A true 6 would be nice, for starters. I think many of our defensive issues stem from a lack of players in that position, or players in that position who shouldn't really be playing every match / are still adjusting to the league (like Endo). Saying that Klopp plays without this kind of players is nonsense. Just look at Fabinho.
Our four best seasons under Klopp, August 2018 to June 2022, were also prime Fabinho.
Klopp's first two years the team was open, conceding easy chances but scoring plenty too, games were rollercoasters, none more so than 5-4 at Norwich.
We then made three key signings. Virgil in Jan '18, followed by Fabinho and Ali in summer '18. We became watertight from then on.
As brilliant as Virgil was for us in those first six months, and he was superb, we were still open (not as much, but still open). The games vs Roma (7-6 agg), had that semi gone on another 10 minutes, it would have gone to extra time and then it was anybody's (with such momentum it's likely we wouldn't have got to Kiev).
The disaster in goal was replaced with Ali, so that was an enormous upgrade.
But of all three changes, for me the biggest difference has always been Fabinho. He plugged the midfield, the leakages stopped, and the workload on our backline (and gk) fell. "The lighthouse" moniker was apt, as he was the one, being in such a pivotal position on the field, in the zone where alot of attacks are initiated, who saw danger and put it out.
In the 20 to 21 season, we were top of the league at Christmas despite having no senior centre backs. In the midst of that disgraceful transfer window from the owners, Jurgen decides to move Fabinho (and Hendo) into central defence, and suddenly, without the midfield protection, we start losing games on the spin (6 in total). He then moves them back into midfield. And we then put Rhys Williams and Nat Phillips into centre half (not exactly Baresi and Beckenbauer), and we go in title winning form. The midfield, namely Fabinho as the DM, closed off the danger at source, so the stuff the centre backs were having to deal with was the basics (crosses into the box, bread and butter clearances), without a Fabinho infront of them they'd have got rinsed (without a Didi Hamann infront of an infinitely superior Carragher and Hyppia in Istanbul they did get rinsed, with Kaka given the freedom to slide balls through them at will, a supply to the forwards that was only cut off when the Kaiser came on at half time).
The 22 to 23 season, Virgil was still there, Ali was still there, but we became as open (in fact even more open) as pre 2018. The difference was Fabinho, his collapse. All of a sudden the backline was massively overworked, Ali had never been busier (i'd guess he made more astonishing saves that season than the previous 4 together). The easy access to our final third, which was not there for the previous four years, was shocking, we fell off a cliff as Fabinho fell off a cliff.
What I find most staggering is Klopp's oversight on this. His teams press high, which leaves us exposed on the counter, making it extra imperative to have a top class DM putting out fires (ie. Fabinho "the lighthouse" for four years) when teams break. A compact team (for example Rafa), where the midfielders stay close to each other, that need (while still there) isn't as glaring. Without that key component Klopp's team doesn't function, which has been the case for four seasons, two seasons either side of having a top class DM. When asked about the lack of mobility in the 6 this year he said the midfield would have to "stay close to each other", ie. babysit the 6 so as not to expose him, but that is completely counter to his game, one based on risk where the DM then takes up the slack.
Every player on a team is a "defender", for instance the striker putting pressure on the opposition defender who has the ball (Ian Rush I always thought was our best offensive defender the way he harried the backline), but the first
actual defender, the person whose prime job it is to stop attacks against us, is the defensive midfielder, and he is the one who exerts the most influence by stopping them at source.
The first thing that should be looked at when someone says "the defence wasnt good", is the DM. He is the first port of call in the defensive unit. It's why when building a defence, the first position you get right is the DM. With what could be generously considered a championship level centre back pairing (Rhys Williams and Nat Phillips) we could well have won a league title with them had Fabinho not been moved from DM when he was. Real Madrid, with all those stars in the back line, in midfield, and attack, yet when Makelele left they became flaky, ie. wide open, as the DM, the only who holds the thing together, was gone. All the players maligned that sale, he was not "glamorous"; the role isnt glamorous, but its crucial.
Kante, has there been a more influential player over the past 10 years? Leicester, Chelsea, and France, the first two league champions, the latter world champions, and it goes without saying he was crucial to that happening. Wes Morgan and Robert Huth, again not exactly a quality CB pairing (maybe lower mid table?) yet they have a league winners medal in their cupboard. Everytime they take it out to look at they should be thanking the elite DM who screened anything that happened infront of them, as without him the only thing they'd have had to look back on was a battle in staying up. Paul Pogba, without Kante doing all his defensive work he would never have got the freedom or platform to do what he did with France.
The Roy Evans team, the one player we never had was a DM. We were entertaining to watch, too entertaining, as that midfield was wide open. Barnes and Redknapp (or Michael Thomas) in central midfield, it's no bleedin wonder we never got to the next level. United had Roy Keane. The season where Roy Keane was out for the season United didn't win the league.
