Deep Dive on Liverpool’s Forward Line Under Arne Slot – Are Wingers the Main Goal Threat?

Written on 22/02/2025 (before Liverpool’s game against Man City)

Before Arne Slot took over this Liverpool team in the summer, there were questions regarding how the Dutchman would use the forward players in the squad. The first thing he did was to resist a massive churn of players in that department (nor in any, for that matter). Federico Chiesa was signed close to the deadline day in a deal that didn’t cost the club much. Perhaps, the only thing the new manager wanted was two good players in each position in the forward line.

Now, Slot’s system at Feyenoord was 4-2-3-1, focusing on the number nine to score the goals and the wingers to be the providers of chances. In the Eredivisie last season, Feyenoord’s number nine Santiago Giménez scored 23 goals in 29 appearances, 13 more than the right winger Yankuba Minteh.

At Liverpool so far, the Dutchman has gone with a similar formation (4-2-3-1) with one holding midfielder (Ryan Gravenberch) and an anchor (Alexis Mac Allister) behind a floating number 10 (Dominik Szoboszlai). Fullbacks have a flexible role where at least one of them inverts when the team is in possession. In the forward line, however, there has been a focus on wingers staying high and wide, while the number nine drops deep to link play with the midfield and also makes runs into the opposition box to get on the end of attacking moves.

Slot has used three players in that number position - Diogo Jota, Darwin Núñez and Luis Díaz. Below, we have some of the passing networks from different games this season with those three players as number nines (these networks are taken from Opta).

Starting with Jota

This was the second game of the season where Liverpool had 63% possession. Mohamed Salah (11) was the furthest forward player in this network while the number nine Jota (20) was in a similar line as the left winger Díaz (7). Szoboszlai (8) is almost like a support striker operating on the right half-space.

If we look at the match stats: Jota had the most shots out of the forward (4), Díaz had the highest xG (0.73) and Salah had the highest number of touches in the opposition box (9).

Up next, Núñez

Liverpool had 69% possession in this game, with Cody Gakpo (18) and Salah (11) the furthest forward players while the number nine Núñez linked up with the two deep-lying midfielders and this time it is Curtis Jones (17) playing the role of a support striker in the right half-space.

Match stats had Salah having the most attempts on goal (5), the most xG (0.63) and the highest number of touches in the opposition box (16) among the three forwards.