Jurgen Klopp needs Liverpool to improve in key area…

Jurgen Klopp needs Liverpool to improve in key area against Crystal Palace

Liverpool have raised the bar so high over the past few seasons that even the most marginal drop off becomes noticeable. That was the case on the opening day against Fulham.

Jurgen Klopp was far from happy with his team’s performance, and even referenced their attitude going into the game at Craven Cottage. That is not something you hear too often from the German these days.

A change, or rather several, will be needed for the clash against Crystal Palace tonight. Thankfully from Klopp’s point of view, he will have had more than a week to work with his players on the training ground to get things sorted out.

Klopp and his staff will certainly have taken a deeper dive onto his team’s performance against Fulham. Looking at what they did well, what they did badly, and how they can improve.

One thing that may have caught their attention is a statistic that sometimes goes unnoticed but can play a pivotal role in the outcome of matches. Aerial duels are something every team should strive to be successful at, and it’s been key to Liverpool’s success in the past.

Against Fulham, Liverpool won only 38.8% of their aerial duels (via FBref ) with 19 out of a possible 49. To put this in perspective, only twice did the Reds achieve a lower figure in that department across all of last season.

These were the 2-2 draw with Manchester City in the Premier League match last October (35.7%), while the other was the Champions League final loss to Real Madrid in Paris (36.0%).

While winning the ball in the air is not going to be the only deciding factor on whether a team wins a match, it’s hard to argue that it’s not an important tactic to get right. Plus, it’s not all about leaving it to the centre-backs and letting the rest of the team focus on when the ball is on the ground.

Going back to Fulham, only one player achieved higher than a 50% success rate in aerial duels. That was Virgil van Dijk who won six out of six to get 100%. But the same could not be said for the rest of the team.

Darwin Nunez had a 50% success rate, despite him only being on the pitch for around 40 minutes. Everyone else had a percentage of 40% or lower, much lower in the case of Joel Matip with 25%.

The injury to Ibrahima Konate certainly does not help in this department. He averaged a 70.7% success rate in aerial duels last season. Klopp will want to get his young defender back from injury as soon as possible.

Of course, there were other factors that led to Liverpool not performing well. It wasn’t all down to not winning their headers.

But when you look at how the opposition did in this department, it makes frustrating reading. Aleksandar Mitrovic won 13 out of a possible 19 aerial duels with a success rate of 65%.

Into midfield and new signing Palhinha had a success of 71.4%. And most crucially, both centre-backs - Tim Ream and Tosin Adarabioyo - won 100% of their aerial duels.

Sometimes, you just have to give credit to the opposition. Fulham were certainly better than Liverpool in this department, and one could argue that they were harshly treated not claiming all three points. Palace will provide a similar test for Liverpool. Of course, the Anfield crowd will have a big part to play, especially after the club failed to win their opening league match for the first time since 2017.

Joachim Andersen and Marc Guehi are both good in the air, and achieved an average success rate of 87.5% in aerial duels. The Liverpool forward line and midfield will have to improve significantly if they are to get the better of Patrick Vieira’s side in the air this evening.

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