This is my biggest worry. Defensively we are shambolic and at present i don't see how that changes drastically as some of the biggest issues look likely to remain going into next season.
Mignolet although he has improved still doesn't look good enough or seem to inspire confidence. This new hoof it clear tactic is painful to watch at times. I cant see him not being our keeper next season personally.
Our best CB seems so injury prone as does his first choice partner so should we bring in a new one, it still looks to be constant rotation at CB.
Milners been good but isnt a left back and will be a year older in the new season, i can't see us bringing in 2 new LB's and we dont seem to have any young LB's doing a TAA and knocking on the door for the first team
Right back i think is strong, i rate Clyne more than most seem to and although he could improve going forward at the back i think he's very good
We have so many issues at the back and i wonder what Klopps plan is for the summer. I cant think of many attainable CB's who would improve our defence enough for us to progress massively defensively. I'd love us to look strong at the back but its honestly been so long since we did
I think our best shot would be to try to sign one of the best younger centre backs. I am thinking of someone like Jonathan Tah, although he himself may be out of reach. A swap deal involving Sakho might get us a more experienced top class defender, but it would be difficult, given our current status.
But just having some depth would make a big difference for us, since, when Matip and Lovren partner each other, the partnership is generally functional and okay. The issue is that you can't expect them both to always be fit, and the loss of either one reduces us to a pathetic level. So even just having someone better than Lovren and on par with or better than Matip, leaving Lovren as 3rd choice, would be a huge boost not only in terms of raising the level of our first XI but in terms of ensuring that our back two is functional even in the event of injury to one of the first choicers.
As for the rest of the defence, I think it would make a big difference to have a deep lying midfielder who is better tactically and generally a better defender than Henderson is. Henderson could then play a different role, or it could be a case of rotating them or playing one as box-to-box and the other a little deeper or whatever. Having proper cover for the defence would probably make the entire defence look like it's a level better, when the reality is that they have more time to organise thanks to the midfielders ahead of them.
So even if we don't change the goalkeeper, I think we could theoretically do a lot to move from being a team that concedes 45-50 a season in the league alone, to maybe one that concedes a more palatable 38-40ish.
The question is, will we do the necessary transfer business to make it possible? At the moment, our defensive personnel are, collectively, mid-table.
