A Club With Egyptian Flair and A Dose of Inconsistency

Some of us feel like we’re seeing a club that is inconsistent lately — or really, all season. For many of us, it’s just another normal campaign. 

The Reds are slotted right into the fourth place spot. They’re an offensive juggernaut and a liability on defense. So, the position they find themselves in now, makes sense for their form over the course of the season so far.

Liverpool gets their majority of the chances against the lesser clubs. When not possessing the ball, they feverishly work to get it back. This could be a cause for the inconsistent run of form we find so often in stretches throughout the year. Sure, it’s simple when you can run around a dismal opposition, but what about when you play against athletes who can either matchup, or are just downright faster and more talented than you are.

You can’t expect the likes of Lovren or even Klavan to keep up with certain types of offense. Even gifted, young fullbacks such as Gomez are hard-pressed to challenge attackers. If there’s one thing that has been at the core of the Red’s issues, it’s been their back line; and for some time now it has been a serious problem.

Let’s mention some of the players worth noting recently.

While he hasn’t had a whole lot to do lately (in part because of not being in the lineup every match), Mignolet has seemed a bit more confident between the rails. Against Bournemouth, Simon didn’t have to work too much, but did make one or two important stops to help his teammates complete the rout of the Cherries. As long as he can be smart with the ball and aggressive with coming out for saves, he can be our clear number one goalkeeper. 

With the rumors still circulating with no end in sight until he finally decides to leave, Coutinho still continues to make a great impression in one of the most difficult leagues in the world. After hitting a post off of another free-kick opportunity and weaving through the defense for a cracker of a goal yesterday, he’s definitely one of the most dangerous playmakers around. It would be miracle if he was still here after next summer.

Checking back in on Ox, it seems like nothing much has changed since his first few games. It looks like Klopp has been putting his latest acquisition on the starting sheet to get him more playing time, but it hasn’t seemed to pay dividends just yet.

What I’ve noticed from the pacy winger now, contrasts what I saw almost every time I would catch him out on the pitch for Arsenal. Specifically, when OC came into the match as a sub, he seemed more threatening than he has since wearing an all-red kit. He has been making bad passes and crosses since coming to Merseyside though, which is something he was in a bad habit of doing while at Arsenal too. The main difference here though, seems to be his level of threatening abilities. He just hasn’t found his best form yet for his new club. If Ox is supposed to be here as a result of fitting into our system, then surely he needs to start showing it.

I’ll end with Mo Salah. Anfield might be seeing its best scorer right now since Luis Suarez. A couple months ago, it might have been too early to say something like that, but it’s true. 

The recently awarded “African Player of the Year” has been scoring a goal nearly every game and he isn’t even expected to be a striker. Who would have thought that after getting Sturridge and seeing him score these last few years, only to see Salah filling that role now with Sturridge on the bench? 

I recently found out that Salah used to struggle with finishing; that he used to sob after games in which he missed multiple chances even if his team won. Now, even when missing a couple, he still seems to get his goal sooner or later. It is the hard work that has led him to gain massive amounts of confidence to sustain a goal-scoring form.

If Sturridge or Coutinho was the best transfer by Rodgers, then Mo is the best transfer so far under Klopp’s spell as manager.

Source Photo Credit: media.guim.co.uk