A look at how Premier League leaders Liverpool have adapted to the major change Arne Slot has implemented at Anfield, featuring insight from two of the best back four in the division right now
A consistent theme emerging from the Liverpool squad so far this season has been how much the players are enjoying getting to grips with the demands of Arne Slot. Having the status of Premier League leaders as the calendars flip to October this week undoubtedly helps, but it has been striking to hear just how many of them are firmly on board with the tweaks of the new regime.
Slot has always been at pains to stress that his style of football is not too dissimilar to the brand preferred by Jurgen Klopp and one of the reasons the former Feyenoord boss won the race to the succeed the now legendary former manager was that his way of playing was conducive to getting the best out of the squad that had already been built at quite the cost on Merseyside.
With Slot in charge, there was little need to rip up the blueprints that underpinned the squad. Instead, there have been only minor alterations and any changes have been subtle. The move to a 4-2-3-1 formation has been the most obvious and the call to push two midfielders further back to help out the defence is seeing the benefits in the goals-against column. The Reds have the best defence in the Premier League having shipped just two so far and Ryan Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister are flourishing as a partnership, particularly the former, who has been a revelation so far.
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Under Klopp, midfield was always something of a concept that was seemingly only ever reluctantly accepted rather than embraced as the key battleground of the pitch. Even at the peak of the German’s decorated tenure, performers like Fabinho, Gini Wijnaldum and Jordan Henderson were lauded mostly for their ability to protect marauding full-backs and their willingness to quickly service the front players.
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As a result, it became more difficult to ascertain what qualities a midfielder needed to truly thrive in Klopp’s system, but under Slot, the engine room is all about control, poise and balance and in Gravenberch, the Reds have one of the outstanding performers in the division right now. Such has been the Netherlands international’s performances, in fact, that Andy Robertson, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Ibrahima Konate all took to social media over the weekend to jokingly point out how predictable it is all getting after the former Ajax star scooped yet another official player-of-the-match award.
“Give it a rest” posted Robertson alongside a sleeping emoji in response to Gravenberch’s latest post, while Konate jokingly tried to take the acclaim over his Dutch compatriot in their post-match chat to Sky Sports after the win at Wolves. And while the jesting points towards good camaraderie within the squad itself, there is also a serious underlying point about the changes being implemented.
“There are definitely some changes [under Slot],” captain Virgil van Dijk says. “I wouldn’t say the whole dynamic at the club has changed but it is a different person with different principles. [Slot] doesn’t differ that much from Jurgen but he has his own way of what he wants from the team, on and off the pitch. The transition has been quite smooth but we are still learning.
“In possession, especially, we try to find different ways to hurt opponents. We have to be able to sort that on the pitch. It’s an interesting challenge but I personally really enjoy it – and the rest of the boys as well – but it is a learning curve. We keep going and at the end of the day, it is all about results. So far the results are solid but we are in September. Let’s see where we end in the new year. Otherwise it is all about the next game and at the moment, that is the Champions League.”
With a more compact and consistent backline largely free of injuries, Alisson’s recent two-game layoff aside, being aided by the intelligence of Gravenberch and Mac Allister, it’s no surprise to hear of how much the defenders are enjoying life under Slot. It’s a theory Andy Robertson also subscribes to.
Robertson says: “It changes every single game in terms of the positioning in terms of what Arne wants from you. I’m embracing it. I’m enjoying it. We knew there was going to be a change after seven years of playing in a similar way. It worked really well and we all enjoyed it. We knew a new manager would come in and change things and make it different. I’ve enjoyed the change. I’ve embraced it. I think I’ve done well at it. I’ve grown into it.
“The positioning all over the pitch, attacking and defending is different. You can see the older lads are in full flow. You can see we know what he wants from us. And obviously the Ipswich game was very early considering it was a tournament season when the lads didn’t come back until late on. We’re doing what the manager wants from us and the results have been relatively good.”
Perhaps most hearteningly for Slot, the two goals Liverpool have conceded so far have not necessarily been the result of flaws in the system. Callum Hudson-Odoi’s stunning strike to win it for Nottingham Forest came in a game where their xG stood at just 0.4, which is the lowest of any opponent so far. The concession at Wolves was the result of a mix-up between Ibrahima Konate and Alisson and Liverpool are conceding an average of just three shots on target per game this term. The system is clearly doing its job.
“In terms of preparation, it is all about how we can hurt the opponent and be ready to not be hurt as much,” Van Dijk adds. “We have seen in the games we have played so far, opponents are doing a certain thing all season and obviously when they play us, they might change the whole plan or formation and we have to adapt. That’s what we work on.
“He (Slot) will say what he thinks is necessary and there are times he hasn’t been happy with certain moments we lose the ball too easy or maybe we lose our battles or concede a goal. Those things are absolutely normal and we all know we have to accept that to be better. We all want to be better as well so it is normal. I won’t expect anything else.”
