Liverpool are finally feeling the Coutinho effect

Liverpool’s Premier League title bid is suffering because of a failure to replace Philippe Coutinho.

It’s taken a while, over 12 months in fact, but Liverpool are finally feeling the Coutinho effect. Failing to adequately replace Philippe Coutinho, the classy No. 10 sold to Barcelona in January 2018, is threatening to derail Liverpool’s bid to win the Premier League title.

The Reds dropped points for the second time in as many matches after a 1-1 draw away to West Ham on Monday night. Just like the draw by the same scoreline against Leicester last Wednesday, Liverpool couldn’t create enough easy chances against a packed defense.

It’s a problem borne from being without Coutinho’s flair and vision. Or more specifically, from not replacing those qualities.

Granted, Jurgen Klopp’s attempts to offset the sale of Coutinho haven’t been helped by injuries. Perma-crocked Adam Lallana returned to the starting XI against the Hammers, but aside from a few neat touches, he showed understandable rust.

Injury has also robbed the league leaders of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. The former Arsenal man’s ability to carry the ball forward through midfield and eye for a pass are sorely lacking in central areas for Klopp’s men.

His ongoing absence makes it doubly strange Klopp continues to leave Xherdan Shaqiri on the bench. The Switzerland international can unlock a defense, even if his best efforts often come from the flanks.

What Liverpool miss is ample craft and magic in the middle. Injured pair Jordan Henderson and Georginio Wijnaldum have struggled to provide enough of either, and so have summer recruits Fabinho and Naby Keita.

The problem was vividly illustrated during an artless display against West Ham, who out-performed the visitors in the creative department:

A deficiency manufacturing simple scoring opportunities is wasting the possession Liverpool have still enjoyed sans Coutinho:

When you only score once from 11 attempts, it speaks to the difficult nature of many of those chances.

Replacing the defense-splitting brilliance Coutinho made his forte at Anfield has prompted Klopp into some uncomfortable changes.

The most obvious ploy to compensate has seen Klopp drop Roberto Firmino deeper. He’s been moved out of the middle of the forward line and into a more withdrawn role.

Firmino has been playing off free-scoring Mohamed Salah, who has been shifted from the wing and made into a central striker.

While the switch has yielded some success, it’s also meant the dissolution of the familiar front three that carried Liverpool to last season’s Champions League final.

At the time, appearing in the signature game on the European club calendar made it look like Liverpool didn’t miss Coutinho. In fact, combined with the £142 million he fetched, money used to acquire Virgil van Dijk, offloading Coutinho looked like faultless business.

It wasn’t like the Reds needed him since Firmino, Salah and Sadio Mane could combine so effortlessly, as well as having the individual talent to make goals for themselves.

Yet ruining this dynamic to solve a growing lack of creativity has made Liverpool suddenly shot shy more than a year on:

It’s a problem Coutinho’s deft touches and cultured passing would solve. No midfielder currently at Klopp’s disposal can match the range of passes the Brazil international used to supply for the Reds.

A telling moment during the first half of the stalemate against the Hammers helped illustrate what Liverpool are missing without Coutinho. It came when Keita won the ball at the tip of midfield.

The ex-RB Leipzig star had two runners in front of him, Firmino and Salah. He chose to try and find the latter, but the pass was rushed and heavy, lacking the precision to roll between defenders.

An easy block by the West Ham back four followed. It summed up the lack of ingenuity blighting Liverpool’s attacking prowess at a critical time during the title race.

Staying ahead of Manchester City is no easy task, especially when the champions continue to score for fun. The Citizens have maintained their goal rush because of what they have that Liverpool don’t, namely a deep contingent of creative maestros in midfield.

David Silva and Kevin De Bruyne carry the load, but Bernardo Silva and Ilkay Gundogan can also be counted on to chip in. How Klopp would love to have this many options he could rely on to supply the passes and chances Coutinho once crafted.

Defensive concerns will also weigh on the Liverpool manager’s mind, as Trent Alexander-Arnold, Dejan Lovren and Joe Gomez deal with injuries. Yet it’s the absence of imagination from midfield areas that’s more likely to cost the Reds arguably their best chance to end a wait for a first top-flight title in almost thee decades.