Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool hosted league leaders Arsenal during a midweek round of fixtures in the Premier League. The match ended up being a thriller and an early contender for most entertaining match of 2016. Winning would’ve undoubtedly boosted Arsenal’s chances at winning the league title, while Liverpool were hoping to enter their match against rivals Manchester United on a high.

With his side in 8th place at kickoff, Jurgen Klopp has had a roller-coaster time adapting to the English game so far. Some results have been overwhelmingly impressive, while others have been not satisfactory for a club that envisions itself as one that should be challenging for the title. Liverpool have recently had key players suffer injuries, with some believing a mixture between the frequency of games and the high intensity pressing style of Klopp as a potential cause. The former Borussia Dortmund boss has come under fire from renowned fitness coach Raymond Verheijen, who believes that Klopp ignored, and is now blaming, external factors that come with coaching in England for the injury crisis.

When it came to team selection, Klopp opted not to field a recognized striker. Instead he fielded Roberto Firmino and Adam Lallana up top as false 9’s, with his side effectively playing a 4-4-2-0 (more on this later).

Arsene Wenger selected his side to play a 4-2-3-1 formation, although it appeared to be a 4-1-4-1 at certain stages. His team selection was also impacted by injuries, per usual at this time of year. The absence of Francis Coquelin meant Mathieu Flamini started alongside Aaron Ramsey.

Liverpool’s High Intensity leads to Early Domination

In the opening stages of the game, Liverpool aimed to be on the front foot and overpower Arsenal by attacking with speed down the wings. While the central zones were not neglected by Liverpool, they were not prioritized in the early minutes.

James Milner would drift inside to allow Alberto Moreno to overlap him and force Joel Campbell to track back, stifling any counterattacks for Arsenal that may have gone down the right. The two of them would combine and interchange in wide areas, hoping to get in solid positions to send crosses into the penalty area.

Emre Can in particular played multiple speculative passes from distance early on to try and send wide players through on goal or at least create a 1v1 with Hector Bellerin, who was put under pressure in the first 15 minutes or so. He continued to play passes into wide areas throughout the night.

Jordan Ibe throughout the match tried to beat defenders out wide and demonstrated great belief in his abilities on the dribble. This led to a consistent supply of passes from defense and midfield, to the point where better options where neglected.

In the 7th minute, Jordan Henderson made a run which would’ve broken through the defensive line and created a 1v1 with the goalkeeper if found accurately. However, it was ignored by Adam Lallana, preferring to play a flighted ball out wide to Ibe, indicating the tactic at hand was to dominate on the wings to try and pin Arsenal’s midfielders Walcott and Campbell back and play from there.

Since Arsenal’s wide attacking options were not in advanced areas of the field when they recovered the ball, Petr Cech and the defenders played long passes up to Giroud and Ozil in an attempt to push the team up and gain some forward momentum. Giroud generally lost his aerial battles to the physical presences of Sakho and Kolo Toure, but even when Arsenal were able to get the ball down in transition, Henderson and Can were excellent tracking back and applying pressure to the ball carrier to regain possession.

Can’s work defensively in transition led to the Red’s first goal, as he helped dispossess Theo Walcott after a corner kick. He was found in space immediately after and his shot was rebounded in by Roberto Firmino.

Defensive Issues for Both Teams

Instead of playing a high press, Jurgen Klopp chose to have his side drop off and play a lower line of confrontation. Rather than pressure the center backs, Lallana and Firmino instead blocked off passing lanes into the midfield.

This meant that Liverpool’s intense pressing defensively came once the ball was in the midfield. Lallana and Firmino acted as additional players to provide organization for Liverpool’s team pressing as opposed to leading efforts from the front. This formed a 4-4-2-0 shape when in defense. Initially, when Arsenal’s attacks were forced down the center of the pitch, Liverpool had great success defensively due to their numerical advantage in the center. They used these numerical advantages all over the midfield, using their superior athleticism and fitness levels to cover more ground than Arsenal and win the ball back effectively.

While their pressing and positioning was generally solid in midfield, once Liverpool had to defend in their final third was when issues came up for the home side. Firmino and Lallana did not track back far generally, meaning the numerical advantage Liverpool had in midfield was lost in their own third. Arsenal had no difficulty finding space in between the lines since Liverpool’s midfield line was flattened out and could not prevent these balls from finding feet.

Once Bellerin and Monreal started to venture forward later on in the match, Liverpool exhibited poor horizontal compactness as they were stretched out. Luckily, they were not punished because of this, as Olivier Giroud missed an absolute sitter from the best chance created as a result of the lack of compactness, and the other two goals were following set pieces, which Klopp expressed disappointment at.

Aaron Ramsey was a problem player for both Arsenal and Liverpool defensively due to his positioning. Due to his meandering forward in attack, he would overload central zones and be left free in areas an attacking midfielder would normally occupy, causing problems for Liverpool’s midfield. This is what exactly took place on Ramsey’s equalizer in the 14th minute, where his run from deep was undetected and beat Simon Mignolet near post.

However, this behavior also left his midfield partner Flamini isolated, thus creating a 4-1-4-1. When playing against a traditional 4-4-2, this may not have been as big of an issue, as the strikers would be lined up on the center backs and Flamini individually could have prevented passes going into the forwards. However, Lallana and Firmino dropped into the space that Ramsey and Flamini would normally be. Since Ramsey was not present when this occurred, Flamini was overrun by the two of them.

Arsenal were punished for this only five minutes after Ramsey’s goal when Roberto Firmino moved into the space where Ramsey would’ve normally been, and placed an excellent curling shot in the top right corner, which Cech could do little about. Firmino has excelled in this type of role before, specifically with Brazil which I discussed last year.

To counteract Flamini being overrun, Joel Campbell would pinch in centrally when the ball was not on the left flank or when Aaron Ramsey was not in a decent position, opting to leave Alberto Moreno open in the process.

With a zonal defending system, constant communication is required to adequately cover the spaces and make sure no player is left free in a covered zone. Arsenal on occasion did not show the high level of work required to effectively defend zonally. They consistently let Liverpool players run past them if a Red advanced into another zone without passing them along, leaving them open to be found for forward passes. This was the biggest worry in the beginning of the match, when Arsenal’s whole defense looked lethargic while Liverpool were energetic.

Arsenal were also weak in transition when losing the ball, displaying little to no counterpressing and essentially allowed Liverpool opportunities to break with little resistances at times.

Liverpool Problems in Attack

Once the match settled down after the opening excitement, chances were more hard to come by for Liverpool than for Arsenal.

The hosts continued to have their attacks involve the wings in some capacity, whether it was with build up or setting up chances to potentially finish. Arsenal responded to Liverpool’s increasing reliance on the wings by creating a deeper block with more players in it, decreasing the likelihood of any cross or cutback from creating a chance. When crosses were sent in the box, the two false 9’s posed almost no threat to actually win the ball in the air, so the strategy had little inclination to be working.

This also forced Firmino and Lallana to have to drift into wider spaces in order to receive the ball, since the space where they were roaming earlier was now covered. This subsequently removed players from the center and made Liverpool easier to defend and more predictable.

These problems only worsened after Arsenal took the lead through a marvelous goal by Giroud. After the goal, there was an increased sense of urgency from the Reds, yet from a possession standpoint, Liverpool were getting in very poor positions to optimize ball circulation, meaning a direct style was in order.

Not surprisingly, the approach Liverpool was employing did not match they players on the pitch. until Christian Benteke entered the match for James Milner. For some unknown reason, the direct approach did not really come into play until Joe Allen came on as a substitute.

Up until stoppage time, Liverpool seeked to pump crosses into the box, hoping to reach the head of Benteke or center back-cum-striker Steven Caulker. One of them eventually paid off, as Joe Allen volleyed in a header from Benteke following a free kick to cap off an exhilarating match.

Conclusion

While the match itself was exciting, it was not a tactical masterpiece by any means. The Premier League at the moment I think is currently predicated as to who can capitalize on their opponents mistakes the best, rather than forcing those mistakes in the first place. When faced against higher level opposition in Europe, English teams may struggle for precisely that reason. Klopp may be one of the first steps in a tactical revolution in the Premier League, but many obstacles lie in his way at the moment. Until then, the claim of the Premier League being the best league in the world has to be under scrutiny, as the best teams clearly show they are not tactically among the best.

In the meantime however, Arsenal has a difficult stretch of matches ahead that will show if they are really worthy of the league title this year, while Jurgen Klopp will hope to get his tactics and team selection right on Sunday against Manchester United after a grueling match midweek.

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