Arne Slot supposedly had the impossible job replacing Jürgen Klopp as Liverpool’s head coach. But after glowing reviews from his players and some slick pre-season performances, expectations have been revised upward.
Now the real stuff begins, with Liverpool starting their Premier League season at Ipswich Town at lunchtime on Saturday.
Klopp’s charisma might prove irreplaceable, but inheriting a squad featuring Alisson, Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Mohamed Salah as well as several bright, emerging talents gives Slot a fighting chance.
However long the honeymoon lasts, Slot already appears to have a grip of his team and has begun changing Liverpool’s very distinctive style under Klopp.
These are some of the tactical developments observed in Liverpool’s pre-season.
New formation can stretch a defence
Under Klopp, Liverpool were a 4-3-3 team, though when Andy Robertson and Alexander-Arnold pushed forward either side of Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane and Salah their structure was closer to a 2-3-5. Over the past 18 months, with Alexander-Arnold taking up midfield positions, this was tweaked to a 3-2-5.
Though Liverpool’s attack has looked quite fluid under Slot, a 4-2-4 shape looks a staple of their play. Early in pre-season, attacking midfielders Harvey Elliott and Dominik Szoboszlai occupied the centre-forward roles, dropping off the front as a pair of false nines with wide forwards stretching the defence.
This approach is not unlike the system deployed by Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal against Liverpool in February, with Klopp surprised by Martin Odegaard and Kai Havertz playing as, in his words, “double 10s”. They formed a midfield box with Jorginho and Declan Rice, with Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli high and wide.
Players make systems of course. Replace Harvey Elliott with a more natural striker such as Darwin Nunez and the dynamics change.
As shown here in the early stages of their pre-season win over Sevilla, Slot’s Liverpool have tended to build play in a 4-2 shape, with Alexander-Arnold stepping up in a 3-2 only occasionally.
The 4-2-4 was also seen when Liverpool were pressing from the front, as in this passage of play from the win over Arsenal. Against Sevilla, it was Szoboszlai rather than Elliott who was pushed on, pressing like a striker. A potential weakness of this system is Liverpool’s midfield being exposed if that front line of four is broken.
At other times, one of the forwards sat in on the opposition’s midfield player in a 4-2-3-1 out of possession, such as in this passage against Sevilla.
A more patient passing style
“Intensity is our identity” was Liverpool’s motto under Klopp, and while Slot will want to see an energetic team who squeeze opponents high, he places greater emphasis on controlling games through possession.
In contrast to Man City and Arsenal, their title rivals last season, Liverpool’s matches see-sawed from end to end. This can make their electric forward line incredibly dangerous, with the likes of Nunez and Salah thriving in transition, and see Liverpool rack up big chances and expected goals.
However, it also contributed to the defensive instability that undermined their challenge. Slot will want Liverpool to pass the ball for longer sequences as a defensive tool – depriving opponents of the chance to counter-attack.
Curtis Jones was frank when speaking about this change of philosophy, saying: “In the past it was a rush to get the ball back, a bit too direct, up and down, up and down. Now we want to have all the ball and completely kill a team.”
Harvey Elliott said similar: “It’s very elegant, Dutch style, it’s very nice. The style of play is a lot different. It’s more about in possession now.”
Though Liverpool’s move for Martín Zubimendi failed, it signalled that Slot wants a constructive ball-player at the base of his midfield rather than a destructive ball-winner.
Baiting opponents to press high
Liverpool under Klopp wanted territorial dominance, pinning teams back deep in their own half and smothering them with waves of pressing and counter-pressing. Relative to other teams at their level, Liverpool were also quite direct with Alexander-Arnold and Van Dijk’s long-range passing allowing them to play forward early.
In a subtle shift, Slot’s Liverpool look more keen to play short passes in their own defensive third, tempting opponents to jump into their high pressing shape. However, unlike Roberto De Zerbi’s Brighton, Liverpool do not look to play triangles through the pressure, but flip longer balls forward. You have probably heard of going long to play short; this is playing short to go long.
A fine example of this was Salah’s goal against Arsenal in Philadelphia. Arsenal pushed numbers forward to stop Liverpool playing out, but several black shirts were taken out of the game by a long ball forward. Jota won the knockdown in front of Gabriel, and Arsenal’s midfield could not recover to win the second ball. Salah exploited the space that was created.
Mo Salah's goal against Arsenal from the stands 👏
Arne Slot has already got Liverpool cooking 🧑🍳
(via @JKCappo) pic.twitter.com/XCN3jm34Y3
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) August 1, 2024
In this move against Sevilla, Liverpool played from their own six-yard box. Van Djik, Alisson, and Jarell Quansah outnumbered the Sevilla forwards three to two.
Alisson bisected the two white shirts with a pass to Ryan Gravenberch, who played on the angle to Quansah on the right side of the penalty area.
Rather than playing out to Alexander-Arnold or back into the traffic, Quansah looked forward to Salah, with a number of Sevilla players taken out of the game.
The move came to nothing, but with Salah pinning his defender, space to attack beyond the halfway line and Szoboszlai running off his man from midfield, it could have been dangerous.
The ‘swarm’ corner routine
Finally, this unusual corner routine caught the eye in pre-season. Every Liverpool player who was up for the corner gathered on the periphery of the penalty area at the back post, seemingly with little interest in the ball or the defenders.
When the ball was delivered, they suddenly dispersed, with three players heading to the edge of the box and the rest looking to catch out markers by getting on the run.
Liverpool will surely try this routine at least once at Portman Road on Saturday, and Ipswich’s coaches will have it filed in their laminated folders. They cannot say they were not warned.
