If Liverpool wants to be taken seriously as a title contender in the Premier League this year, according to Steve Nicol, they must resolve one problem within their current group.
Following a dismal fifth-place finish the previous season, a solid start with 10 points out of a possible 12 (including victories over Newcastle and Aston Villa, both of whom are playing in European competition) has given hope of contending at the top of the table this time around.
The former Reds player, however, has stressed that if Jurgen Klopp’s team is to seriously challenge reigning champions and early leaders Manchester City, they must strengthen defensively and reduce the number of opportunities they provide opponents.
“I’m not in the camp [that] they’re going to contend with City,” Nicol stated in a statement to ESPN FC. In the future, I believe everyone at Liverpool should be content. Liverpool will, in my opinion, score goals, which means they’ll win games.
“The back line is one of their issues, which we’re not entirely confident will be resolved, at least not with this current group. Alisson in goal doesn’t seem to have a lot of protection from it, and when someone attacks it, chances and shots are lost.
“So far this season, there haven’t been many goals surrendered, but as I said, if you keep passing up opportunities, you’ll start losing goals.
The one thing Liverpool does not want to do is have to score three or four goals every week in order to win games, as doing so will not result in any gains. Because of this, I don’t consider them to be title candidates.
The Reds’ three goals conceded this season are the second-fewest in the Premier League (after Man City’s two), but Nicol’s point about how frequently our adversaries get opportunities against us is an important one.
The fact that Liverpool’s xGA (expected goals against) is lower than that of six top-flight teams (FBref) indicates that either Alisson is having to put in heroic efforts, like he did against Newcastle, or the opposition is absolving us of responsibility by failing to take advantage of scoring chances.
We saw how a porous defense that allowed 50 goals led to us losing out on the title to City during the 2013–14 campaign. We can only hope that the concession rate would be far lower if we face off against the Manchester club once more.
