Klopp’s Liverpool Defence
In recent weeks pundits have lavished praise on Liverpool’s attacking play. The accolades going as far as labelling them “title contenders”. Arguably, their largest shortcoming is the number of goals they have conceded. Are Klopp’s defensive men starting to turn that around?
Liverpool’s free roaming midfield has cause problems for their opposition this season. A surprise statistic is that only Burnley have been able to stop them scoring in the Premier League. And, Liverpool have only dropped points to Burnley and Spurs with a 2–0 loss and a 1–1 draw respectively.
The Options
At this point in the Fantasy Premier League season most managers will have at least one Liverpool midfield option. Understandable, with the Liverpool being joint top-scorers with Man City. But, how many use a Liverpool defensive option?
Clyne is the most selected Liverpool defender with a selection percentage of 9.5%.
Milner, playing as a make shift wing-back, takes the eye of 5.5% of managers who are undoubtedly utilising his penalty-taking duties.
Lovern, the leader of the backline has a selection percentage of 3.6%.
Mignolet has been out of favour in recent matches and is selected by 2.8% of managers.
Matip, a free agent from Schalke, is the lowest scoring outfield option and features in 1.7% of teams.
Karius has the lowest selection percentage at 0.7% but has only started the last two games.
Looking Ahead
The next match for Liverpool is a Monday Night Football fixture against Man United. This is looking like their hardest fixture until GW 19, where they play Man City. Although, they do face local rivals Everton in GW17.
Liverpool’s defence is not the finished article yet. Especially with Matip and Karius still new to the Premier League. But, the signs are looking good for the backline. A testing game against Man United on Monday awaits. The run of fixtures after that look good for their first clean sheet of the season.
So far this season, Liverpool have conceded 10 goals. That’s the highest in the top 10 positions of the Premier League. But, putting that into context, 5 of those goals have been in the first two games of the season. A thrilling win over Arsenal on the opening day saw them win 4–3. But, that high was then followed by the 2–0 defeat to Burnley.
The last five games have seen Liverpool concede a single goal per game. That is despite facing Spurs, Champions Leicester and Chelsea. If you’re looking for a defensive differential then a member of the Liverpool backline could be a good option in the coming weeks.
