Jamie Carragher has called Liverpool’s top line woes “suicide football”, with adjustments needed at a time when off-the-ball intensity is non-existent, as was the case at Napoli.
The Reds have set the benchmark for other teams in recent years, but so far this season Liverpool have been a shadow of their former selves.
And they were left exposed again in Napoli, with the lack of pressure on the ball inviting the Italian side to exploit the high line, having plenty of time and space to do so.
Jurgen Klopp has said that the “problem is not the high line”, it is the lack of intensity to make it work, a point Carragher agreed with, but re-emphasized the need to adapt.
In his postgame analysis for CBS Sport, Carragher evaluated the positioning of Joe Gomez, Virgil van Dijk and Joel Matip, who tried to hold the line when there was a forward-facing runner and the ball carrier had time and space.
“It’s the actual performances probably more than the results that I’m worried about at the moment…”@Carra23 thinks Liverpool’s high-risk style is working against them. pic.twitter.com/B8HBzY1SAA
— UCL at Paramount+? (@CBSSportsGolazo) September 7, 2022
“This is a problem for Liverpool, the high line, they’re not really pressing the ball,” the former Liverpool centre-back said.
“Liverpool play a high-risk game but they are not really pressing the ball to stop the high-risk game and they are causing themselves a problem.
“The height of your line is not a problem, it is about being compact, being together. But when someone has time on the ball, you can’t slow down.
“It’s too easy to get through the Liverpool midfield, that didn’t happen before, so you could play high up the line and be really compact, if that doesn’t happen you have to adapt.
“People can criticize me, even Liverpool fans, because this team is fantastic, this is what they have done and they have had great success, but I am only talking about five yards.
“I’m not talking about a Liverpool going back ten, 15, 20 meters.
“It’s embarrassing. It really is,” Carragher said of the defensive line in the run-up to Napoli’s fourth goal.
“I said before that it’s child’s play and this is the big problem with Liverpool at the moment. They have built their success on intensity on the ball, which means the opposition cannot lift their heads to pass the ball.
“So your team is always tight. Always very compact. Sometimes [there’s a] risk, but you’re getting energy on the ball, but that energy isn’t there now, so the back four have to adapt and they have to go back three or four yards.
“That’s all we’re talking about. But if they keep playing [like] that they are going to have a big problem in terms of the Premier League this season and qualifying for the next round of the Champions League, because that is suicidal football”.
And Carragher also won’t be alone in asking if “this is a massive downfall physically because of what’s happened in the last five or six years, the way they’ve played, how intense they’ve been. And can this team get it back?
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