Adam Lallana proves his worth to Liverpool
Football Update: Adam Lallana scored twice and set-up another goal as Liverpool won 3-0 at Middlesbrough on Wednesday to further underline his claim to be the club’s most important player in their title challenge. Jordan Henderson provides solidity and leadership, and Philippe Coutinho offers unpredictability and goals, but Lallana ticks all those boxes this season. He is vital to Liverpool and manager Jurgen Klopp.
Since he came to Anfield in July 2014, Lallana has been criticised for a lack of goals and assists but his cute pass for Divock Origi’s strike at the Riverside was his sixth assist of the season — as many as he managed in the whole of last year. His double took him onto six goals, too – two more than his total last term.
All this end product has come from a new, and deeper role. Lallana spent most of last season – and his unsettled maiden campaign on Merseyside under Brendan Rodgers – as a wide forward but Klopp trialled him in midfield in preseason and it worked. Lallana hasn’t looked back.
Speaking at the Riverside, Klopp revealed that the move was, at least in part, of Lallana’s own making. “Around about one year ago he came into my office and I was really happy with his performance, but he was [saying]: “I don’t finish, I don’t score!”,’ the German said. “Yeah, because you’re not in the right spaces. Now he plays a bit deeper and he’s more in the right spaces.”
In his deeper role on the right side of a midfield three, typically including Henderson and Gigi Wijnaldum too, Lallana is making as many runs into the box as before but, crucially, they are better runs because they’re later and more purposeful. His goals against ‘Boro — the first a perfectly-time arrival at the back post to head home Nathaniel Clyne’s cross; the second a thump past Victor Valdes from 12 yards — nicely illustrate this, to Klopp’s credit.
Lallana is also spending more time on the ball — something he acknowledged in September, when discussing his new role. That has benefitted Liverpool’s build-up play, and transition from defence to attack. Lallana is perhaps the most technically-gifted player available to England boss Gareth Southgate and, like Henderson, he is always available to receive the ball from his defenders in tight
spots, an important facet of Klopp’s philosophy.
More goals and more time on the ball have not dimmed Lallana’s industry, however, and his work off the ball is equally important as his work with it. Klopp trusts him to start the high-press, along with Roberto Firmino — another crucial element of how he wants Liverpool play. Against Middlesbrough, only Henderson ran further — just — and only the captain and Origi completed more sprints. Lallana, surprisingly, had the highest average speed of any Liverpool player.
Lallana has benefitted from feeling at home at the club and in the city. “When I was making my debut – new city, new fans, new stadium – I had no connection. Nothing. Even with my team-mates to an extent. I feel like I have a connection now – and it feels so good,” he said in August. The 28-year-old lives in Formby and he is next door neighbours with Klopp, who took Rodgers’ old house. They are close and there is no Liverpool player who has improved more since Klopp’s appointment in October 2015.
This season’s title race may be decided on which team can keep their star players fit for longest and it was no surprise that Liverpool’s mini-blip came after Lallana was injured on England duty. He missed the tepid 0-0 draw at his former club Southampton, where Liverpool lacked cohesion, and the 4-3 defeat at Bournemouth, another of his former clubs. Coutinho remains out until the New Year but Lallana, once labelled another overpriced Englishman, is now the one man Klopp cannot afford to lose if Liverpool are to make history.
Category: Football
