Let me say one thing right at the start of this piece: I do not think that pre-season matches matter in the slightest. In the summer of 2019, the Reds lost three of their pre-season games and drew the other one, yet in the season proper they racked up 99 points and won the Premier League for the first time.
Ordinarily, then, I wouldn’t pay pre-season much attention at all. That being said, this summer isn’t ordinary. Arne Slot has replaced Jürgen Klopp as Liverpool manager and is having to instil his way of playing into the squad at his disposal in a short space of time, so what we’re seeing in these matches tells us quite a lot about him.
Not Everyone’s Back
Before I look too in-depth at what he’s been up to from a tactical point of view, it is worth pointing out that not all of our players are back and working with the manager. The European Championship in Germany as well as the Copa America in the United States of America both mean that many players haven’t been out in the US on our pre-season tour, with a good number of them unlikely to join up until the Reds return to the AXA Training Centre.
The likes of Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk, Cody Gakpo and Darwin Núñez are all still missing, as are Alisson Becker, Alexis Mac Allister and Luis Diaz; all for various reasons.
I have to say, i was well impressed by that first half from Liverpool.
Arsenal had most of their starters on the field.
We had 9 players who will start, missing.Yet we dominated them. Patterns emerging .
I think the players have taken well to the managers instructions.
— Mr AP (@WewantR) August 1, 2024
It means that what we’ve been seeing from Slot’s players is not exactly what we’re likely to see once the season gets underway. That being said, it is also possible that the manager will go with the players that he’s been working with during the opening stages of the campaign, only bringing in the others when he knows that they’re fully up to speed with what it is that he’s asking of them from a tactical point of view.
It is also worth pointing out that most of the players I’ve listed there are tactically astute enough to be able to fit into the manager’s way of playing reasonably quickly, once he thinks they’ve got a level of match fitness.
How Slot’s Working Tactically
In Arne Slot’s first press conference as the ‘Head Coach’ of Liverpool, there was some amusement when he was asked by Chris Pajak from The Redmen TV about his ‘preferred’ 4-2-3-1 formation. Slot replied with a refutal of that suggestion, saying, “I was hoping that if people looked at my team, they wouldn’t say it’s 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3.
Sometimes it’s a 4-2-3-1, sometimes it’s 4-1-4-1, sometimes we do build up with three. If you would have asked me, I would say we played 4-3-3 instead of 4-2-3-1 at Feyenoord. I’m curious who told you we played 4-2-3-1? Maybe that one should go get his (coaching) licence or analyse a bit better!”
In the game against Arsenal, Liverpool looked to be using a 4-2-4 formation in the buildup, employing a flat pivot in the defensive midfield positions rather than a staggered one. It was also notable to see that Harvey Elliott, who was ostensibly playing as a number 10, dropped down from from the front line whilst Diogo Jota in the striker position held with Arsenal’s backline.
Meanwhile, Fabio Carvalho, who became something of a persona non grata during Klopp’s time, dropped into midfield in the buildup to make it into a three from time to time; something that Paixao was asked to do when Slot was at Feyenoord.
🔴 Ooolalaaaa #SlotBall
— AnfieldIndex (@AnfieldIndex) August 1, 2024
Then, as the attack reached the second phase of the buildup, Curtis Jones was able to leave his DM role and venture slightly further forward, acting as a target player. This allowed him to try to connect with his teammates some of the time and disrupt Arsenal’s shape at others.
When Jones did that, Kostas Tsimikas came over from the left-back slot to restore the double pivot and add numbers to the midfield. More than anything else, ‘Slotball’, as some people are calling it, has been about ‘killing them with passes’. This doesn’t mean sterile domination, but rather keeping the ball until an opportunity to go for the kill is presented.
