It takes some doing to win a game without the ball but that’s what Liverpool did against Manchester City. In fact, possession of just 34 per cent was made to look more than enough for Arne Slot’s team.
If Liverpool have won courtesy of different means this season as they have accumulated 19 victories in the Premier League and 31 across all competitions, then this latest triumph was underpinned by the collective desire that runs through this team and the head coach’s steady hand on the tiller.
Slot’s players covered the yards, won the tackles, made the headers and were clinical with their chances. Little wonder Gary Neville, on Sky Sports commentary, called it a “champions’ display”.
There are games during league campaigns when a side has to adapt, not only at the outset but also as the game progresses. This was one such occasion.
Although this City are far from the force that Liverpool have faced in the past, they were still the reigning champions playing for pride at their own stadium where Liverpool hadn’t won a league game for a decade.
It called for adjustments, no matter what. And with Slot lining up Dominik Szoboszlai and Curtis Jones in central attacking roles, flanked by Mohamed Salah on the right and Luis Diaz on the opposite wing, the Liverpool head coach again displayed his tactical flexibility.
Philosophies — and the 100 per cent devotion to them, think Ange Postecoglou and Ruben Amorim — have been a dominant narrative during this league season, but no coach more than Slot has shown his hand at being so adept at tinkering towards the task in hand (although Bournemouth’s Andoni Iraola runs him close).
Slot clearly reasoned that it was impossible to dominate the ball away from home against a Pep Guardiola team so why not double down on the out-of-possession shape? It meant that for all of City’s ball possession, they were still distinctly second best to their opponents.
Liverpool’s 4-2-4 formation kept City at arms length throughout and Alisson was rarely troubled. Admittedly some of that was down to the home team’s lacklustre attack that contained an off-colour Phil Foden,, an out-of-sorts Kevin De Bruyne and missed the presence of Erling Haaland.
Slot even shuffled things late on, putting on Wataru Endo and shifting Alexis Mac Allister further forward, and it meant they saw out the game in extreme comfort.
Being able to be so flexible with the players at his disposal, whilst factoring in the opposing team he is facing, positions Slot as the antidote to many of the hard-core philosophers also in the division.
Liverpool are proving to be complete team
Performances may not register quite as high on the entertainment scale as some other teams, but tell that to the supporters whose side are leading the league by 11 points.
Virgil van Dijk described it as the “complete performance”, and a display of hard work and graft only proves to be a winning formula when a player of Salah’s quality can score one goal and set up another from Liverpool’s first two attacks (he now has 51 league goal involvements this term).
The long and short of it is that the blend Slot is finding is taking Liverpool towards a second league title in 35 years. And should they see it through, this weekend will be viewed as being pivotal in the final reckoning.
Arsenal’s defeat to West Ham United meant Slot and his players could take on City with their hand already strengthened. But that doesn’t mean their eyes diverge, or will going forwards, from their own job.
“Ten years it took to win here in the league, so it was about time,” Van Dijk said.
“This was a big win and I told the guys: ‘Don’t take these wins for granted but when you go home, recover and be ready for the preparation for Newcastle [United, on Wednesday]. That’s the only thing we have to do. Tunnel vision. Nothing else matters.”
Which tactical gambits Slot whips out for this week’s visit of Newcastle, which will be a preview of the Carabao Cup final to come next month, is anyones guess. They will come up against the top-flight’s second-most prolific striker (Alexander Isak has 19 goals to Salah’s 25) and a team that works tremendously hard off the ball. It will be another test.
The opponents will be different, as will the challenges posed by them, but Slot’s tactical smarts and the players’ tireless approach to fulfilling them are showing no signs of abating.
