For the first time in months, Jürgen Klopp has unleashed a quartet that can lead Liverpool to victory.
Liverpool defeated Atalanta in the Europa League on Thursday by starting perhaps their strongest back four ever. Jürgen Klopp must maintain composure for the final stretch of the Premier League.
There will never be a consensus on the 11 players who, if available, would comprise the best Liverpool team due to the team’s strength. The notion of a fantasy starting lineup is unattainable because form swings, even in the absence of unavoidable injuries, inevitably result in rotation.
History attests to that. The team that Jürgen Klopp picked for the Champions League final in 2019 had never played together from the beginning and never will again. On paper, however, it appears nearly hard to choose a superior lineup of 11 Reds players from that era.
If we concentrate on defence this season, Klopp appears to have the best group of players at his disposal in Trent Alexander-Arnold, Andy Robertson, Virgil van Dijk, and Ibrahima Konaté, who played Atalanta in Bergamo. They demonstrated their strength as a team by keeping the third clean sheet Liverpool has kept in the Premier or Europa League in 2024, even though Atalanta’s convincing victory at Anfield meant they didn’t need to score.
Maintaining this back four for the remaining six games is crucial if the Reds are to overcome their present ranking as the third favourites and win the 2023–24 Premier League. Konaté and van Dijk together have participated in 18 complete games across all competitions this season, for a total of 21.6 games played. With the pair, Liverpool has conceded one goal every 93 minutes, or fewer than a goal per game, a minor improvement above its performance with other pairings.
However, as the Atalanta match suggested, this centre defensive duo functions best when the starting full-backs are positioned at the back. Notably, Liverpool started the game on Thursday with this quartet in defence only three times in 2023–2024. The other instances were the Reds’ opening two games of the season, when they picked up four points despite losing to Chelsea and Bournemouth and failing to keep a clean sheet.
The full-backs’ fitness issues mostly account for the elite quartet’s lack of playing time. Compared to Alexander-Arnold, who has missed 19 games, Robertson has missed 22 games due to injury—much more than either Konaté, who has missed six games, or van Dijk, who has missed two. They were mostly not missed, as Conor Bradley proved to be a very good right-wing substitute and Joe Gomez was a productive left-wing substitute (albeit he didn’t provide the same creative danger as the starting left-back).
However, since Konaté joined the team in the summer of 2021, many of Liverpool’s greatest victories have been built on the basis of the first choice quartet. Though the goals conceded column will always be important, think about some of the powerful offensive displays they made possible.
The 5-0 victory over Manchester United, in which Alexander-Arnold contributed an assist and Konaté sneered at Fred, marked the quartet’s first game together. They also participated in the thrilling FA Cup semifinal victory against Manchester City later in the season, as well as victories over Benfica (where Ibou scored with an assist from Robertson) and Villarreal (at home and away) in the Champions League knockout stage.
The renowned quartet was in the back while the forwards destroyed United in a 7-0 victory in 2022–2023. Once Alexander-Arnold started to be deployed in midfield in the 2-2 draw with Arsenal, they also participated in the majority of the games. In that game as well as the following three, where the foursome also started together, he contributed an assist.
Their overall record is far from perfect; losses to Bournemouth and Real Madrid were painful in various ways. However, this backline enjoyed a winning run of seven games in a row in 2021–2022, and Liverpool might still win the league with a similar run that begins at Atalanta.
Liverpool states: It’s reasonable to presume that if the best back four had been available more frequently, Liverpool would not have fallen behind as frequently as it has this season. The full-backs’ attacking play relieves strain on the central defensive duo by allowing them to occupy and pin back opponent wide forwards and midfielders. Hopefully, this system will continue to function for the remainder of Klopp’s term.