‘Do the work’: Danny Murphy believes Liverpool need to improve in one area after watching them in the Premier League
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Liverpool have had one of their worst starts to a season in recent memory.In the Premier League, they head into the Aston Villa game at the weekend on a run of four straight losses, with their 3-0 EFL Cup defeat to Crystal Palace their sixth defeat in seven.It seems unprecedented that a team managed by Arne Slot, who just won the league title last season, has now capitulated into a side that has lost the very components that made them so dominant.Join our newsletter for news & smart analysis. Liverpool’s midfield lacks the correct balance and control to see them through games, while their defence has been nothing short of shambolic for the majority of the games this season.How this could happen so soon after the brilliant debut Slot season is anyone’s guess, and even the transfers made in the summer have not really helped to bolster the side in the way fans expected.Photo by Liverpool FC/Liverpool FC via Getty ImagesDanny Murphy criticises Liverpool’s work off the ballFans and pundits alike have been trying to wrap their heads around exactly why there has been such a shift with Danny Murphy now noticing one thing that Liverpool have been so poor at this season.Speaking to talkSPORT, the former Red explained that watching the team this year, he has noticed how poor their work off the ball has been, contributing to their run of defeats in the league this season.READ MORE: John Aldridge left baffled after Arne Slot’s Liverpool decision vs Crystal PalaceIt is a problem that has been very prevalent, and it seems there has been no solution to it, with many of the players not finding space or creating openings that they would so smoothly create last year.Murphy used the 3-2 Brentford defeat as an example of where it can be spotted and why it needs to change.“Their work without the ball is not tenacious enough,” he said“Second in the tackles, second-to-second balls, let’s say, losing headers, getting knocked off the ball too easily, just things we didn’t see last season.
It wasn’t just at the weekend, it’s been happening most weeks.“I mean, I don’t know if you saw the game but do you remember when the right back went on the run from his own right back position and ended up in the left wing position? And I was watching it thinking, that can’t be right.
He’s flying past people, people not getting after him or winning the tackle.“(Against Brentford?) Yeah, it doesn’t matter how good you are with the ball and how many chances you make, if you’re not at it without the ball, and to be at it without the ball, you don’t have to be six feet two and 15 stone and win every tackle. You just have to do the work and not be lazy.”Liverpool are struggling with physicality this yearWhat seems to be such a problem with the work off the ball is the lack of physicality from the starting XI, no matter who is in their team.Clear examples of new players like Florian Wirtz being pushed around with ease have been frustrating to see, but it is when Virgil van Dijk is being outmuscled that the problem is laid bare.This side cannot get a grip on the fact that the opposition are finally putting them under pressure, which they were not able to do last year.How that can be sorted is two-fold, with work off the ball improving and the need to find control, because once Liverpool have that, they can become unplayable.