Elliott must play for Liverpool if Klopp wants his pressing team back

Liverpool’s lethargic first-half performance against Crystal Palace could well have cost them the Premier League title. At this crucial stage of the season, there has been a dip in intensity. Perhaps Harvey Elliott is the man who can up those levels once more?

That is the view of many supporters confused as to why Elliott was hooked at half-time during the defeat to Atalanta on Thursday and only entered the fray against Palace after the 80-minute mark. Elliott brings the pressing that Jurgen Klopp is missing.

It was this pressing, as much as the more obvious fault of Liverpool's dismal finishing on Sunday afternoon, that appeared to irk Klopp most. Pressing at only 80 per cent intensity is worse than not pressing at all, he explained. "It makes no sense."

The front three failed to provide any kind of coordinated pressure and though Curtis Jones was "really going for it" behind them, Alexis Mac Allister and Wataru Endo "did not follow" and the result was a disjointed performance without the ball.

"You can only defend by putting the guy on the ball under pressure and we did not do that," said Klopp. This is non-negotiable for him so it will hurt. "Where we are, we got to by being an absolute machine against the ball and that is what we have to be."

It has long been the mantra. "Our identity is intensity." That was the now famous line uttered by assistant manager Pep Lijnders during the club's title-winning season. Lijnders even named his book Intensity so important has it been for Klopp's team.

One is reminded of the press conference in October 2019 when Lijnders made that comment about Liverpool's intensity being their identity. Speaking after an important win over Tottenham, he went on to explain why that off-the-ball work was