Liverpool aren’t as fun as they used to be

Liverpool have enjoyed their best start to a season in years thanks to a newfound defensive solidity, but it has come at the expense of entertainment.

Win while you’re playing badly, is what they say. For much of this season it has felt like that is all Liverpool are able to do. Against Red Star Belgrade on Tuesday, they couldn’t even manage the opposite: losing while playing well.

The defeat itself, bad though it was (and it was often much worse than that), shouldn’t cause any significant reevaluation of the quality of this team, but neither is it an anomaly in the context of their season so far.

Jurgen Klopp’s side have been functional this term, good enough. And while that may qualify as an achievement in itself for a side who have for so long been too bad defensively to even daydream about workmanlike 1-0 wins, there’s only so long you can grind out good results before you grind out a bad one. Tuesday, it seems, was the day.

Sixteen games into 2018-19, and by my count the Reds have managed only three truly satisfying wins: On opening day against West Ham, at home to PSG in the Champions League and away at Tottenham.

And yet the very same 16 games into 2018-19 they’re off to their best ever start to a Premier League campaign, and still hold their Champions League fate in their own hands.

For a club who have been deprived of major silverware for over a decade, it feels not a little entitled to complain under such circumstances, but the fact remains: Liverpool aren’t as fun as they used to be.

They averaged 2.21 goals a game in the league last season, and over three a game in Europe. Those numbers are down to 1.9 and 1.75, respectively, following Tuesday’s loss. The question is why?

It might be that the front three just need a little more time to get back into form, to fully recover from their exertions at the World Cup. Roberto Firmino, in particular, hasn’t looked like his usual self.

Or maybe it’s that Klopp is still trying to settle on his best midfield. Liverpool have lacked the burst provided by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in the second half of last season, and the creativity provided by Philippe Coutinho in the first.

Naby Keita was supposed to provide a bit of both, but his transition to life in England has been slowed by injuries, and none of James Milner, Georginio Wijnaldum or this version of Adam Lallana is capable of picking up the creative slack.

Xherdan Shaqiri is an option, but when he has started, it’s usually been out wide in a 4-2-3-1, with Roberto Firmino playing as a number 10. Klopp doesn’t seem to trust him as bona fide central midfielder.

All of these factors have played some small role in Liverpool’s development into a more conservative side over the first few months of this season.

But probably none of them matters as much as Klopp himself, who seems to have concluded, at least for now, that the only way Liverpool can defend well enough to challenge for the title is to rein in the attack.

This may only be temporary. A fully fit, in-form Keita could change the picture significantly. As could another big January signing. But if this is the way it’s going to be in the meantime, permit me a little nostalgia for the recent past.