Jurgen Klopp has a Liverpool partnership he may need…

Jurgen Klopp has a Liverpool partnership he may need to break up for good

Liverpool’s hopes of a memorable return to Istanbul for another Champions League final are in tatters after a 5-2 defeat to Real Madrid. The result meant the Reds have lost three of their last eight games in all competitions by at least three goals, when it had only occurred that many times in the 149 matches prior to that.

Similarly, the humbling by the defending champions was only the 12^th occasion where Klopp’s Liverpool have conceded at least four goals. Such games are inevitably (and unfortunately) memorable, though there have often been explanatory factors in the past.

Maybe it was Sadio Mane getting sent off in the first half at Manchester City which had an impact, or the combination of Fabinho and Jordan Henderson having to play in central defence against the same opposition in 2021. For one of the games, Klopp and his first team were in Qatar while the youngest ever Liverpool side were taken apart by a strong Aston Villa team in a cup match.

Defensive performances that plumbed these depths have been thankfully rare for a full-strength Reds team. However, a startling coincidence regarding the last four which didn’t feature midfielders at centre-back leaves Klopp with a dilemma when making his team selections for big games in future.

As well as the massacre by Madrid, Liverpool lost 4-1 in Naples earlier this season. Two years earlier they were beaten 7-2 at Villa Park, which was only 13 matches after they had taken a four-goal beating from City. In every instance, the duo of Joe Gomez and Virgil van Dijk started at centre-back.

Former Reds’ defender Jamie Carragher commented on the performance of the latter after Liverpool’s latest collapse. “Defensively, and I’m not that horrible, but Virgil van Dijk said I wouldn’t get in that back four about two months ago. I think I'd take his place at the moment,” he said.

Whether that’s a harsh or fair comment (or both) from Carragher, it has often been Gomez who has either been at fault or unlucky (or both), rather than Van Dijk. Against Madrid, he failed to close down Vinicius Junior which enabled the Brazilian to unleash a fantastic strike into the bottom corner of the Kop end net for his side’s first goal.

Carragher’s x-rated response (“F***ing hell lads. How can he get the ball in the box like that?") said it all. While the second was far from entirely Gomez’s fault, it was his less-than-ideal back pass which led to Alisson Becker’s error, then the fourth goal deflected in off the 25-year-old defender.

He was replaced by Joel Matip in the 73^rd minute, by which time Madrid had added a fifth goal. While not as early as in the previously mentioned heavy losses, there is a theme that Gomez was withdrawn long before full time on each occasion.

The former Charlton man also made way for Matip against Napoli, and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (as part of a reshuffle) at Manchester City in July 2020, both times during the interval. Gomez made it to the hour mark in the infamous loss against Villa, though as the Reds had again conceded five by that point, the bulk of the damage had already been done.

And while not the most scientific approach to assessing player performance, Liverpool’s number two was awarded two threes, a four and a five in the ECHO's post-match ratings for these four games, with van Dijk slightly better (though still not great) each time.

What makes this more dispiriting is that the duo performed so well together in 2018/19 and the Premier League title-winning campaign. Clearly how a team defends is not purely down to their defenders either. But it is getting increasingly hard to make a case that Gomez and van Dijk should ever be paired together again.

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