Jurgen Klopp must solve tactical issue to fully…

Jurgen Klopp must solve tactical issue to fully unleash promising Liverpool partnership

It could have all been so different. Liverpool’s performance against Leeds United on Saturday was undoubtedly well below their own high standards yet they still had opportunities to win the game.

The biggest of them all occurred mid-way through the second half. In the final 70 minutes of the match there was just one clear-cut chance (in the opinion of Opta) and it fell to the Reds. Mohamed Salah’s section in the post-match player ratings noted he had “some good link-up play with [Darwin] Nunez,” and it was this combination which produced the moment in question.

A ball forward from Trent Alexander-Arnold wasn’t collected cleanly by Salah, but he regained possession when Liam Cooper didn’t deal with the situation either. The Egyptian played a pass inside to Nunez but sadly his shot was blocked by Illan Meslier, one of nine saves the Leeds goalkeeper made to help his side to a famous victory.

Salah has created five clear-cut chances this season and four of them have been for Liverpool’s summer signing from Benfica. They also combined in the Community Shield, at Craven Cottage, and in the 2-0 Anfield win over Rangers. No other link-up has more than two, and one of the three Nunez has set up was for Salah (also against Fulham), giving them five as a pair.

However, as they are now playing closer together than ever before, thanks to Jurgen Klopp’s latest formation shift, it’s hard not to wonder if they should be offering even more as a duo.

That’s a harsh question considering their record together, in fairness. Things might feel very different had any of the five Nunez-Salah clear-cut chances been converted. But with Liverpool struggling for form, and previously key creative players like Alexander-Arnold offering relatively little at present, an even better partnership between the forward pair could be vital.

The key for Klopp will be to strike the right balance. While average positions have to be taken with a pinch of salt, against Ajax the front two in the Reds’ diamond formation were very close together. Despite this, they didn’t exchange a single pass, much less create a chance.

As both scored, does it matter? Perhaps not, but data shows that Liverpool are not converting their quality of possession into anything like the level of goal scoring chance which they should be. Take the match in Amsterdam, for instance. Per FBRef, the Reds’ possession value equated to 2.1 expected goals against the defending Dutch champions, but they only generated 1.6 xG from it. A drop of 0.5 doesn’t sound like much but frame it as nearly a quarter of the total and it doesn’t look so insignificant.

This obviously isn’t entirely on Nunez, Salah or any one individual player, of course. Is it time to utter the dreaded ‘s’ word, selfish, though? Accusations of not passing to teammates have dogged Liverpool’s number 11 for years, most famously since an incident with Sadio Mane at Turf Moor in 2019. It would need a video review (or the pitch control model utilised by the analysts at the club) to get the truth but it feels odd that the Reds’ front two didn’t connect at all against Ajax.

Each played four passes to the other at Anfield last weekend, where they were further apart but also closer to goal on average. Perhaps that is the key, and perhaps after more than two games together as a front two – assuming Klopp intends to continue with this formation – their relationship will improve naturally. It’s a weird one, though, where Nunez and Salah seem to either create clear-cut chances together or nothing much at all. Until they find consistency, questions regarding their compatibility will remain.

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