Slot must drop Liverpool star who lost 100% duels

Liverpool moved 13 points clear at the top of the Premier League table with a 2-1 win over West Ham United in front of their home support at Anfield on Sunday.

The Reds went into the break with a 1-0 lead against the Hammers thanks to a tap-in from Luis Diaz after Mohamed Salah brilliantly teed up his fellow winger with a delicious outside-of-the-boot cross.

An own goal from Andy Robertson, however, made it 1-1 in the second half, before Virgil van Dijk scored the winning goal from a corner in the 89th minute.

Arne Slot’s side are now right on the edge of winning the Premier League title, which will only be the second time the club have won the division, with six matches left to play.

It was almost, though, a disappointing performance and result for the Merseyside giants as they needed that late goal to avoid a draw with the Hammers after Robertson’s own goal.

How Andy Robertson almost cost Liverpool

The Scotland international started the match on the bench after Kostas Tsimikas was selected ahead of him from the start by Slot in the left-back position.

Liverpool’s Greek defender put in a fairly average shift, winning three of his six duels and being dribbled past twice, but did not make any significant errors before being substituted in the 60th minute.

It was, instead, Robertson who made a significant error in his 30 minutes on the pitch in the second half, when he bundled the ball into his own net from a cross from the left flank.

The Scottish full-back and Virgil van Dijk appeared to get in the way of each other as they both went to clear the cross, which led to it hitting the ex-Hull City man and rolling past Alisson into the bottom corner.

As you can see in the table above, Robertson had a rough 30 minutes on the pitch after replacing Tsimikas in the second half, completing just 55% of his attempted passes to go along with his own goal.

It was, therefore, a disappointing cameo by the long-serving defender, who has yet to register a goal or an assist in the Premier League this season, and he has not done his chances of coming back into the starting line-up next time out any favours.

Robertson was not the only poor performer of the afternoon for the Reds, however, as centre-forward Diogo Jota also produced a lacklustre display from the start.

Why Diogo Jota must be dropped

Slot selected the Portugal international to play as the team’s number nine ahead of Cody Gakpo, Diaz, or Federico Chiesa, and the forward let him down.

The Dutch manager must, now, ruthlessly ditch the former Wolverhampton Wanderers star from the team for Liverpool’s next match after he failed to provide a quality performance against the Hammers.

Jota earned a player rating of 6/10 from the Express, who noted his ‘little impact’ on the match, which summed up his uneventful afternoon at Anfield.

It was a poor display from the striker because there was nothing of note worth mentioning from his showing, which is not what you want from your leading centre-forward.

As you can see in the table above, Jota did not take a single shot on goal in 60 minutes and only created one chance, which had an xA value of 0.01, whilst he also lost 100% of his duels.

This shows that he offered very little in the final third, as either a scorer or a creator, and that led to him being withdrawn from the match at 1-0 with 30 minutes still left to play.

The Portuguese dud produced this performance off the back of missing one ‘big chance’ and completing 25% (2/8) of his attempted passes in 67 minutes in the defeat to Fulham in the previous match.

His last two outings as a starter in the centre-forward position suggest that it is time for Slot to ruthlessly ditch him from the team to unleash another player in that role, whilst they also suggest that Liverpool should be in the market for a striker this summer.

Why Liverpool need to sign a striker this summer

The Reds need to go out and land a new number nine when the summer transfer window opens for business because they do not currently have a reliable option in that position.

Slot has a number of players who can play in that role but his best two finishers out of the lot – Luis Diaz and Cody Gakpo – are wingers by trade, rather than natural centre-forwards, as you can see in the table below.

Diaz and Gakpo are the only two options on the list that have outperformed their xG in the Premier League this season for Liverpool, whilst Jota has underperformed his xG by the most.

It was recently reported that the Reds are interested in a deal to sign Alexander Isak from Premier League rivals Newcastle United, and he would be a huge upgrade on what the club currently have at their disposal.

The Swedish star scored 21 goals from 20.29 xG in 30 appearances in the Premier League in the 2023/24 campaign, to go along with two assists.

So far this term, the former Real Sociedad dynamo has scored 20 goals from 16.28 xG in 27 appearances in the top-flight, which speaks to his consistency and his ruthlessness in front of goal for the Magpies.

With this in mind, Liverpool must pursue a deal for a new striker, whether that is Isak or a similar talent, to give themselves a reliable and consistent number nine in the 2024/25 campaign, allowing them to permanently move on from Jota as a starter.