What We Can Do Against Liverpool
First of all, I can’t say ‘we should use that formation’ because all formations can be useful. And in this article, I am thinking hypothetically because I haven’t a real squad and I don’t know about how my team can play comfortably, which players can play together.
In modern football, registas are very important for every team. They are connecting behind defense and midfield line in making game and they are gamemakers. And if opponent can stop him, teams can’t make game easily. We have a lot of examples about this issue.
In Chelsea, especially Sarri’s Chelsea, Jorginho plays in regista role and if opponent team can mark him, Chelsea is facing a big problem because they can’t make game. In Inter, Brozovic plays in regista role and similarly if opponent can mark him, Inter can’t play game.
In Manchester City, Pep Guardiola uses Rodri for regista role but when opponent teams start to mark Rodri, Manchester City couldn’t make game easily and Guardiola thought about solving that problem. And he used his full backs like a regista. And now, his team has three regista.
In Liverpool, Jurgen Klopp plays Fabinho for regista role but actually, he is not the team’s ‘real regista’. ‘Real regista’ is Trent Alexander-Arnold. He is taking ball and passing ball like a crossing but it’s absolutely not a crossing. It’s a ‘regista pass’. It’s going to score goal and if you want to stop this case you must mark Alexander-Arnold because he is a regista.
Before everything, we should focus on how we can minimize Alexander-Arnold’s effect. If we can stop him we can stop Liverpool’s effect. If we focus on Salah, Mane, Firmino or Robertson we miss setter players. When Liverpool is in attack, Robertson runs to left wing, Firmino comes to midfield, Mane and Salah run to Firmino’s behind and Henderson runs to right wing. Now they have 5 players in forward line and if we can’t stop setter players, our defense players can be caught with few men.
So I think we should use man marking for Alexander-Arnold but not exactly man marking. The player must be like Callejon to hold him. Or maybe a high tempo full back with great attacking abilities. He doesn’t have to follow all the times but when they are attacking and they want to make game, this player must mark Alexander-Arnold.
I haven’t talked about Andy Robertson about man marking because when they are attacking, Andy Robertson transforms to a left winger. So, he is not a setter player.
Jurgen Klopp wants great long and cross balls for his team because when they did it, they can attack quickly in the other side. When we are in the set defending, their defense line usually use these long and cross balls. If they can be free, they can pass to their teammates easily. So, we must press their defense line. I am not talking about high pressing but we must be careful about their space. If they can find enough space they can pass their teammates and our defense line has enough space for them.
If we look Liverpool’s passes attempted stats, in short passes attempted, their place is 5th in the Premier League. In medium passes attempted, their place is 3th in the Premier League and when we look long passes attempted, we can understand their difference. Liverpool is 1st about this stat with 5746 passes in the Premier League and 2nd is Manchester City with 5076 passes. And if we look at who use long passes a lot, Alexander-Arnold is 1st with 958 attempted in the Premier League and Van Dijk is 2nd with 937 attempted. Ben Foster is 3rd with 843 and he is Watford’s goalkeeper. So especially, we must be careful about these two players.
If we don’t trust our stoppers and if we use 2 centre backs in the defense line, we should use 3 stoppers or we should keep 1 full back in the set attack because if we don’t do that, Jurgen Klopp will change Salah’s position in their set defense and Salah waits in the centre forward position for counter attack. And when they can take the ball, they want to use Salah for running behind our defense line and we haven’t enough players in the defense line because we haven’t great stoppers and Salah chooses worse stopper and he can force him easily. In this season, when Liverpool played against RB Salzburg in away, they used opponent’s that weakness. Salah usually ran behind the defense line against Onguene and in the second goal Onguene made a big mistake and Salah could score goal easily.
Let’s say we could take the ball and we want to score goal with counter attack. We should use right wing because Liverpool’s left centre midfielder is Wijnaldum and left back is Andy Robertson so, more offensive than the other wing. And I said, when they are in the set attacking, Alexander-Arnold plays in the regista role. So, he is closer our defense line other full back Andy Robertson because Robertson plays like a left winger in the set attack so, their right wing has more defense players. And Henderson can come to take the ball more quickly against Wijnaldum.
We must be careful about centre backs in Liverpool’s set pieces. We mustn’t use a short player for marking. In this season, Napoli used Mertens for marking Lovren and he could score a goal easily.
In the set defense, we should pull our team to more left because I said Liverpool’s regista is Alexander-Arnold and if we want to stop his making game, we should do it. In the other wing, Robertson can be free but it’s no problem for our team because nobody can pass to Robertson with long and cross ball, we did mark setter players in the other side.
Normally, in the set defense, if the ball is in the left side, right side can be free for opponent team because danger is in the left side and we should focus on the left side. But you can’t do that if you are playing against Liverpool because they are not a normal possession of the ball team. They use long and cross balls to create goal changes in the set attack so, if your team focus on to press left side too much, the opponent’s player on the right side is released and one long and cross ball can give a score goal chance.
We shouldn’t use number 10 in a winger position because he can’t follow opponent’s full back. When Liverpool takes the ball, he was close in the centre for game making and he can’t catch full back to take the ball back. Because Liverpool’s full backs have high tempo. We saw that in this season at Liverpool’s matches against Leicester City. Maddison played in the left winger position and he is a gamemaker. So, he is usually close to his teammates to take the ball and when they lost the ball, Alexander-Arnold can be free for making game and passes for his teammates easily.
In the set defense, if we can’t defend midfield very well, it’s not a big problem because Liverpool’s regista is in the right side. Let’s say we chose 4-4-2 formation. Normally, wingers close to centre midfielders for defending midfield area but if we are playing against Liverpool, we should think wings. If we leave a lot of space in wings, Liverpool’s full backs can contribute attack easily.
Let’s remember what Manchester United did to stop Liverpool in this season. Solskjaer chose 3-4-1-2 formation in his line-up and they have only two players in the centre midfield. So, Liverpool found a lot of space in the midfield but they couldn’t score goal easily because Manchester United had 5 players in the defense line and they could give no space to Liverpool and also Alexander-Arnold couldn’t find enough space. And he had to think about Rashford and James for counter attacks because if he supports the attack too much, Rashford and James can find a lot of space in their wings in the defense line.
If we want to ‘win’ against Liverpool, our winger shouldn’t come back to defense too much. Watford won against Liverpool in this Premier League season and they succeeded to become the first team that win against Liverpool in this Premier League season. They chose 4-2-3-1 formation and when they were in the set defending, wingers came to defense line and they transformed to almost 6-3-1 formation.
They won 3-0 but if we have a look at their goals, no goals were scored as planned or as a result of the tactical attack. First 2 goals were scored as a result of the throw-in and third goal was scored as a result of the Alexander-Arnold’s wrong pass in the defense area. Their wingers can’t support attacks and so, they couldn’t produce goal positions in the counter attacks. But it was not a problem for them because firstly they wanted to take another point. But they showed us one important thing: If we can control Liverpool’s full backs, we can control Liverpool.
Jurgen Klopp uses some different tactics and formations in matches. If they get ahead in the match and want to leave the ball and keep the score, Salah comes to Firmino and meets his opponent with 4-4-2.
If we look at the player changes of this season, Jurgen Klopp’s top players are the Origi (17 times), Lallana (12 times), Milner (11 times) and Chamberlain (8 times). He put these players into play in certain situations. For example, if he puts Origi into play, he usually puts it in because he needs goals, and in this case, he sends Salah to Firmino and returns to 4-2-4 many times. If Lallana enters the game, he usually enters the game to support the midfield. If Milner enters the game, he enters to balance the game and strengthen the defense. When Chamberlain enters the game, he is often behind and used to give tempo to the match.
So, as a result, if we want to stop Liverpool first of all, we should sacrifice defending the midfield. I am not talking about let’s defend wings and beat Liverpool, football does not work like that, but if we can balance defending between midfield and wings, we can have a chance to win.