Everyone was hoping for a reaction on Sunday after Liverpool produced an out-of-character performance in the Europa League.
One of the strong points of Jurgen Klopp’s reign as Liverpool manager has been his quite incredible record at Anfield.
There came a point when Virgil van Dijk went 70 games without losing on home soil, now he has lost back-to-back matches, including 1-0 to Crystal Palace to dent the team’s Premier League title chances.
Matters were made worse, or morale was boosted, depending on how you see it, when hours later, Arsenal went on to lose to Aston Villa.
Say what you want, it’s deserved defeat and everyone donning Liverpool colours has to take it on the chin because it simply hasn’t been good enough.
One of the main reasons behind the team faltering during such a crucial period of the season is because they have forgotten how to score goals.
In recent weeks, even though Mohamed Salah has returned from injury, things just seem to be getting worse and worse in front of goal.
So much so that, the Reds are in company they simply don’t want to be in and it has left Theo Walcott very surprised, as he told Premier League Productions (15/04/24 at 11:10 pm).
Since the start of March, only Brighton and relegation-threatened Everton have a worse shot conversation rate than those on the red half of Merseyside.
Walcott was a goalscorer during his day, but also someone who was heavily criticised when missing a number of big chances, so he understands what these Liverpool players are currently going through.
Liverpool’s shot conversion rate
“This is absolutely stunning, since the start of March, Liverpool have the third-lowest shot conversion rate in the entire Premier League, Theo,” said Steve Bower.
Walcott responded: “We are talking about Liverpool football club. Players who have graced the field like Michael Owen and Jari Litmanen, who was a fantastic finisher back in the day. That’s how old I am as well.
“It’s not a good stat for Liverpool to have. Again, it just shows the patterns that, look they have players who can score goals, but when it doesn’t happen, they need to be a bit more focused on those situations and actually really start to put people to the sword here. They are going for the title. They need to up those stats, that’s for sure!”
Mohamed Salah and Diogo Jota need to start together
Yes, Atalanta are 3-0 up after that shock first-leg win, but Klopp simply has to go for it in Italy and still believe the team can qualify for the semi-finals of the Europa League.
Salah was on the bench for the first leg, and so was the returning Diogo Jota, but this is where they need to start together again.
Imagine if the players can pull this off and win, the belief and confidence that would spread through the club would be incredible.
There is still a long way to go on all fronts here and, it hasn’t been Klopp’s mentality to give in, and he can’t stop now!