In possession it starts out as a 3-2-2-3 set up. Trent is sitting in the double pivot on the right which has allowed him to get on the ball more and influence the game with his passing.
When we lose the ball, Trent attempts to get back onto the right hand side, if possible.
If it isn’t possible (e.g we lose the ball due to a sloppy pass), Trent gives Fabinho support in the middle of the pitch, but it means Konate might have to come out wider to cover that space.
Short term, it has been a move that has increased Trent’s influence on the game. Longer term, some issues might become apparent. Would it work as well with Matip or Gomez there instead of Konate? Not convinced.
For now though, it certainly looks better. Trent had the 2nd most touches of any player in any PL game tonight, that is exactly the impact Klopp would have been looking for with the change in system.
Didn’t get a chance to watch last few games, but caught 2nd half of this one. I’ll be interested to see if Trent can play like that against decent teams. He was awesome today, spraying passes all over, but had literally all day and zero pressure. Teams that are actually organized and are looking for him to step into midfield may give him a tougher go. What a game today though. He got upset when players around him didn’t give him the ball. He wanted it every time. Gives all kind of hope for what he could be in a position of need currently.
First half wasn’t much to look at until we got the first (shouldn’t have been given for me). After that it was vintage Liverpool, dissecting the opponent on the break.
Jota got two and assisted, Salah got two, Gakpo scored one and assisted, Nunez with a very composed finish. Fair to say that the forwards had themselves a day. Best player on the pitch was TAA though, followed by Jones. He made some posters lose face today.
For years it’s been common for teams to have had different shape/formation in possession vs out of possession. What has become a little more evolved recently is the shape changes depending on how long you’re out of possession. This appears to be what we’re doing with Trent at the moment rather than an orthodox switch into midfield. We only saw glimpses of it today because of how little of the ball Leeds had, but the transition that is expected is that if we lose it he presses from the midfield to try to win it back and then makes his way back into a more orthodox RB position if we dont get it back immediately and have to do more defending. It was a lot more evident against Arsenal, because for the first half at least they had a lot of controlled possession. It’s not too different to what Pep has been doing with his full backs for a couple of years. But what it does mean is “keep trent in midfield and put Gomez RB” is actually a completely different solution to what we’re trying now. To further the point @ILLOK makes above how viable this is with different players at CB, it also means that if Trent cannot play for any reason we dont solve that problem by just picking a different CM because we’re “only playing 3 at the back now.”
Interesting Klopp’s comments about the counterpress reappearing today. I thought in patches last week it looked good as well. 2 performances from Jones in midfield and 2 performances in which the press seemed to be working, but also 2 games in which this move essentially gave us an extra body in midfield when we lose the ball.
Trent could totally do it for England if Southgate basically copied what we did with Konate and Fab, just use Walker and Rice/Bellingham that way. But alas he is desperately limited in his vision.
missed this as i was at Limp Bizkit tonight. Just watched highlights and the goals were great. leeds were open and that suits us…wouldnt be a lfc performance without a defensive brain fart though would it!
wouldnt mid seeing trent play in midfield until end of the season. Leeds suits him as open but would interesting to see how he does from centre of the park against a team who come and sit deep
Great win, great to see, we can do it, but we need to do it more often in what is left of this season then 4th might be a chance.
Trent MOTM for me, would like to see him in midfield more often, he certainly livened things up.
Great effort from the Jones boy as well.
It will be interesting to see how this develops. I do like the idea of a 3223 as Trent trying to get all the way back to the traditional right back position, when possession is lost, is too much ground to cover.
It also gives the eejits ammunition to have a pop at his defending, when he is reinventing the position, or at least, doing something way beyond bread and butter stuff.
So having Trent tuck in to press and win possession back in midfield, with others, seems sensible.
I loved the stat on touches Trent had tonight, great stuff.
I am unsure how this will work against the better sides, but presumably it will evolve further with a couple of good midfield additions in the summer.
Trent will have less ground to cover trying to get back into ‘position’ from deeper mid than from right wing. My dad loves telling me TAA is responsible for most of the goals we ship because he’s ‘out of position’, and i just shake my head.
