So, I will be looking at Liverpool's defensive actions so far in the window, and analysing the extent to which they could perhaps improve our defensive record in the 2014/15 season, and the seasons following.
Any follower of Liverpool, or even Premier League football as a whole, wouldn't need anybody to tell them that Liverpool's current outstanding issue does indeed lie in the defence. The facts speak for themselves: with the exception of Spurs, no team in the top 8 conceded more goals than we did. So far in the transfer window, Brendan Rodgers has signed three defenders: Dejan Lovren from Southampton, for a hefty fee of £20 million, Javier Manquillo from Atletico Madrid on loan, and more recently, Alberto Moreno from Sevilla, for a fee believed to be around the £12 million mark. So Rodgers has spent a significant amount of money attempting to patch a leaky Liverpool defence, but has the spending been worth it?
In my opinion, so far, it has. Lovren is a defender that is very comfortable on the ball, with very good passing ability, meaning he should fit right into Rodgers' style of play; using two ball playing centre-backs to start attacks from the defence. Furthermore, Rodgers likes to play a high line of defence, allowing the midfield and attack to press the opposition to win the ball back. This tactic also relies heavily on a coordinated back line catching their opponents offside - something Lovren clearly does very well, seeing as last season, he won an average of 1.4 offsides per game, which was the joint league highest. Finally, and crucially, this defensive tactic can leave a defence very open, thus requiring the defenders to be quick. Lovren fits this description as well, being clocked as the 18th fastest player at the world cup, reaching a top running speed of 31.8km/h. So, all the signs point to the fact that Lovren will be the perfect centre back signing.
In addition to Lovren, both Manquillo and Moreno should fit Rodgers' style very well. As I previously mentioned, his style requires attacking fullbacks, and quick defenders, both of which are qualities that these two new full backs possess. However, both of these players have their advantages and disadvantages. In terms of positive aspects of their games, Moreno has a better average number of interceptions per games than all of the other current Liverpool fullbacks, along with seemingly being a more reliable defensive option - losing possession less times per game as well. Much like Moreno, Manquillo appears to excel in defensive contribution. Although he didn't play many games last season for Atletico, he did manage to win 4.7 tackles per game, and won possession back 5.7 times per game on average as well - which again is better than all of the other Liverpool full backs.
However, it is important to note that both defenders' passing games appear to be weaker than the other Liverpool players. Last season, Manquillo had a pass accuracy of 75.8%, and Moreno an accuracy of 79% - whilst the lowest Liverpool defender was Jose Enrique - with an accuracy of 77%. So, in a team where passing is so important, this could be very worrisome. So overall, defensively, these two could be very shrewd signings, however from an attacking point of view, they have not appeared to be quite as good as the current Liverpool fullbacks yet. But as they are young, and as the likes of Johnson and Enrique are arguably in or past their prime, there is scope for improvement in this area - and there is a large possibility that they could prove vital to Liverpool's success this season.
So, overall, I would argue that many of Liverpool's defensive issues could have been solved since last season. In Dejan Lovren, we now have an extremely reliable centre back, who is not prone to errors, and who also fits into Rodgers' play style. So, this could help prevent a great number of goals being conceded. To add to this, Moreno and Manquillo appear to be better defensive options in the full back positions than we had last season, albeit not perhaps as adept going forward as the likes of Johnson or Enrique. But, for a free-scoring team such as Liverpool; having stronger defensive full backs, that are still capable of going forward, could be extremely beneficial. All three are also young, and can therefore give Liverpool strong long term options to add to the immediate effects. Therefore, I believe that our defensive actions in this window have been extremely advantageous.
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