Liverpool’s Build-Up v Arsenal’s Press — Analysing Liverpool v Arsenal
It was a week of typical Jurgen Klopp brilliance. A timely reminder of his greatness and a festive lesson to Liverpool fans — gratitude. It had all the colours.
The typical Klopp headline-grabbing press conference in the lead-in to a big clash: “If you are not in the right shape, give your ticket to somebody else… We need Anfield on Saturday”. Genius.
The power of intangibles such as crowd atmosphere is constantly undervalued in understanding football games. Why can a team like Manchester City, who have won practically everything, not find great success at Anfield? To put this down to tactics is clearly not correct. The tactics have worked effectively everywhere else. The players are humans. Humans feel emotions and at Anfield, perhaps the opposition feels such intense emotions that puts them off their game. On the flip side, Liverpool feels such intense emotions that play right into their ‘intensity’ brand of football.
Klopp knew he needed the crowd on Saturday. Not because he thought his Liverpool were inferior to Arsenal, but because, his Liverpool could become superior to Arsenal on that given night despite their tactical deficiencies.
Motivation is part of coaching, but let’s focus on Klopp’s actual coaching brilliance.
Liverpool’s First Phase:
To understand the magnitude of the challenge that faced Liverpool in its first-phase build-up, let’s unravel the context.
Liverpool’s build-up has struggled in balancing directness with safe ball-progression, while, facing troubles in executing the ideal rotations to prevent their double-pivot being isolated from their interiors and forwards. Against Chelsea, they had 37% possession, Klopp described them as “being in a rush” and this was the peak of their hyper-directness. In the following games, Liverpool began to reveal their fluidity, especially down the right-hand side with Dominik Szoboszlai, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Mohamed Salah.
The role of Trent Alexander-Arnold was one that the coaching team continued to experiment with. He would still mostly be within the double-pivot to form a box midfield, but at times he would find himself in the right half-space just outside the block, maximising his ability to receive facing towards the opposition goal. An idea that started to emerge particularly after the last international break was TAA’s position in between Van Dijk and Konate — as a third CB in the build-up allowing him to have full field vision for any long balls but more importantly, allowing him to dictate the build-up play.
The major issue that still plagued Liverpool was fluency in the build-up, particularly under pressure. The disastrous first half for Liverpool and Wataru Endo against Crystal Palace is a prime example. In the Manchester City game, Liverpool had 10 high turnovers against City’s aggressive pressing scheme.
Arsenal’s Press:
The challenge becomes even tougher when you are facing Arsenal, who perhaps just had one of their most imperious pressing and out-of-possession performances against Brighton. De Zerbian build-up principles have taken the Premier League by storm over the last season and a half. Brighton has one of the highest buildup pass completion rates in the Premier League at close to 90%. Arteta says who cares? 11 turnovers, a man-to-man press that was a treat to the eyes. The concept of switching and covering was as nuanced as a well-drilled NBA side. It was beautiful.
So, What Happened?
As I said earlier, Klopp coached brilliantly.
The main issue Liverpool would’ve faced is the isolation of Wataru Endo in the build-up, especially if Arsenal were to persist with an aggressive man-to-man press (turns out they didn’t). Here (image below), Dominik Szoboszlai drops into a double pivot alongside Wataru Endo providing both the ball-playing centre-backs with a passing option, but also, allowing Trent Alexander-Arnold to push higher up the field.
The main principle that characterised Liverpool’s build-up was to rotate into spare space. Numerous times, Van Dijk or Trent would be gesturing for Endo, Jones or Konate to come closer or to drop into the vacant space. As a result, the structure did have semblances of fluidity.
The below image captures the essence of Liverpool’s build-up. In the preceding seconds, Trent gestures for Jones to tuck in closer to the centre, noting the space behind the Arsenal front-pressing line. Trent is in a half-space position outside the block (another one of his various positions). A box midfield is formed and Konate is the spare man. His ball-playing abilities in this match were pivotal to Liverpool’s build-up looking more coherent. In this instance, he spots the timidity in Arsenal’s press and plays the line-breaking pass to Jones who can carry the ball forward.
Principle — Rotate into space, find the space and progress the ball forward.
It would’ve been interesting to see how Liverpool would’ve coped if Arsenal’s press was as aggressive as it was against Brighton.
Trent-Alexander Arnold:
This topic doesn’t deserve too much time. There isn’t a debate anymore. Trent Alexander Arnold is a world-class playmaker, a world-class deep playmaker, and a world-class passer of the football.
The main positive that has come from Trent’s play this season has been his tactical versatility, in-game IQ and an enhancement in the execution of his world-class abilities.
Liverpool’s goal which was set up by one of the best passes of the season, from Trent Alexander-Arnold sums it up perfectly.
Here, Trent notes that the double pivot is marked, as such, he gestures with his arm for Konate to move into the RCB role so Trent can jump in between both the centre-backs.
Now, the Liverpool star has a full vision of the field. He spots Salah calling in for a run behind Zinchenko. Executes the pass perfectly and the Egyptian King is up to his usual brilliance. A goal of individual brilliance. Perfectly sums up Trent Alexander Arnold’s ability and Liverpool’s ability to always stay in games through their elite individual talent.
The next evolution in Trent’s game is perhaps more nuanced build-up control. Currently, the essence of his game is to attempt to control the build-up and always be on the lookout for highly direct, line-breaking passes from the various positions he finds himself in. In the final phase, he likes to be in and around the box to give himself the best chance to contribute towards goal-scoring opportunities.
He was the most incisive player on the pitch but also lost the ball the most times.
His defensive ability in 1v1 situations cannot be understated. At times, his body positioning can still be awkward but against Arsenal he came away with 6 recoveries and was a pivotal part of Martinelli not being able to enjoy success (obviously, Konate was the main reason).
The Press Narrative:
One of the other satisfying takeaways for Liverpool in this match and generally from the whole of December is that traits of their peak pressing and counter-pressing intensity are being seen again. The first 15–20 minutes of the 2nd half, was typical Klopp football. Soak it in. The likes of Curtis Jones and Dominik Szoboszlai were brilliant OOP and Liverpool’s very own new duel-winner, Wataru Endo stepped up with one of his most impressive performances in a Liverpool shirt.
The narrative leading into this match was about Arsenal’s world-class out-of-possession hybrid press set-up, usually alternating from a man-to-man high press into a mid-block. Surprisingly, the pressing set-up was relatively timid especially compared to how they played against Brighton.
Tactics are all about trade-offs. The trade-off of persisting with the aggressive man-to-man press would be that it would’ve left a lot of isolated 1v1 situations and players with the technical calibre of Jones, Szoboszlai and Salah could’ve profited off those situations and got into space after getting past their man, leaving Arsenal vulnerable to quick attacks.
Arteta may have thought this was too big of a risk to take and his press was significantly less aggressive. The goal seemed to be to use the front line to screen passes into the interiors, however, when Arsenal were caught in the flux between pressing and shadow marking, the ball-playing skills of Konate and VVD caught them out. The best stat to indicate this was that Arsenal’s defensive action height was 41.7m, the lowest for them this season. They allowed Liverpool to make 12 deep entries, the 2nd highest they have conceded this season.
Mid-Season Reflections:
For Liverpool to end the halfway point of the Premier League season and 2023 in first place is remarkable. With the tactical deficiencies they have shown at various points in this season, the lack of an elite defensive midfield profile at the start of the season, and questions over defensive depth — they shouldn’t be at the top.
But as good coaches and good teams do, they made the most of their resources. Mac Allister and Endo have filled the defensive midfield role, Endo especially has been a revelation and has grown into this team very nicely.
The emergence of Jarell Quansah and the resurgence of Joe Gomez has been extremely promising. Jurgen Klopp continued to back his guns with the 2 man rest- defence, to be frank, it does leave Liverpool exposed but perhaps with the current profiles and the use of an unconventional box midfield, Liverpool no longer require that left-footed centre-back.
The January transfer window will be an interesting one. The mind still says that a defensive midfield profile is needed, a traditional winger to bolster the attack would be further beneficial. But, knowing the FSG strategy and Liverpool’s current results, the move will only be made if it is a clear fit.
If Liverpool does go on to win this title, it may perhaps be one of the great achievements of Klopp’s illustrious career.
Have a fruitful 2024, folks!
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