I don’t think he sees it as a problem though. He seems to set his team up to not be reliant on heavy pressing and lots of running to get games won, like Klopp did (broadly speaking). The problem for Arne now is that this just isn’t working! I get the principle, if you set up and are compact and defend well, back each other up etc then lots of running isn’t needed, it’s just a different way of doing things. But to be honest the formation/set up at times has been amateur hour in the last few weeks. You can’t control the game in the way he wants to whilst being able to drive 23 buses side by side through our midfield for example.
It’s all very worrying at the moment.
you are of course correct, no debate..but naming a formation is also the easiest and quickest way to indicate what youd like to see the players roles as…a predictive heat map if you would prefer…
do i want to see Ekitike never pull wide and create space for Wirtz? of course not…but its an indication of where we’d like to see them operate more
you could basically also frame it as ‘how do we stop Salah playing on the right wing’ in formation layout
nothing from that stat reveals much…its not 1975…you dont have to just ‘want it more’…‘run further and harder’…
watching the games id say covering less distance than our oponents isnt a worry at all…
having said that…and to absolutely contradict myself…anyone else get sick of watching a live Ibou or Virgil on the ball and everything further forward could be a screen shot with zero movement?
It’s still not a tactic!
…two seconds mate ill just get a pen and paper before the lesson starts…
I’ve held off commenting here as I’ve not really seen enough games to form a super concise analysis (based on the idea that I actually could in the first place), but from the little I’ve seen we are very open in the channels between the central defenders and full backs, especially if we lose possession high up.
So two solutions, you get the full backs closer to the central defenders or you get a midfielder to plug the hole.
That’s all.
what you see is true, but unfortunately, you only see the tip of the iceberg…
That was surely me, miserable sod that I am… ![]()
We also had more possession. If you have less possession you need to run more.
If everything goes to plan, I’d agree with you. The team which has less possession will run more. But when you are losing the game, even with much possession, shouldn’t the forwards, full backs and midfielders be required to make a bigger effort and to make more runs forward? That should reflect on the stats. Yet, against Brentford for instance, we ran seven full kilometers less than the opposition, despite of getting behind early in the game.
Brendan Rogers has just resigned!!! ![]()
That is exactly what I meant.
I am a bit tired of Arne talking about fine margins. This is the Premier League. With limited exceptions, matches are always down to fine margins.
Yes, it is true that we could have won all five of these losses with some slightly better luck. But we could have also lost by larger margins with slightly better luck for the opponent.
The issue to me isn’t losing because Cody hits the post three times, or because of soft pens on Szobo or Virg, or because Wirtz or Isak miss sitters.
It’s that the same issues are popping up again and again. We’re too open. We’re terrible at managing set pieces. And our attack hasn’t settled on a defined structure because Slot seemingly hasn’t figured out yet how to deploy everyone in the most effective way.
If we were correcting those issues but then still lost 2-1 because of a soft pen or a bad miss, I’d shrug my shoulders and say “on to the next one!” But that isn’t what’s been happening.
If the FB’ get closer then you are then inviting more crosses or their widemen penetrating the penalty area, which happened a lot when Robbo came on for Kerkez v Chelsea.
For me the midfielders need to be switched on and to track the midfield runner or our widemen if it is the fullback, which doesn’t happen on our right.
Yes, you get narrower you expect them to find that space which gives you a different problem to deal with.
The alternative as I said was to get the midfield to plug those channels. That can be done in a number of ways including a formation switch to 4-2-3-1.
I havent mentioned the opposition midfield runners as based on what I’ve seen it is their forwards getting behind our defensive line from a long ball from their defense, deep lying midfield.
We have been open to that inside channel runner from both midfielders and full backs, when we are deeper and relative compact, but as you said we are open there in transition.
Chelsea’s winner was Cucurella busting through an no one tracked him.
It isn’t so much a shape issue more that we don’t track the runner, if it is a shape issue, then 3 at the back solves both the problems.
I do think in transition both Ibou and Virg need to be more switched on and proactive not reactive.
Romano put out a video, touching on a number of topics, including Liverpool and Slot.
From what he said, apparently the club are fully behind Arne and believe him to be the best man to turn this around.
Well, there we land then.
Oh, Fab. I could have told you that. The club is going to circle the wagons around Slot and defend him publicly…until they decide to sack him (if ever). Until that happens, you won’t hear anything but praise from management.
I think he absolutely is Liverpool standard if given freedom to play his game. Time will tell