and the most no-nonsense, desperate ball thrown into the mixer in the eighth minute of added time that resulted in a last-minute penalty, which brought Arsenal a dramatic victory.
So much for your modern, fancy soccer. An irony of sorts, which also serves to validate the traditionalists’ talking points. Score a victory for the progressives on the scoreboard today. However, the battle between old school British soccer values and more progressive ones continues to rage on.
The fact Arsenal’s winning penalty was won by a player in an offside position — the second time that’s happened this season, no less — will only add fuel to the fire.