John Barnes explains Liverpool ‘teething problems’ and…

John Barnes explains Liverpool ‘teething problems’ and how they can be solved

John Barnes has cited a more technical midfield as the reason for Liverpool’s defensive ‘teething problems’ after Wednesday’s defeat at Napoli.

The Reds were pulled apart at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, eventually losing 4-1 after finding themselves 3-0 down at half-time. Piotr Zielinski’s brace bookended goals from Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa and Giovanni Simeone, with Luciano Spalletti’s side the beneficiaries of lacklustre defending.

The home side enjoyed great success in exposing the high-line that has been so successful during Jurgen Klopp’s tenure, and the ease at which the likes of Victor Osimhen and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia were able to run in behind called into question the high-risk tactic. But former Liverpool midfielder Barnes explained how changes slightly further up the pitch are leaving the back-line vulnerable.

"If you look at the way we play, the midfield is our engine room,” Barnes told BonusCodeBets . “The midfield is why we play as well as we do. The midfield is why Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson can attack at the same time. Why do they do that? It’s because we have a hard working midfield.

“We normally have had a very strong defensive midfield lineup which then means our full-backs can attack and then the midfield supplements the full-backs attacking. Now we have a much more technical midfield in terms of Harvey Elliott and Carvalho, which means that the back four, who are a very good back four, but they’re not getting as much protection as they were in the past.

“I think ultimately if you look at what we’ve done in the last two or three years, we’ve had three Fabinhos, three Jordan Hendersons, three James Milners. You don’t have to be the best technical players for Liverpool in midfield, you just have to work hard and defend well when everyone attacks. You’d get the attacking from the full backs and the front three.

“If you’re going to attack with two full backs and the front three, you can’t just leave the back two to defend so you needed three hard-working midfielders. We’ve moved forward from that in terms of having creative midfield players and there’s a balance between the full-backs attacking and the midfield players defending to supplement that. This isn’t where we want to be at the moment.

“So, yeah we’re going through some teething problems but we’ll be fine.”

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