Are these the problems that Liverpool need to address?

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Lack of a creative midfield:

The midfield is perhaps emblematic of the general feeling that one has towards this Liverpool side. Sure, Lucas Leiva has the most tackles in the league, but he is Lucas Leiva. 30-year-old James Milner should probably not be running things in midfield either for a side contending for the top four. Emre Can and Jordan Henderson are solid youngish midfielders, ranked around 60-65 on Squawka (out of 140 qualified midfielders), and should figure into their long-term plans. Their portion of the blame for the team’s lack of performance is 5%.

A blunt attack:

On the other hand, a significant amount of blame should be attributed to the attacking players of Liverpool. Their 30% culpability comes down to a number of factors. In no particular order, let us examine Christian Benteke, their £32.5 million signing from Aston Villa who has a measly six goals to his name this season, with none of these coming in 2016 and yet, he is the club’s leading scorer for the campaign. The Belgian is just ahead of £29 million summer signing Roberto Firmino, who had one goal under his belt for most of the season until a recent hot streak. While there is solid evidence that the Brazilian is the better long-term option and Klopp’s choice, he needs to prove that he can score on a much more consistent basis. It’s probably not a great sign that Liverpool spent such a vast sum of money on a pair of strikers who can’t really play together and are averaging under two shots per game individually – fewer than that of West Brom’s Salomon Rondon and Swansea’s Bafetimbi Gomis.

One player who certainly does not lack confidence in the shooting department is Phillippe Coutinho, as the 23-year-old play-maker is leading the league with 4.5/game. You would think that were a positive sign, but you’d be mistaken. He has five goals – some of them are occasionally brilliant and have come in big games against Chelsea and City, but the former Inter man is only averaging 1.6 key passes per game; good enough for 24th in the league, plus three assists – tied for 26th. The advanced metrics are not particularly kind to the Brazilian, whose 22% shooting percentage (goals/shots on target) is lower than every Arsenal, Leicester, or Man United player. In the interest of a fair comparison, I should point out that there are only two players for Southampton; Oriol Romeu and Maya Yoshida, and six on the train-wreck that is Aston Villa, who posted a lower number than Liverpool’s chief attacking midfielder. Adam Lallana; with his two goals, four assists and 24 chances created has been underwhelming to say the least. The duo of Lallana and Coutinho has created 50 chances together, which is only five more than the side’s left-back Alberto Moreno (45 Chances Created: 1 Assist and 44 Key Passes). While expecting to relive the glory days of the 101 goal season of 13-14 Liverpool was always unrealistic, given the internal roster turnaround, being on pace to score a paltry 47.5 goals this year (4.5 fewer than last year’s 52) is more in the Stoke City/Crystal Palace vein. I guess Liverpool could always blame injuries…