Last updated on July 12th, 2021
It wouldn’t be wrong to say that Liverpool didn’t have a good season defensively in the 2020-21 campaign compared to the 2 seasons before that when they kept 21 and 15 clean sheets respectively. The injuries to key players at various intervals played a very big role in that downfall, but with Virgil Van Djik expected to be back with his teammates Joe Gomez and Matip, plus the addition of Irahima Konate, can make Liverpool defenders a go-to option once again.
Trent Alexander-Arnold (7.5m)
Trent didn’t start the season very well he managed to get just 3 assists and one goal in the first 29 matches, but then he got 4 assists and 1 goal in the remaining 9. He had the third-highest number of points (160) among defenders, just behind Dallas and his teammate Robertson. Trent was top for xA (8.93) and shots (55) among defenders. Trent’s performance was quite affected by the injuries to the CB’s as he was averaging 14 assists in 2 previous seasons. This season we can expect him to come firing again and rack up those points.
Andrew Robertson (7m)
Robertson was excellent in the 2018-19 and 19-20 seasons when he managed an average of 12 assists, but an injury to Van Djik meant he had to defend way more than he did in previous seasons, despite all that Robertson managed to get 1 goal and 8 assists. He was the second-highest scoring defender with 161 points. Robertson had the second-highest x A of 7.12 second highest among defenders.
The return of Van Djik will massively help Robertson to bombard forward again.
He can be the best option if you want to save 0.5m on Trent to upgrade elsewhere and he has a similar amount of threat.
Virgil Van Djik (6.5m)
Van Djik is the cheapest nailed on Liverpool defender. He has been a massive threat on set pieces for Liverpool in past seasons. He scored 9 goals and gave 6 assists between 2018-20. Van Djik has racked up an insane amount of points for a central defender 208 and 178 during that time. In the 2019-20 season Van Djik had the second-highest x G among defenders. If managers are looking to double up on Liverpool defence Robo/Trent along with Van Djik is a very good option.
There is still no information on who will partner VVD in defence, it could be any one of Gomez (5m), Matip (5m) or Konaté (5.5m). We might get some clarity about this during the pre-season matches so look out for that.
By – @FPLHitsKing_
