The six Arne Slot tactical masterstrokes that got Liverpool a much-needed victory at long last
You might not have heard about it because nobody has really mentioned it much, but Liverpool have been on a bit of a bad run.
Instead of Arne Slot’s side winning lots of games, as they sensibly did last season and at the start of this one, they have instead been losing lots of games. Which is not as good.
But they put that right in fine style against West Ham at the weekend, and here’s a detailed look at just some of the inspired tactical tweaks and changes Slot made to get this all-important victory.
Dropping Mo Salah
An inspired call by manager Arne Slot, this, and the sort of brave, and quick decision that only an elite manager could come up with after a mere 12 ineffective games for the Golden Boot hero and literally every single football pundit in the land saying ‘Dunno, maybe leave out Salah for a bit and try some of the many, many other excellent attacking footballers in your notably attack-heavy squad?’
Liverpool’s bold new, experimental front four that contained only two players signed for nine-figure fees combined to devastating effect to secure a 2-0 win over West Ham.
Slot’s decision to play against West Ham instead of someone good also demonstrates shrewd clear thinking at this difficult time.
Picking a defender at right-back
Might seem obvious, this one, but so desperate have Liverpool been to try and replace what they’ve lost since Trent Alexander-Arnold’s departure that this is a more novel idea than might usually be the case.
The classic ‘turn a midfielder into a full-back’ trick is as old as the hills. It’s one of Pep Guardiola’s patented specialities. But the idea with it is generally to spot a promising young midfielder with the requisite defensive instincts to cover off the day-job part of full-backery, while also retaining the midfielder’s eye for creative and attacking play. When it all comes together, you end up with a Nico O’Reilly and everyone’s happy.
What you can’t really do is the reverse, and when you lose a right-back who freakishly also happens to be an elite game-breaking playmaker and thus try to recreate that by chucking another elite game-breaking playmaker into that position.
This is a long-winded way of saying that Dominik Szoboszlai is no sensible person’s idea of a right-back. Trying to find another Trent Alexander-Arnold is an entirely futile endeavour. Pick a defender.
At the London Stadium, Slot did just that by handing the task to the utility man’s utility man Joe Gomez.
Another key element of this clever tactical decision of picking a defender was the tactical decision to have that defender come up against players who play for West Ham.
Giving Kerkez licence
The other big advantage of picking a defender – especially one as versatile as Gomez – to play right-back was the transformative impact it had on Milos Kerkez.
Last season, he was perhaps the best left-back in the entire league. This season he has… not been that after his move to Liverpool.
But Gomez’s highly attuned defensive instincts frequently saw him tuck in to create a de facto back three for Liverpool, as Kerkez bombed on down the left with the freedom to become a more consistent and threatening contributor to Liverpool’s attacks.
Clever stuff from Liverpool and their manager, as was the foresight to ensure that this tactic was employed against West Ham players, who are bad.
Picking Newcastle Alexander Isak
The Newcastle striker Alexander Isak was an absolute menace. An elite goalscorer with that priceless ability to score goals of all kinds in all sorts of ways from all manner of positions. A striker with the rare gift of being able to glide into space in even the most crowded penalty areas and in possession of a sixth sense for where the ball would be.
The Liverpool striker Alexander Isak is none of those things, robbed of all the certainty and confidence that marked him out as something special at Newcastle. So entirely incapable of finding space or knowing where the ball might arrive that until Sunday not only had he not scored a Premier League goal for his new club but had managed only a single shot on target. Reminder: it was the last weekend of November.
Slot deserves credit for shrewdly picking the Newcastle rather than Liverpool version of Isak for this particular game. It was also shrewd of Slot to have Newcastle Isak be playing against West Ham, because they are cack.
Switching to 4-3-3 late on
As Liverpool sought to preserve the lead Isak had given them, Slot was canny enough to tweak his 4-2-3-1 to a slightly more solid 4-3-3 to get a much-needed victory over the line, thus further highlighting the many tactical tools in his managerial kit.
With Curtis Jones replacing Florian Wirtz for the final 15 minutes, Liverpool looked incredibly assured as they eased to victory, with the fact West Ham were for some reason barely trying to prevent this at all another big tick against Slot’s name.
Playing against West Ham
Seems obvious in hindsight, but an absolute tactical masterclass from Slot to have his team be playing against West Ham at a time when a win was so badly needed. We don’t know why more teams don’t consider this option.
Canny old Slot has also shown just what kind of 4D chess he’s playing by also having games against Leeds, Tottenham and Wolves this month. Of all the various tactical tweaks and system changes available to a manager, there really is an awful lot to be said for ‘play some games against teams that are quite sh*t’.
