RB Leipzig v Liverpool A Liverpool Perspective
Another tweak in tactics from Slot, as he kept up his incredibly impressive record, which has seen him have the best start of any new manager in the club’s history, with 11 wins from 12 matches so far. This time out, the drop off and sit back defence that was adopted against Chelsea was discarded, in favour of a press, led by Nunez. With the forwards and midfield pressing, the backline had to stay pushed up, meaning there was space in behind but it was not exploited, instead RBL were caught offside repeatedly. The system was also altered slightly by allowing the left-back to operate like a full-back, raiding forward rather than sitting in the backline as a third centre-back. And it worked well, in what would have been a dominant win but for a string of poor passes from Liverpool players, particularly early in the game. Almost everything good created by the east Germans was as a result of Liverpool giving the ball away and putting themselves under pressure.
It was concerning how many passes went astray, especially the longer ranged passes – mainly that is Alexander-Arnold attempting them, so it was also almost all him that was misplacing them. The strange thing is that these are passes that he would normally make very easily. There were so many going astray that I was beginning to wander if the players were suffering from some kind of depth perception issue, maybe due to a lack of training and playing at that stadium or changes since the last time they were there? I remember interviews with players about how it affected the team’s results when they changed to a new stadium, West Ham United and Arsenal players mainly, and what was the main issues they found. While fans talk about the atmosphere, they were mainly talking about the difficulty in finding the range of passes due to the landmarks they used, subconsciously and consciously, no longer being there. It is why away teams like to train the night before the game on the pitch they are to play on, to get their eye in so to speak.
To be fair to RBL, a lot of the loose passes were down to their pressing early on, but it was still happening when Liverpool players were not being pressed. A lot of the shorter loose passes were laid off into space, expecting a Liverpool player to be running into it, but only finding a Leipzig player there, which suggests an issue with the players’ understanding of each other. Despite the poor passes, I would still consider this a performance of the kind that Pep Lijnders was wanting from Liverpool when he was with the club. No, I am not referring to intensity, but to his main buzz word when he was being interviewed – control. He was looking for the team to control games. It never happened under Klopp, but the control is now there and the results are bearing out that he had the right intention, it was just application that failed over the last couple of seasons.
One quick note about the officials, who were terrible enough that they could well have been English Premier League officials! Not sure how both the ref and VAR missed the penalty on Nunez, you do not get much more clear and obvious.
RB Leipzig
RBL are a well-drilled, well-organised pressing unit under Marco Rose, but they lack real quality, which is being badly exposed in the Champions League. Simons is simply nothing special at this level. Sesko needs to be the focal point of their attacks, using Openda’s pace more to push the defence back and create space to play in. Though they will need better quality across the midfield to do that as Nusa, Vermeeren and Haidara were poor, only slightly less poor than Simons. Defensively, they are a typical Bundesliga outfit – weak. Defending in the Bundesliga is often shambolic and, though they have one of the best defensive records in the division this season, you could see that defending was not a strength for this team.
Having not seen them at all this season, I would question whether this is their full first team, playing their usual formation and tactics, or whether they are saving their best for a proper assault on the Bundesliga title this year? They just played with so little confidence after the goal went in that it did not seem like a team that is fighting for a title.
Liverpool
Kelleher – a much improved performance, though he did start off with a needless rush out of the area to try and deal with a ball that Konate was easily able to deal with. After making a mess of his header and nearly conceding due to it, I was worried that it would set the tone for his night, but he was very good in the main. Though I would want to look at how easily he conceded the one-on-one chance to Openda, despite the Belgian being offside and it ruled out. There was none of the intimidation that forwards get as Alisson bears down on them, nor did he look like getting anywhere near to putting pressure on the forward.
Alexander-Arnold – a very solid defensive display but it was badly marred by his mostly terrible passing, oddly enough. There were a number of times he gave away the ball very softly. You expect a few of the difficult passes he attempts to go astray, but even some simple lay-offs to the side of him were straight to an opposition player. However, what really pleased me was how hard he worked to win the ball back and showed good reading of the game to position himself in a position to retrieve it with an interception very quickly afterwards.
Konate – it seems RBL have forgotten he played for them, gifting their other former player in the Liverpool ranks, Szoboszlai, a red bull statue but not him, however they will no doubt wish he still was in their team. He had a very strong performance and is settling in nicely this season now that he is not being rotated from week to week.
van Dijk – not just a great defender any more, he is really growing as a captain and becoming a strong leader of the team. The captaincy has really brought out the best in him and he has become more important to the team than ever.
Tsimikas – after a rocky start, where he also gave the ball away with a bad touch, he played very well, though not well enough to deserve the man of the match award that he got. His crosses were not accurate enough for him to deserve it, though I was pleased to see how well he got into positions to deliver. His corners were very good though and put RBL under intense pressure to deal with.
Gravenberch – once again excellent and, for me at least, the man of the match. He was everywhere and broke up play, protecting the defence, as well as using the ball well when he had it.
Mac Allister – when he gets forward, he plays some very good passes through the defence, but he is very little help defensively, often getting caught in no man’s land without the pace to get back or the reading of the game to pick up a position to block a possible pass. I am not convinced by him as a partner for Gravenberch at all. Also, I feel that he deserved his booking for diving as he does go down far too easily looking for a free kick. While he was fouled, he also did dive dramatically to try and ensure the referee saw it. It should have been a free kick to Liverpool and a booking for Mac Allister really, but it is his amateur dramatics that made the referee think it was just a dive with no contact.
Szoboszlai – a much better game from the Hungarian captain, who always does the dirty work for the team, but this time out he offered much more help offensively and his passing was better. Still passed up a perfect opportunity to hit a shot from the edge of the box though, which leads me to believe he is under instruction to avoid shooting.
Nunez – was very good, setting the press and caused their defence so many problems all night, as well as scoring a tap in at last. He was also very unlucky not to be awarded a penalty for a clear foul on him in the box.
Salah – also had a good game, though he was unable to get his goal, he did at least get an assist. It was a much more restrained performance than normal, with him sitting a bit deeper than he usually does. He was really unhappy to be subbed off though!
Gakpo – a very good game, he caused them lots of trouble throughout the game, though he really does need to work on his shooting.
Diaz – surprisingly replaced Salah in the 66th minute. Unfortunately, he had not long got onto the pitch before the control went missing after the triple substitution, so he never really got the chances to deliver that he would have liked. He was very obvious in his hard work, switching positions and getting in good positions.
Robertson – came on for Tsimikas in 74th minute. He was not on long but he looked ready to go and played well in the few minutes he got.
Jones – another surprise substitution as he took Nunez’s place in the 74th minute. Worked hard and got around the pitch getting involved but really needed more time to have any genuine effect.
Gomez – was brought on in place of Alexander-Arnold in the 74th minute. Looked very good at right-back, and it was satisfying to finally see Liverpool get some use out of that excellent long throw of his when he first came in and caught RBL out by throwing it right in behind their defence. That throw is such a good weapon, I have no idea why Klopp and his coaches failed to make use of it when he was on the pitch. It is akin to not letting Alexander-Arnold make long passes, it just makes no sense not to utilise it. I just hope that, if the chance comes to get a throw around the edge of the box with him playing, that it is treated like getting a corner and bodies are put into the box. With dominant aerial presences like Konate and van Dijk, it could be a route to a few goals during the course of a season.
Written by Tris Burke October 25 2024 06:11:41
