What Did We Learn From Liverpool’s Loss to Leeds? | OneFootball

The first and most important point to make is that the match against Leeds United was a pre-season friendly. That might sound like a slightly ridiculous point to labour, but too many people take pre-season results far too seriously and act as though they signify a portent of doom.

We lost three of the friendlies that we played ahead of the 2019-2020 season, drawing one other, but then went and won the Premier League at a canter. In other words, reading too much into such matches is folly. Even so, the game against Leeds was instructive, so what did we learn?

We Need More Defenders

The obvious thing that stuck out from our second-half performance is the fact that we need central defenders. The only player who lasted the 90 minutes was Ifeanyi Ndukwe, who can’t play for us next season as he can’t get a work permit, even ignoring the fact that he’s only 18. That’s the same age as Mor Talla Ndiaye, who came on as a replacement for Luke Chambers with half an hour left. Chambers himself is only 22, whilst Calvin Ramsey is a year older but entirely inexperienced. It is little wonder that we conceded four goals in a short space of time.

Virgil van Dijk hasn’t returned properly yet, whilst both Jeremy Jacquet and Giovanni Leoni remain sidelined. Add in the injury suffered to Joe Gomez in our last outing and it isn’t hard to see why it is that the Reds look light at the back. Fenway Sports Group have a history of allowing the club to go into a season needing replacements in the defence, of course, but to do so this time out would leave Andoni Iraola hamstrung before he’s even properly unpacked his boxes. The Leeds team was stronger than ours by the end, but our defence is the real area of concern.

Wirtz & Isak Could be the New Gerrard & Torres

Dan Farrimond, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Ask most Liverpool fans to name a midfield and attack combination of the past 20 years that was thrilling to watch and they will almost certainly name Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres. Although it’s far too early to be putting such a generous comparison on the shoulders of Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak, there were shades of the relationship starting to blossom last night. Having arrived for a total fee of around £225 million last summer, both players disappointed for a variety of reasons. In the case of Isak, injury played its part, whilst Wirtz just never looked settled.

The pair of them looked raring to go last night, though, helping to produce what was probably our best half of the tour so far. When Iraola was given the head coach role in the wake of Arne Slot’s departure, supporters got excited about the idea of seeing a team press like his Bournemouth side had managed. The German midfielder and Swedish striker looked like they had very much got the brief in that first-half, suffocating the Leeds defence every time they had the ball and interchanging in a way that tickled the fancy of watching Liverpool fans.

Nyoni a Revelation

As much as I’m pushing to see Liverpool sign some players during this window, with defenders and wide forwards a priority, I can also see that the market has gone absolutely crazy. Anyone who has seen how FSG work in the past will know that the owners will doubtless be balking at the idea of having to spend huge sums of money for players that arguably aren’t worth such huge fees, which is why they will be delighted by the emergence of Trey Nyoni as a genuine option this summer. Nyoni has made numerous appearances in the past, so why is it different now?

The answer comes from the fact that he looks older now. When he’s appeared on previous pre-season tours, the Reading-born midfielder has looked like a child. That makes sense, given he’s only recently turned 19. What he’s been doing in the gym over the past few years means that he has bulked up and now looks like a man, ready to take on the challenges of the Premier League in the forthcoming campaign. I’m not saying that his presence in the squad means we can shelve any transfer plans, especially if Curtis Jones leaves, but he definitely makes life easier.