Jürgen Klopp Knows Why Liverpool’s Defence Struggled to Start the Season

Photo by John Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images

The manager says it was only ever about needing a bit of time for everyone to get back on the same page.

Liverpool started the 2019-20 season looking unexpectedly shaky at the back, but against Arsenal over the weekend there certainly appeared to be an improvement, and according to manager Jürgen Klopp, that’s hardly a surprise to him.

That’s because he says team preparations for the current season were impacted by the summer tournaments that meant many first team stars weren’t back until the new season had nearly begun. Or: they all just needed a little bit of time.

“As a team you can lose it,” the manager noted, “defending as a unit and stuff like that. You have a break and you come back and have to start again. You can lose what you had before, as a team, and so you have to work on it again as a team.”

Now, with another full week to prepare his players for Burnley and then an international break that will give them—or at least the players not on duty with their national teams—more time to prepare, things should only keep getting better.

“It’s not about the last line,” Klopp added. “It’s a [team] thing, defending in the Premier League. We worked hard, like we always do—but this week we had the time to do it. From a defending point of view, it was for sure the best game.”

Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com