Just a month ago, Anfield outfit Liverpool were touted as one of the favorites to lift the Premier League title alongside Chelsea this season. But having picked up just 2 points from 3 Premier League games in 2017, Liverpool have lost some ground in the points table and are currently in the 4th place in the table, with 45 points from 22 games and will need to play out of their skins for the rest of the season to have a shot at silverware. However, they have made tremendous progress from this time last season as the new manager Jurgen Klopp has changed quite a few things at the club.
Though a few summer signings have had their effect on the squad, the most important factor in Liverpool’s improvement in the last year will come down to the individual performances of star players. The likes of Dejan Lovren, James Milner, and even Simon Mignolet have all looked far better players from before but one player who has come through leaps and bounds over the past year is English midfielder Adam Lallana.
An academy graduate from Bournemouth, Adam Lallana, joined the St Marys back in 2000 as a 12-year-old a made his senior debut for the Saints back in 2006. He stayed at the club for 8 years, making more than 230 league appearances in his time and was also the skipper of the side for the last two years of his term.
He moved to Liverpool on a £25m move in 2014 under then manager Brendan Rodgers and has only grown on to become a top class player at Anfield from the second half of the previous season.
Lallana, a player as comfortable playing with his right foot as he is with his left, is a playmaker in every sense of the word. He has great technique with the ball at his feet and nimble movement in thigh areas make him hard to mark. His finishing and key passes are is strengths but playing as a deep lying midfielder for Liverpool this season has got the best out of him.
He has shown great energy in the middle of the park, picking up the ball in front of the defense ad quickly turning it into an attacking situation for his side. He is a player who is not integral to the plans for Liverpool and is slowly drawing comparison of one Andres Iniesta.
The Spanish midfielder is one of the best playmakers to have ever played the game. Is vision and passing ability are next to none and vision, like a hawk eye, have single-handedly destroyed even the best of the defenses.
He is one of the only two Barcelona players to have received a standing ovation from the Bernabeu with shows the amount of quality he has. He is easily one of the best players to have ever played the game and Lallana will be honored to even be spoken about alongside a player of that caliber.
But his role at Liverpool is not too much different. Like Iniesta at the Camp Nou, Lallana sits just in front of his defensive midfielder to try and act as the link between the midfield and the attack. He is responsible for finding the likes of Philippe Coutinho, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino in space up ahead of him like Iniesta searched for Messi and Neymar. Lallana with his quick and intelligent movement is expected to make space for himself and for his teammates while drawing opposition players out of their positions.
But his major role is to sit back and try to feed his wide players with path breaking passes to allow his team to get behind defenses and there is no one better at doing it than the Spaniard at the Camp Nou.
Barcelona are a less fluid side without Iniesta in the squad and Liverpool have often looked lethargic without the energy of Adam Lallana in the games that the midfielder missed. As already mentioned, the 28-year old Liverpool star may not be in the brackets of an Iniesta but he surely is the Iniesta for Liverpool this season.