After a great start to the season in which they had shown solidity in their play and had only lost one game in the Premier League, Liverpool had two very important tests last week to see if they were serious or if they could start to fade away. Two home games, at Anfield. In the Champions League against the clear king of the competition in recent years (Real Madrid) and in the Premier League against the clear king of the competition in recent years (Manchester City).
They won both games 2-0 and showed enormous superiority over their rivals, with very agile and fast players, as if they had a couple more gears and with a confidence in their game that was very praiseworthy. In both games they had opportunities to score and they received very few shots from their rivals.
After a couple of years in which they seemed to have dropped a little in level, that overflowing enthusiasm with which they had played under Klopp, Liverpool showed last week that they are very well prepared to fight to win both competitions, which is reflected in their leadership in the Premier League (11 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss, with a 7-point advantage over Chelsea and Arsenal) and in their leadership in the Champions League, being the only team of the 32 in the competition to have won all 5 games played. For this to continue, Liverpool has to be a must win team for a treble reach.
Players behind the coach
The first key to talking about this new Liverpool is its coach, the Dutchman Arne Slot, who had already shown his taste for good football at Feyenoord in his country and who is reflecting this in his arrival at Liverpool, where he maintains the essence of Klopp’s game and to which he has contributed some of his own characteristics.
The game formation remains 4-3-3 and highlights the aggressive and effective collective pressure that it exerts on the rival’s ball output, which on the one hand makes it easier for it to steal the ball very high and generate chances with few passes and on the other hand makes it more difficult for rivals to create fluidly and generate goal-scoring opportunities, which is reflected in it being the team that has conceded the fewest goals in the Premier (11) and one of those that has conceded the fewest goals in the Champions League (1).
They also maintain another hallmark of recent years, and that is that when there is a corner in favour of the opposing team and they recover the ball in their own area, they come out very quickly on the counterattack and reach the rival area in just a few passes. This is how they have scored several goals this season.
One change in their collective performance compared to recent years is that now, when they have the ball and the opponent is closed in, Liverpool is a team with more patience to open up the field and develop, whereas before they showed fewer ideas when the opponent closed in.
Now they open up the field well, with the two full-backs appearing with a lot of arrivals both on the outside and in diagonal runs on the inside (Alexander-Arnold on the right and Robertson on the left) and they look for many interior passes close to the area with the midfielders (especially Mac Allister).
Top players
Although the most important thing for Liverpool is the collective performance, there are several players who are being decisive in the team reaching this great level.
The first is undoubtedly Mohamed Salah, a right winger who in recent seasons seemed to have dropped from the spectacular level he showed in his first seasons at the club. Now he is back in great form. He scores a lot of goals, assists with quality, participates in the game and is very fast.
The second is Virgil Van Dijk, an excellent central defender who in 2019 won the Silver Ball in an award that Messi won by a few votes.
The third key player for this Liverpool team is Ryan Gravenberch, a Dutch midfielder who arrived at the club last season and played very little. He is an undisputed starter under Slot and is fundamental in the organisation of the game, in the patience in the distribution of the ball.
After so many consecutive years of success, Manchester City is suffering a logical drop in its level this season, but my feeling is that, once it makes some necessary changes to its squad, it will regain its hegemony as the best team, the one that offers the best football.
In the meantime, let’s enjoy this worthy Liverpool team that looks like it can maintain its high level until the end of the season.
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