Reds Must React To Hammers Defeat
Liverpool’s disappointing defeat to West Ham on Saturday angered Jurgen Klopp and many of their huge support. The Hammers were worthy winners as Liverpool struggled against another physical team.
The Reds have struggled in recent times against teams that play a physical style of football, recently Watford, West Brom, Crystal Palace and Newcastle have all taken points off Klopp’s team and tonight’s Capital One semi-final first-leg tie against Stoke City will provide another tough physical test.
Mark Hughes’ team still have the attributes of Tony Pulis’ Stoke but now have some tremendous quality attacking players making them a better team and more difficult to play against.
Jurgen Klopp is struggling for options with his threadbare squad that is decimated with injuries, but the German will still expect a reaction from his players after another disappointing performance at the weekend.
Christian Benteke has suffered the most criticism after the West Ham defeat but he is the only fit striker in Klopp’s squad and he is likely to lead the attack once again.
He just doesn’t look suited to Klopp’s style of play and as long as Liverpool play without any wingers that can supply crosses, then Benteke will struggle.
Benteke is left isolated too often with players like Coutinho, Lallana and Firmino failing to run beyond the Belgian striker, but for all his criticism he is still scoring some vital goals for the team.
Liverpool are still vulnerable at crosses defensively and teams are picking on our small full-backs, Clyne and Moreno to take advantage of their lack of height.
Although Liverpool are still vulnerable defensively, they are looking more solid than earlier in the season and the team’s biggest problem is creating and scoring chances and Klopp will be hoping that changes tonight at Stoke.
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