Richard Hughes' mega mistake has BROKEN Liverpool

Liverpool are not the team they should be after their massive summer overhaul. A mega mistake must be corrected.

Liverpool underwent a rebuild in the summer, the likes of which we've never seen at Anfield before. Over £450m went out on new players, with £200m+ coming in with sales.

It wasn't an easy thing to do. Liverpool's squad was a title-winning one, after all, and was about as gelled-together as it gets.

Still, the feeling was that mass change was needed as they looked to move on from Jurgen Klopp's squad and build one for Arne Slot. No one could really dispute that as a good idea.

However, Liverpool have now lost four games in a row. They haven't had a single routine fixture all season, with even their wins coming through late winners after giving up goals.

Really, the best performance of the season so far came against Arsenal, strangely enough. The Gunners now lead the Premier League and look incredibly strong in the UEFA Champions League but they were more than matched at Anfield.

In every other fixture, though, Liverpool have not delivered what they should have done. Not for the champions on the back of a massive spend.

But it's increasingly clear that while the club brought in fantastic players, they haven't necessarily been the right players. Not for what Liverpool are trying to do.

A broken Liverpool

Gradient analytics highlight the problem with Liverpool right now. This is not a team that moves the ball anything like they did last season.

Liverpool were unequivocally the best team in the Premier League last season at passing through the opposition defensive line. The recorded the most over their 38 games but the drop-off this season has been dramatic.

They now rank 14th in the Premier League so far this season. They've gone from being absolutely elite at it to being a lower-midtable side when it comes to slicing open that back line.

And that's not even the only area where that's happened. Liverpool have gone from being the 6th-best at breaking through the opposition attacking press to the 9th-best.

In midfield, too - Liverpool have gone from 8th-best to 13th-best. It's an appalling drop as the Reds have completely lost their ability to move forward.

A massive part of this is losing Trent Alexander-Arnold. The Scouser attempted the 10th-most line-breaking passes in the Premier League last season and his absence is felt. He was also fitth-best for passes that broke multiple lines and losing Alexander-Arnold is a massive reason why Liverpool have fallen from having the 4th-most line-breaking passes to having the 11th-most.

So you're probably noting a pattern here. Liverpool are passing progressively like a midtable team. Their results are also looking like a midtable team.

Now, a lot of this comes from teams playing differently against Liverpool. They're a little deeper in their defensive third, deliberately not allowing for those line-breaking passes.

But it goes further than that. Liverpool are also deeper in possession themselves, with Virgil van Dijk taking more touches in his defensive third simply because the team can't get up the pitch. This has been a problem all season long.

It comes on the back of a mistake over the summer. Liverpool did not replace Alexander-Arnold's passing, nor did they find a new way of moving up the pitch.

It's almost as though it wasn't on the radar as the only 'deeper' signings that arrived were full-backs who want to run in behind. In other words, two players looking to receive progressive passes but not make them.

In fact, Andy Robertson being moved out of the team drops Liverpool's progressive passing even further as he provided the second-most after Alexander-Arnold last season. Again, there doesn't appear to have been much consideration for how to make up for that.

Liverpool cannot pass the ball forward anywhere near the level they used to. Yes, opponents have had an effect on that but it also points to a group of players that do not mesh together in the current system.

You can't control games if you don't break down defensive blocks, after all. Liverpool - a team that won their title by being able to do that - can no longer get forward the way they used to.

The eye test shows this, the data shows this, and now the results show this. Something must change because the summer's transfer plan has not worked and it's broken Liverpool.

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