Klopp must be worried about three Liverpool players after Man Utd stalemate
Sofyan Amrabat was taking deep breaths, glancing left and right and seemingly pleading with Andre Onana to take his time with the goal kick. Only 10 minutes had been played.
It had been a fast start from Liverpool against Manchester United, and the Moroccan midfielder was in the eye of the storm. He made a clumsy challenge on Ryan Gravenberch in the opening stages, and after 35 minutes he'd pick up the yellow card which had been coming his way ever since kick-off.
But while Amrabat was struggling with the intensity that Liverpool were playing with, in a way most of Liverpool's attackers were too. What had been an encouraging start was allowed to slip away into anxiety because of poor choices around the United penalty area. Poor choices at speed.
Dominik Szoboszlai, so good in his opening months as a Reds player, at times appeared paralysed by the choices he had available to him. At one stage he did a stepover on himself, sending the ball backwards towards the touchline, and he would too often delay and delay a pass before playing the ball it was obvious that he was going to play anyway.
Luis Diaz, always a willing runner down the left, got stuck in a pitch battle with Diogo Dalot, who played him well. It is at times like these that Diaz looks every inch a goal shy winger, not the often match-winning forward he has effectively replaced in Jurgen Klopp's team, Sadio Mane.
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Dominik Szoboszlai was taken off in the 61st minute (ADAM VAUGHAN/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)Darwin Nunez was prevalent in the opening stages but he appeared to lose focus the moment he decided he'd rather like to smash into Jonny Evans and make no attempt to win the ball.
From there the Uruguayan was caught in the heat of the occasion, again distracting himself to the extent that he needlessly wandered offside on three occasions, much to the dismay of Jurgen Klopp. Nunez has now been caught offside 14 times in the Premier League this season, more than anyone bar Nottingham Forest's Anthony Elanga, and all of those 14 have come in Liverpool's last six league games.
Darwin Nunez had a poor day in front of goal (Paul Currie/REX/Shutterstock)That pretty much sums up how poorly the Reds are attacking right now, with only one of their last nine Premier League goals being scored by one of their forwards. Sure, they hit four against Fulham two weeks ago, but they were all from range and all from fairly unlikely goalscorers.
Szoboszai, Diaz and Nunez would all pay for their disappointing days by being taken off in the second half, and how Klopp must be concerned about his attacking players now given he lost the best of them against United, Gravenberch, to injury, and he will soon lose the best of them full stop, Mo Salah, to the Africa Cup of Nations.
He needs others to stand up in the coming weeks in order to sustain a title challenge, and indeed a shot at the Carabao Cup in midweek when the dangerous West Ham come calling to Anfield.
You'd expect changes for that one, and Szoboszlai, Diaz and Nunez might well have just played themselves out of the Liverpool team.
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