13 Apr 2016

'They make mistakes': Ex-Spurs star claims £38m Liverpool-duo are LFC's 'weakest' players. Agree?

Anticipation is building for Liverpool's hotly anticipated Europa League clash with Borussia Dortmund, and ahead of the game, ex-Spurs star Steffen Freund has revealed how he believed BVB can get the upper hand at Anfield.

Speaking to Sky Sports on Tuesday, Freund mused:

“Dortmund should attack very early in the first ten minutes. They should try to force Liverpool to make mistakes. The central defenders of the Reds are the weakest links – Dejan Lovren and Mamadou Sakho^. If they are under pressure, they make mistakes.”

In my view, Freund is spot-on with his assessment: put Sakho and Lovren under intense pressure, and they will make mistakes and/or lose composure on the ball.

Sakho, especially, is prone to errors, misplaced passes, and/or hospital passes when he's isolated out on the left-side of the pitch, and there are numerous examples of that this season (The Watford game in December, for example).

Additionally, neither player is particularly fast, so if they lose possession in a tight area, and a one-on-one develops, Liverpool will be in trouble.

That said, Sakho and Lovren are in good form right now, and both delivered near man-of-the-match performances in the first leg, and if that continues on Thursday, Dortmund will have a hard time breaking the Reds down.

Defensively, Liverpool's biggest weak link is (arguably) Alberto Moreno, whose suspect positioning, and reckless challenges often cause problems for the team.

On a related note: On Sunday, Klopp claimed that Liverpool's 4-1 victory over Stoke illustrated the club's 'consistency', but that victory represented the club's first win in FIVE games. Hardly consistent, and Liverpool will need to buck the current trend on Thursday to progress to the next round.

* Combined cost: £38m

Author: Jaimie K


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