Analysis: Liverpool's defensive structure must improve fast

I need to say this right at the start. I’m a bit more pragmatic when reviewing Liverpool’s 4-2 win over Bournemouth last Friday night, I’m neither positive or negative.

Of course, there were great moments. Federico Chiesa’s brilliance lit up Anfield, and Mohamed Salah once again proved to be inevitable on the opening day. But as ever, this Substack has never really been about results. It’s about process, repeatability and what the performance tells us about what comes next.

That’s why I’m focusing on the defensive trends that we saw in pre season surface at Anfield. Liverpool conceded two goals from counter-attacks in one match. For context, they conceded just one from a counter all last season across 38 league matches. Our on ball shape as shown by the below zone map, was similar to last season, aside from both full back took up wider positions, to match the wide forwards, but the players covered the centre of the pitch well, although we could have had more depth to our play and covered zone 14 more.