We really are missing Clyne and Lallana. What were people thinking when they were asking for Clyne to be replaced last season? He's our best defender and why were they only looking at his attacking capabilities and taking his defensive expertise for granted? It is not easy to defend that well in our system as is proven by every other defender playing for us in the last few years. Also he did create a lot of chances, I think he was top 5 for most chances created by a defender in the league. He's a massive loss.
And we're missing Lallana, not only in terms of having the midfield to control the game, but because he's a total leader in the middle of the park when it comes to initiating pressing. Against Sevilla, watching Can trying to initiate pressing was really hard to take because it was so uncoordinated and in two or three passes they were able to go behind the lines.
They're massive reasons as to why our defense looks worse this season even though we improved off season by signing Robertson and having Gomez back from injury
1) The key to this is to try Milner at RB, at least we won't be as open as now and we will at least be as solid as last season at LB. Gomez is suspended for the next CL game. This is a risky situation we're in, that we have to rely on two youngsters, one just back from a long injury and another a teenager. Absence of Clyne is something that we didn't forsee last season, so Milner could be an answer. That helps in two areas. Gives us more depth at RB and we can also start to use Gomez more as a CB option, which we desperately need. I'm not sure if Klopp has thought about it, but he did answer a question in the press-conference talking about playing Milner back at LB if needed.
2) The second idea I would like to see implemented is to start trying out Robertson as our first option at LB and have Moreno as cover. Moreno definitely looks better now, but is still rash at moments which could be costly. We have to eliminate as many mistakes from our defense before Clyne is back and we sign another CB in the next couple of transfer windows. Starting Robertson could help, he has decent defensive numbers when it comes to anticipation and can be dangerous going forward with his crosses.
3) I don't see why we have to buy a new GK, I can't understand why there are so many calls. I'm surprised about calls for LB as well. We have 3 GKs, and we just bought a LB. I definitely believe that in time the plan is to get Karius more and more time on the pitch and eventually get him to No. 1. It has to be slower than Klopp expected of course because of the pressure that the fans place and the time required for Karius to adjust to the league. In the long term, I'm feeling good about Karius becoming No. 1 because he is the opposite of Mignolet. His mistakes were not due to lack of confidence, but due to over confidence at times thinking that he had more time on the ball than he did. He is good with passing the ball, he throws the ball quickly to launch attacks (which Mignolet hardly does, he waits till the dust settles) and he is good one-on-ones. He has started to command his area as well, against Sevilla he was comfortable claiming high balls and making long punches and apart. He made really good saves against Southampton in the Cup last season in both legs which often gets forgotten, two great games and a few other good games with no goal conceded due to him/his errors but two games of mistakes (Bournemouth and West Ham) get remembered as if they were the norm. They weren't in Germany and they won't be here as well in time.
So, we have the answers to RB, LB and GK in our squad - it may take a bit of time to come to fruit, but I'm confident. The major problem we have is CB options and though we did try to address, we failed in the summer and we should address it asap. We definitely need one more CB option. But with starting to use Karius more, Robertson as first LB and maybe Milner till Clyne comes back could all make our defense provide better results before we strengthen our CB options.
