Liverpool’s risky makeover: Millions spent on high-flying attack, but can defense hold for a title repeat?

Dean Henderson Has the ball in its own penalty area and assesses where Crystal Palace can best attack. Meanwhile, 50 meters away, Curtis Jones is powerful in the direction of Jeremie FrimpongHe urges him to fall back into the back line before the opposition has time to get the ball in advanced areas. Not a moment of great threat in itself, but this one body was an indication of the challenges Liverpool seem to have created for themselves by the radical revision of this summer of the Arne Slot team.

Frimpong was many things for four and a half -extremely successful years with Bayer Leverkusen: a Dribbling Dynamo, a syruper of Penalty Box and a Bal Progressor through the flank. Rarely or never, however, he was even a semi-orthodox back in a defense of four men. The Xabi Alonso system was designed to place the Dutchman where he was most effective, which meant that Frimpong has registered 347 touches in the opposition penalty area and 38 in himself in the past two seasons.

His first thought is to get ahead and when that pays off – as in his brilliant and probably unintended clip about Henderson – it will be very difficult for the opponents of Liverpool to suppress the overlapping threat of full back, especially when it is Mohamed is wrong That he drives on. Ibrahima Konate Has covered for the right backs that like to come to the field in the past and he will have to do this again, although the Frimpong recovery pace cannot be brutally sniffed. There had been a line of thought that, when Trent Alexander-Arnold left, Liverpool would look for a more orthodox successor. Instead, they have found a man on the defensive flank who again asks the question: how well does a defender have to attack to accept the defensive burden that occurs to his teammates?

That could be relaxed with the kind of carefully positioned completely back on the opposite flank that has become one of a dominant trend in the tactical metagame of the last mid -decade. There were occasions that Milos Kerkez did exactly that and others where the attacking instincts that so admired him in Bournemouth came to the fore. His reverse runs in the first half created space in the left channel for Cody Gakpo and Hugo Ekitike, the instinct of their left side to play the field. The fingers of Kerkez were all about the construction of the opening goal of Hugo Ekitike.

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When Kerkez and Frimpong were at their best in advanced areas, Liverpool had too many bodies that Palace deals with. Occasionally, an attack line of six men, they extended the game to pursue holes for Florian Wirtz to slide into a pass. With further repetitions, their movement will only become more effective, especially because Ekitike, Gakpo and Mohamed Salah are not the kind of attackers who like to be bound by their starting position.

The problem is that those gaps are a rich choice for the opposition if they turn the ball into optimum positions. Take this copy in the 23rd minute where Palace hits the ball back on the edge of their own third. The first instinct of Jean-Phillipe Mateta is to move to the ball, to trust that Virgil van Dijk will follow him. The leader of Liverpool does exactly that and a first time pass to Ebereechi Eze takes him out of the game. On the other hand, Kerkez is just about in the game, but on the right Frimpong is far ahead of the game and defending midfielder Curtis Jones is static.

Eventually Jones and Frimpong shoot back in time to recover, although that was perhaps at least partly because Eze has to slow down the downstairs while waiting for reinforcements. Ismaila Sarr is a very difficult passage over the field. These can be difficult escape attacks to perform, but in general a defense does not function in an optimal way when a middle behind is left one -on -one, even if only for a moment, with Eze.

This would not be the only opportunity in which Liverpool was stretched, causing 14 shots and more than two expected goals, including a penalty that had come after Mateta shot behind the backline. The Reds were a lot of threat of their own and speak after the slot machine seemed to acknowledge that this year’s iteration would deliver more open competitions.

“In the entire preseason we saw that we can create more and be more comfortable on the ball,” he said. “We create more opportunities and maybe even dominate more [than previously]. Last season we had a lot of ball, but it did not always lead to promising situations. Now we are better at creating than we were throughout the previous season.

“The other side is also true that we have admitted four against AC Milan, one against a Japanese team [Yokohama F. Marinos]two against [Athletic Club] Bilbao and two again today. What made us very strong last season was that we only won with a margin of one target, usually that had to do with maintaining a clean slate or at the maximum admitted goal. “

Slot insisted that his side does not give away many openings at Wembley, but he acknowledged: “It needs a little defensive because we do not recently admit many opportunities, but we are currently giving many goals.”

Of course Liverpool has previously found their way to a strong defensive returns when playing with attack-ended fullbacks, with only 26 goals in the second in 2021-22 and 22 three years earlier. The compromise that Jurgen Klopp made was a more conservative midfield, Fabinho Valling between the middle ridges, while Georginio Wijnaldum and in particular Jordan Henderson gave priority to structure, security and bicycle possession before they shot in the box.

You would not expect the same from Dominik Szoboszlai. While Curtis Jones did his best Joe Allen Impression, the passing accuracy high to cut the palace lines, the Hungarian flashed balls around the midfield, twice the opposition opportunities to quickly fall against. In one of these cases, Szoboszlai has worsened the issue by sliding on the deck. These are not the kind of fast solutions that a player can try when there are so few teammates for them and when their attackers are so cautious to follow back. That movement ended in an unparalleled Daniel Munoz who overtaken for an unmarked Tyrick Mitchell on the back post. Salah and Gakpo were nowhere to be seen.

Because even a defensive-lacking midfield and full full backs can be limited by a front line that really works to get the ball back. Slot, however, called the press back in the more careful system of last season, with Liverpool of a team that had an average of six or seven last third recovery per Premier League match up to 4.4, the ninth most in the division. Salah’s outside of the possession was illuminated – it’s hard to see that picking up 33 Roberto Firmino. Wirtz and Ekitike were out of possession of work horses in the Bundesliga, but two players do not make an urgent system.

There are problems then to compensate for the sparkling attack that Liverpool seems to have developed within a few weeks. None of these are unmanageable minds, especially if you have at least $ 150 million to connect to strengthen your team. The Tragic passing from Diogo Jota and the subsequent sale of Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez means that lock needs larger numbers in the forward line. Harvey Elliott Standed up for Wirtz against Palace, but his future is in doubt, while the fact that Federico Chiesa was unused in a competition where two more changes could be made pronounced volumes.

Nevertheless, the proof of this game and a dismantling analysis of the Liverpool team is that which holes they are not best tackled by Alexander IsakThe proverbial “layer of gold paint on the Bentley” that needs upgrades to the engine. Take the $ 150 million or more and find a real top-tier defensive midfielder, the kind that can illuminate the pressure on Ryan Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister that seems to exist without a ball being kicked. After that there should still be money to poach Marc Guehi from Palace to add to the Center Back Group and to find something back.

For everything the previous 1400 words have pointed to the mistakes in this Liverpool team, there is a lot to be found. Wirtz seems to go in seamlessly; On the Wembley field it seemed as if he and Ekitike had already experienced the growing pins to come to English football. Kerkez showed a predisposition for attacking the Underlap as well as the over. As long as Salah is something like the player he was last season, this will be the high watermark of Premier League attacks next season. If the middle backs can simply be offered a little more protection, there may be no stopping the champions.