Liverpool’s Midfield - What’s Changed From Last Season?

It has been difficult to comprehend that after a season where these players almost became immortals, the drop-off in performances has been of similar level. Although there aren’t many in the team who have done well this time around (except for Alisson Becker), the midfield department has taken the brunt of criticism.

The way Jürgen Klopp sets his team up, the midfield has to function well for the whole system to work in a way the German wants it to. From having a steady-eddy in Gini Wijnaldum alongside Fabinho and Jordan Henderson to replacing the Dutchman with Thiago Alcântara in 2021, the boss has tried to change things in that department.

While the midfield three of Fabinho, Henderson and Thiago worked very well last season, this season was always going to be one too much for them. There was a reason why Klopp wanted to sign Aurélien Tchouaméni last summer, only for him to choose Real Madrid instead.

Below, we take a look at some of the numbers and see what has changed in the Liverpool midfield this season compared to last. From the publicly available data, I have found answers to the “what” part of the question and not the “why”. But, in doing the former, we will slowly unearth the latter.

Availability

During the 2018/19 and 2019/20 season when Liverpool accumulated 196 points from 76 league games at an average of 2.58, Wijnaldum, one of the key cogs of the midfield, was not part of the squad in only four games. So, the Dutchman was available for 94.73% of the league games over those two seasons (underrated quality).

Since the start of the 2021/22 campaign till date, Thiago, who effectively replaced Wijnaldum on the left-hand side of the midfield, has missed 24 games out of the 64. The Spaniard’s availability is currently at 62.5%. He has already missed 12 of the 26 league games this season, at almost 50% average.

If we look at the other constants - Fabinho and Henderson, they have combined to miss 16 out of the 64 games in that time. Their availability was decent during the 18/19 and 19/20 seasons as well.

Although we have seen Harvey Elliott being fit for every league game this season and he has played the second-most league minutes out of the midfielders, his presence does reduce the physical strength of the midfield. 

This is no mark on the young player who is an excellent player in possession and in counter-press recoveries (4.68 per 90, one of the best midfielders in the league for that). But, he unfortunately lacks in the physical aspect of the game.

Then there is Naby Keïta, who is an epitome of what a modern central midfielder should look like with regards to the attributes he possesses, but the injury issues never seem to relent. At this moment I won’t be surprised to see a stat suggesting he has missed more days due to injuries than being available for match-days.

So, if your best midfielder (Thiago) is missing more than 35% of the games and others are relenting in their performance levels, it is not a good combination for a midfield engine to work.