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This season may only be three games old, but it’s already felt like a hectic start to the campaign for Liverpool.

On Wednesday night, they put to bed the disappointment of suffering penalty shootout defeat to Manchester City two weeks ago in the Community Shield by defeating Chelsea on penalties in the UEFA Super Cup final to lift their second European trophy in three months.

In between both finals, the Reds opened their Premier League campaign with a 4-1 victory at home to Norwich. As a result, Jurgen Klopp’s side remain undefeated so far and look set for another strong domestic and European campaign.

Among the many subplots that have evolved from the season so far, an interesting aspect of Liverpool’s play has been their noticeable high defensive line.

Whilst Klopp’s side are best known for their pressing capabilities, they are often underestimated in terms of their ability in possession. Last season they had a Premier League ball possession average of 61% - this was the third highest in the division.

That trend has continued this season with Liverpool bettering all three of their opponents in terms of ball possession. A result of their dominance in this department means many teams retreat into their own defensive half when the Reds are on the ball, allowing Liverpool’s centre-backs to push forward onto the halfway line and pen the opposition into their own half.

Notably though, when possession is lost, usually a defensive line will drop deep to either track the run of an attacker or in order to safeguard against the risk of a long ball over the top and into the space behind.

Yet, Liverpool look to be avoiding doing the same this season, instead maintaining a high line and staying compact allowing little space in front of them for the opposition to play through.

An example of this is below taken from Wednesday’s Super Cup final vs Chelsea.

Jorginho receives the ball on the halfway line. Although he has little space to play short passes in the middle, there is plenty of space behind the Liverpool high defensive line in which he can play a lofted ball forwarded.

Whilst playing such a high line can boast great reward in stifling out an opposition attack, the same also traditionally presents a high risk for a defensive unit, which is why managers have often been reluctant to utilise it.

When using the same, clubs are heavily reliant on officials correctly flagging for offsides against attacking players. Meanwhile, any defender not maintaining the line could keep an opposition attacker onside and the same could lead to a high quality chance on their goal.

However, as one of the more forward thinking clubs in Europe, Liverpool look to have implemented the high defensive line tactic in cohesion with the recent introduction of Video assistant refereeing (VAR) in the Premier League.

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The rule change saw referrers provided assistance to officiate the game using video footage and a headset for communication which means that any goal scored can be scrutinised and checked for any infringements - including offsides.

This means that providing Liverpool maintain a robust and organised defensive line, they can be rest assured that any missed offside by the officials resulting in a goal will be ruled out with the assistance of VAR.

Klopp’s men have trialed a similar tactic in the past, notably in last season’s Champions League away fixture vs PSG. In that game, PSG’s forward line was caught offside on six occasions, limiting the attacking prowess of one of Europe’s top forward lines.

Strikingly, across Liverpool’s three competitive matches so far this season, they have been awarded 19 free-kicks for offsides. For comparison, they were awarded just five free-kicks for offsides in their final three games of last season.

We saw an example of this tactic’s proficiency on Wednesday night after Christian Pulisic latched onto Emerson’s pass to dribble his way into the Liverpool penalty area and seemingly double Chelsea’s advantage in the 39th minute. Yet, the goal was eventually ruled out for offside after Liverpool maintained their well drilled defensive line.

Governed by Virgil van Dijk, expect to see Liverpool maintain their high defensive line throughout the up and coming campaign. They will of course encounter perilous moments which may see the opposition bypass the tactic in the same way Manchester City managed with their well worked free-kick at Wembley two weeks ago.

Yet, overall it seems Liverpool are once again ahead of the curve in using the Premier League’s latest rule to change to their benefit.