Forward Line Biggest Concern for Klopp Now: John Aldridge

There’s not much left to say after yesterday’s mindnumbingly disappointing result at Anfield in which Liverpool lost their 1-0 lead against Newcastle United to an injury time goal by the visiting team. It was a game which manager Jurgen Klopp felt that the team hadn’t fought hard enough to win.

Former Liverpool great John Aldridge had some opinions, as many people do at the moment.

“What we saw against Newcastle was another snapshot of why Klopp’s team of champions have fallen from grace in alarming fashion over the last few months, with the strikers letting him down once again”, he said.

“He started with Mo Salah, Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Diogo Jota – and that level of firepower should have been more than enough to see off Newcastle.

“When Salah opened the scoring in the third minute, it ought to have paved the way for a comfortable victory, because Liverpool created enough chances to win three football matches yesterday.”

This wasn’t far from Klopp’s assessment of the game, which basically was that Liverpool create enough chances but have to “use them”.

Aldo added, “The forward line is now the biggest concern for Klopp, and he needs to do something about it.

“Liverpool have somehow gone from having three of the most feared strikers in world football to having a forward line that looks nervous, edgy and keeps snatching at chances in front of goal.

“The confidence that was rushing through their veins when times were good has evaporated. You look at Salah, Mane and, especially, Firmino and wonder whether they can get back to their brilliant best.”

He specifically highlighted his concerns over Bobby Firmino’s current form, saying that the beloved playmaker is “no longer producing the goods to justify his place in the team”, and that Liverpool need to sign a top-quality goal scorer like Erling Haaland.

Like I said, everyone has a lot of opinions about Liverpool at the moment, considering our spectacular fall from grace in every possible way these past couple of months. For awhile now it’s been hard to point out precisely what’s going wrong at Liverpool, other than “everything” - and what’s important is that this season come to an end already, key players return from lengthy injuries, current players get some physical and emotional rest, and the team gets to pause and reset.