NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION

Klopp stars will be stronger after World Cup Second half of the season they’ll hit top gear Anfield legend always hits the mark

I’VE been asked the question a thousand times already this season – what has gone wrong with Liverpool?

The answer is complex, starting with the idea of ‘wrong’.

There wasn’t much wrong with them in the two defeats of Manchester City where they deserved to win against the best team in the world.

Not much wrong against Ajax or Rangers, while their form in the Champions League has been exemplary since that horrific opening defeat by Napoli.

It’s all gone wrong in terms of consistency, especially in the Premier League – and no better example could be seen than last night’s 2-1 home loss to Leeds. Why are they so inconsistent? Well, undoubtedly, injuries. They had 10 at the start of the season and, almost three months later, nine unavailable players against Ajax in midweek.

That has effectively reduced Jurgen Klopp’s squad to fewer than 20 senior players to choose from at any one time.

Look at how mad the schedule has been.

The entire Champions League group stage crammed in by the first week in November.

And a third of the Premier League season supposed to have been completed by the third week of October.

That was simply too intense. But there’s more to it than that. And I think there is an explanation in a couple of things Klopp said in his press conference before this weekend’s round of fixtures.

One, that Liverpool will definitely be stronger after the World Cup.

And, second, that he has some youngsters of real promise who now have experience with plenty of game time because of the crazy schedules.

I agree with both and I think the two things are linked.

Look at the Liverpool players going to the World Cup and that tells you an awful lot about Klopp’s squad at the moment.

It’s absolutely absurd, but you can say only three Liverpool players will be pretty much automatic starters at the World Cup – Alisson, Virgil van Dijk and Darwin Nunez (right).

Three? For a team that was so strong last season, that tore everything up across Europe?

It’s mad, too, that Liverpool will probably have only six or seven actually at the World Cup, eight tops. But if you look closely, there are reasons.

One is the potential Klopp spoke about – even if Nunez looks to be a starter these days for Uruguay.

Harvey Elliott and Fabio Carvalho have had a lot of game time, but I don’t think they’re quite at that top international level yet and the same can be said of Curtis Jones.

And, in a nutshell, there you have inconsistency explained.

Young players are asked to do a lot of the heavy lifting this season – Ibrahima Konate is still a novice, too – and they are naturally inconsistent.

Liverpool have returned, a little, to the situation of a few seasons ago when we all said that their first team was outstanding, but they needed more squad depth.

Last season they had that depth, which is why they could compete so incredibly on four fronts.

But, in the summer, some important squad players left, such as Sadio Mane, Divock Origi and Takumi Minamino, and they’ve been replaced with... potential.

Don’t get me wrong, I think they will all grow into top-class players, potentially world-class talent.

Look at City, Real Madrid, even PSG.

When they need to refresh, they don’t buy potential, they buy proven talent.

Liverpool do it differently – they compete by finding potential and letting Klopp develop that talent. Brilliantly.

So that’s another reason why they don’t have many players going to the World Cup.

Other clubs may look in the international shop window at the best talent of the big nations, but Liverpool find real talent from lower-ranked countries, such as Mo Salah, Konstantinos Tsimikas, Andy Robertson even.

I think, in the short term, Liverpool are weaker than last season… and can’t compete on all fronts this time around.

Maybe we’re seeing that in the Premier League, although they’re still playing well in the Champions League.

But there is a plus side to all this. There’s a good chance Klopp will have 20-plus senior players to work with during the international break.

And that’s a luxury few other top teams will enjoy. Will it make them stronger in the second half of the season? As sure as hell it will.

They’re still in the Champions League and you can see them being much stronger after Christmas.

They will be stronger in the Premier League, too, I’m sure.

I have no doubts that Klopp and his team, with all the analytics at their disposal, had looked at the effect of the World Cup and planned their season accordingly.

And the fact they’d have quite a few players not going to Qatar.

I heard Liverpool trained hard in pre-season and maybe that explains so many injuries.

But they will be fitter and stronger in the second half of the season – because that’s their forte anyway.

I think they’ll be closer than now, if not outright challenging City, and I think they’ll be helped by the experience gained by some of the younger players – particularly Nunez – who is key to their future.