The Reds’ Engine Room: Tactical Analysis, and What the Stats Say

Written on 04/09/2024

Liverpool have made an excellent start to the season with three wins out of three before the first international break. While wins against Ipswich Town and Brentford were considered solid, the comfortable stroll against Manchester United at Old Trafford positively raised quite a few eyebrows. 

One of the habits of last season was conceding first in games. Liverpool conceded the first goal in 16 of the 38 league games in the 2023/24 campaign. So far, and I know it is only three games in, the Reds are yet to concede a goal and are top of the expected goals conceded table (even better than Manchester City and Arsenal at the moment).

Control and being solid in transitions have been some of the keywords Arne Slot has reiterated time after time in his press conferences. The Dutchman has achieved that to a large extent in the three games. 

One of the talking points of the summer was Liverpool being ‘short’ in the midfield department and their failed attempt to sign Martin Zubimendi from Real Sociedad to bolster the number six position. Slot hasn’t sulked and instead found a solution from the current crop of players. He has started with a midfield pivot of Ryan Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister to shore the team up from counter-attacks. Dominik Szoboszlai has the free role (with certain directional instructions) to press high and link up with the forward line.

So far, this has worked a treat with it passing the biggest test at Old Trafford after steady starts at Ipswich and against Brentford.

Below, we take a tactical look at how the manager has made his midfield flexible and tough to penetrate. We will also examine the numbers that back the analysis.

Tactical Analysis - Flexible Shape of the Midfield

We have a few in-game screen grabs to further understand the flexibility and routines Liverpool midfield undergoes in this tweaked system under Slot.

When centre-backs are wide and split, there are two midfielders (denoted by a black line) showing for the ball in the deeper midfield area (Gravenberch and Mac Allister). Hence, both Ibrahima Konate and Virgil van Dijk are not short on options for a pass centrally. If that lane is blocked, the two fullbacks are not bombing forward unless the team has secured possession. They become the extra option for a pass out.

Consequently, even if one of the fullbacks makes the forward run in this situation and the intended pass to him is intercepted, there is enough cover to stop the counter-attack (two midfielders behind the ball supporting the centre-backs).

With the team in a more secure possession up the field, the centre-backs are closer to each other and the fullbacks are narrow and close, only Gravenberch drops deep to pick up possession and Mac Allister joins Szoboszlai in making the forward run. This makes it more of an orthodox 4-3-3 shape as we used to see under Jurgen Klopp.

In this picture, the left-back (Andrew Robertson) has made the forward run. Trent Alexander-Arnold is narrow and tucked in. There are two midfielders deep showing for the ball from the centre-backs. 

A pass from the centre-back to one of the deep midfielders (here it went to Gravenberch) allows the latter to turn in space and drive at the opposition defence. If that pass option was blocked, Szoboszlai (circled in orange) would always be the free man when playing as a floating number 10.