THERE had to be some sort of mistake. Many had expected Jurgen Klopp to shake up his Liverpool team for the home game against Burnley given their recent struggles, dropping points in four of their last seven Premier League outings, but the inclusion of Adam Lallana in Sunday’s starting lineup still felt like an anomaly.
Lallana, after all, had been written off by Liverpool fans. The 30-year-old hasn’t scored or assisted in a Premier League game since the last day of the 2016/17 season. Fitness, or a lack thereof, has reduced Lallana’s role at Anfield to such an extent that he is expected to leave the club this summer. So it was somewhat surprising that Klopp called on him, over Xherdan Shaqiri and Naby Keita, to resolve Liverpool’s problems.
Those problems had their root in a creativity deficiency. Such a situation would have been almost unimaginable just a few weeks ago, when Liverpool’s front three were firing on all cylinders. Nonetheless, recent form had seen the Reds draw a blank in three of their last four games before Sunday’s visit of Burnley. Klopp needed to find a spark somewhere, anywhere.
Jürgen Klopp on Adam Lallana: "It was clear that if he could play like how he trains, he'd help us a lot – that happened today. The counter-press is a game-changer, it's a brilliant thing. Well deserved, I'm really happy for him."#LFC
— Melissa Reddy (@MelissaReddy_) March 10, 2019
Lallana provided that against Burnley as Liverpool returned to winning ways with a 4-2 victory. He gave the Reds some much-needed drive through the middle of the pitch, opening up space for the likes of Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah in the final third. After stodgy performances against Manchester United and Everton, this was more like the Liverpool we’ve all grown accustomed to over the past 18 months or so.
“I’m really happy for him, he had a good performance,” Klopp explained after the match on Sunday. “It’s not often that we have a week of training to prepare for a game and in these sessions, players can show up and he showed up. He deserved that spot today – it’s not about who we bought in the summer or a summer ago. Adam was here when I came here and he’s an important part of the squad.
“I think he had that best time with me when he played in that position [just off the striker] but he has had a lot of injuries. He gives us creativity, he gives you the surprising passes, chipping balls through and we know he can do a lot more than he did today but for a first game that was quite impressive.”
A yardstick has been stuck deep into Liverpool’s squad in recent weeks. While Pep Guardiola has the likes of Leroy Sane, Riyad Mahrez, Bernardo Silva and Phil Foden as options to rotate in and out of his Man City side, Klopp doesn’t have such options. Liverpool, instead, have guys like Daniel Sturridge, Joel Matip and Lallana as fall back options.
Lovren and Matip basically timeshare a place in the Liverpool squad.
— Sam McGuire (@SamMcGuire90) March 7, 2019
Naturally, when analysing Liverpool’s season so far many will focus on the commanding lead Klopp’s men have squandered at the top of the table. However, recent injuries and dips in form have underlined just how remarkable it is that the Anfield side are neck-and-neck with arguably the strongest team in Premier League history.
It would be even more remarkable were Liverpool to carry themselves over the line in first place, and Lallana might help them do that. He is the unexpected solution to Liverpool’s unlikely problem. Few would have predicted that an attacking slump would derail the Reds’ title challenge and even fewer would have predicted that Lallana would be the answer to the question.
Of course, Liverpool are far from in the clear, even with Lallana fulfilling his role as midfield creator. There will be tougher tests than Burnley over the final stretch of the season. Firmino and Mane might have found their scoring touch on Sunday, but Salah is still misfiring. Liverpool’s whole season will be defined by what happens over the next few weeks and Lallana will have a role in that.
