How Arne Slot Has Already Transformed Liverpool
Succeeding Jurgen Klopp may have felt like an impossible job for most managers, but Arne Slot's first pre-season for Liverpool has seen them sweep aside both Arsenal and Manchester United. Carrying that form on into competitive football is no guarantee, but Adam Clery explains why all the signs are there that The Red's new manager might be about to hit the ground running.
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00:00Hello, greetings, and hang on. S'appening la, Adam Cleary from 442 here, really sorry
00:09about that, and on a slot to Liverpool. I've given them a watch and they're different.
00:15Yeah, life after Jurgen Klopp appears to be going quite well for them in pre-season anyways.
00:19They've beaten Betis and Arsenal and smashed Man United and Sevilla. And even though they've
00:24been completely inactive in the transfer window, just by watching them you can see that slot's
00:28already doing two or three really different, really interesting things with how this team
00:34plays. So what are those things, Adam? That's why I clicked on the video. Well, I'll show
00:40you. Right now, before we begin, a small but exciting bit of housekeeping. Today's video
00:47is sponsored. And I know nobody really likes being advertised to, but a couple of things.
00:52One, this is kind of a big moment for us in our continued growth and will let us do exciting
00:57things on the channel. Very good. Two, it's HelloFresh, which I genuinely actively use
01:02in my real life, so at least I'm being sincere with it. Three, we've turned off a number
01:06of the other adverts in the video, so you're not being bombarded from all angles all the
01:11way throughout. And four, I worked quite hard on it to make it funny. So if nothing else,
01:17you'll enjoy watching it. But that'll be done a little bit later on. So just this is Liverpool
01:21and this is what they're doing. So if you've seen any of the lineups for their pre-season
01:25games, I think this is the Man United one, you'll see that they're listed as being in
01:29a 4-3-3. And nobody says this anymore, but that is poppycock. So what's been very apparent
01:35and very interesting about this 4-3-3 that Slott is using is the role of both the full
01:40backs and the role of the two number eights. So if you recall last season, the overwhelming
01:45tactical question that was being asked about Liverpool was how Jürgen Klopp was using
01:50these full backs. Because if you remember, Klopp's Liverpool are their absolute pomp
01:53when they had this sort of team. The way it works was that Firmino would drop out of
01:57this space. The wide players would then try and get to fill it. So you want the full backs
02:02to give you all the width down both sides. And that's where Alexander-Arnold and Robertson
02:06would get you a billion FPL points with all their assists. But then as Klopp tried to
02:11evolve this team and he brought in Darwin Nunes to be a far more sort of traditional
02:15central striker and the focal point of the attack, that meant that he was in these spaces.
02:20So the wider players were a little bit further out, meaning there was less onus on the full
02:24backs to provide the width. The number eights, they were doing that instead. And that's where
02:27Trent Alexander-Arnold started to enjoy his life as an inverted full back in the middle
02:32of the pitch. So the question has been for Arne Slott, which of these two systems will
02:37he favour for one of Liverpool and England's most talented players? Will he want him bombing
02:42up and down the flank like he used to, or will he want him in the middle where he has
02:46become accustomed to playing? And wouldn't you just know it from what we've seen in pre-season?
02:51The answer is neither. Now this 4-3-3 that they've been using in pre-season, and I keep
02:56saying by the way, using in pre-season because of the scheduling of this, my job, I've had
03:02to record it after they played the last pre-season game, but before they play the Ipswich game.
03:07So yes, there is a slight chance that things might have changed, but I mean, come on, it's
03:11not like a manager is going to spend all the practice games doing this cool, exciting
03:16stuff only to then chuck it out the window as soon as the real football starts. That
03:22never happens. Does it, Gareth? Anyway, so disregard this being a 4-3-3, right? As soon
03:27as Liverpool get possession at the back, they go to a double pivot. One of the eights drops
03:31in and the other eight goes and pushes right the way up. And then the fullbacks, they basically
03:36come into a line along with the midfield. So you basically get like a 2-4-4. And you
03:41can see that absolutely perfectly, by the way, in their average positions map from the
03:46friendly against Man United. Like genuinely, I was going to use that and sort of try and
03:51illustrate with it. I just, I did not think that would be that perfect, but there is two
03:56defenders, the fullbacks pushed right the way up into the midfield and these four lads
04:00just floating around doing their thing. And the reasons they're doing this are many and
04:04clever. So first off, it's a frankly terrifying proposition for any team who wants to try
04:09and press this shape because Liverpool have seven players in this area. So if you want
04:14to go man for man, you want to make sure you've got somebody to close down every possible option,
04:19you would have to leave one of the most dangerous attacking teams in the world
04:24four on four at the back. So probably very few teams are going to do that, which means by and
04:29large, Liverpool will be able to build out in this shape with numerical superiority,
04:34pretty much anywhere. But the reason I mentioned before that the first great Liverpool team
04:38underclop wanted the width to come from the fullbacks, that's not what this is. You can see
04:42here they are wide. Yes, they're not in the centre, but they are part of the build up,
04:46not necessarily part of the attack. And that means that the objective for Liverpool's two
04:50wide players is to isolate the opposition fullbacks high up the pitch and nice and wide.
04:55And while you are going to see Liverpool having a lot of controlled possession at the back to try
04:59and unpick the team's opposition press, the whole idea of having these forwards isolate the
05:05fullbacks is so you can, when the opportunity presents itself, go direct into them and get
05:10like a dangerous situation just like that. If you sort of imagine that Liverpool,
05:14when they're getting really squeezed by an aggressive side, effectively go to this like
05:19three, four shape, including the goalkeeper and the fullbacks, they don't stay too wide.
05:24They don't hold the touchline. They come in nice and centrally. So you've got all these bodies and
05:28all these possible passing lanes. The objective is not to keep the ball here. It is to get it
05:34out of this area, bypassing as many opposition players as possible in the process. So it's a
05:40very Sibutio-heavy video, this one, I'll grant you right, but just pretend you are Liverpool in
05:44this scenario and your objective is to get the ball to your left winger here, who has isolated
05:49his fullback one on one. But as most teams do, they are pressing you in an aggressive 4-4-2.
05:55There's not really any way through these two lines. What you are able to do with this many
05:59players in this sort of like, I don't know, double W shape, I'm not sure if it's got a term,
06:04is you can have really clever, effective rotations within the triangles. And if you are sitting there
06:12thinking, Adam, I've watched an awful lot of this channel in the last 12 to 18 months.
06:16This is probably the most nerdy you've ever sounded. You are right by not moving the fullbacks
06:23into the middle of the pitch, but also not having them on the touchline either. It means they can
06:27basically move their marker in and out to free up the lanes to the attackers. So because you were
06:34going to have a 3v2 advantage here, right, let's say the goalkeeper has the ball, he is pressed by
06:40the attacker and it goes out to the centre back here. All of a sudden, he's got a bit of space.
06:44Now he really wants to get the ball into the left wing back here. But of course, this passing lane
06:49is blocked by the midfield, but your fullback, he can just wander into the centre or wander out to
06:55the touchline, taking his marker with him and allowing that passing lane to be created. Now,
07:01as you know, a lot of teams will look to have the ball at the back and find little numerical
07:05overloads to sort of play through. But what's quite unique, I think, about slot systems,
07:09certainly in the Premier League, is because you've got so many of these players in this area,
07:14and it's so narrow and so compact where other teams would look to stretch the opposition
07:20as much as possible. It means it's a little bit, what's the word I want, better insured.
07:26Liverpool do make a mistake in this block and when they're trying to do things because they've got
07:30so many bodies around the ball, it allows them to counter-press things really aggressively,
07:36not with the goalkeeper obviously, and really effectively. Now imagine over the course of the
07:40season, as they are getting to grips with this, you will probably see Liverpool lose the ball
07:44quite a lot in their own defensive third, which should theoretically be fatal. But also,
07:50I think you'll see them win it back there immediately afterwards, almost as often.
07:54It's not without its risks, you can see here in the Man United friendly, they've got that two,
07:58they've got that four, they feel like they can break the line, but it's just an errant pass
08:03and that lets the opposition in. But anyway, that's interesting, isn't it? A third role for
08:07Trent Alexander-Arnold to somehow learn at this stage of his career. But I did say,
08:12it wasn't just the full-backs that was interesting, it was the number eight. So, what are they doing?
08:20So, as any of you who can stand to follow me on social media will know, when I'm not spending my
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09:17possible, but here's the exact amount I needed for this rascal tikka masala sea bass I spoiled
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10:11Right, now, back to whatever it was I was talking about.
10:16Because while it is the job of one of the eight to drop back a little bit deeper to form that
10:20double pivot and get that box going, it's usually been Alexis McAllister thus far,
10:25it's the job of the other one to not just become an eight, to not just become a ten,
10:30but to become a centre forward, except not a centre forward, a false nine.
10:36Diogo Jota has been pretty much playing as Liverpool's first choice centre forward in
10:40pre-season thus far, and if we look at this heat map from him, you will neatly observe,
10:47that is not the day in the life of a centre forward. That is about as false a false nine
10:52as you could ever hope to see. And I mean, obviously, given what we've just seen about
10:56Liverpool trying to invite as many players on as possible before effectively breaking those lines
11:01and getting up the pitch, it makes sense that you would have a false nine in attack, because you're
11:06going to end up with all this space between the defence and midfield, if they can drop into that,
11:11they can get on the ball really high up. But not content with that is Arnie Slott,
11:15and he has his number eight, it has been Sir Boz Lye, but they've been using him a couple
11:18of different ways. He pushes right the way up to get this line of four in attack, and the pair of
11:24them will both drop into the space, either together or separately, to receive the ball if Liverpool
11:30can break a line through the middle. And again, if we look at those average positions, I think
11:35this one's from the Sevilla game, you'll see that Luis Diaz and Mo Salah, they're providing the
11:39attacking width, they're always pushing up when possible. But Sir Boz Lye and Jota, who were in
11:44this sort of role here, free to go pretty much anywhere, mostly just dropping into the same
11:49positions as and when they're able to, to get on the ball and get them up the pitch.
11:53And I know I keep saying, what's really interesting about this? But what is quite
11:58interesting about this is if you look at the positions of Alexander-Arnold and Simakas here,
12:02and we sort of compare that with their heat maps, you will see that as well as sort of doing this
12:07part of the build up where they move the opposition around, they don't really look to get on the ball
12:10too much, they do provide attacking underlaps. Like I should have bought chairs and heat maps
12:15before doing this video, but this is Mo Salah's from that game. And if you're a long time Liverpool
12:20fan and also a bit of a geek who likes data, you'll know that's actually quite unusual for
12:25him. Like yes, he gets the ball wide and yes, he's getting into the box, but it's nothing,
12:29nothing on the edge of it at all. He's either wide or going straight in. And that's because
12:34when they're in the build up, he is where the width is supposed to come from. He's supposed
12:37to isolate that full back and drag him out of position. And once Liverpool have got through
12:42that line and they move up the pitch, the full backs then don't go on the overlap. They don't
12:46provide width. They don't hover around in the center to have possession. They have to fill that
12:51channel. And I would say that feels like an exceptional use of Conor Bradley and a bit of
12:57a weird one of Trent. The second goal against Man United does illustrate this, but sort of partially
13:02by showing you something and partially by not. Anyway, Salah gets the ball here, which does feel
13:08like it's a little bit wider than maybe he'd want. And you can see this huge gap in the sort of
13:13half space. And that's the kind of area Conor Bradley should have been bombing into. If you
13:17rewind that clip back, he's just got caught up the other end. He's not joining in. Anyway, arriving
13:22into the box later than most Salah is, are Diogo Jota playing as the false nine and Harvey Elliott,
13:28who was doing the number eight into the false nine role. That's one of the reasons this could
13:32work particularly effectively, because obviously the center backs know to be alive to Jota because
13:36he's the center forward and he makes that early run and a drag from both towards the goal.
13:41And then it's quite simple for Elliott to spot the gap, get in front of the covering fullback
13:46and tap it into the back post. And where the vibes feel totally different and vibes do matter,
13:51by the way, is if you just pause this clip right before the pass comes in. That's just never really
13:57where you expect to see Mo Salah in a quick break. You know what I mean? Like he's never looking to
14:03get to the byline and pull the ball back. He wants to be here where there is space and the system has
14:09created that space, but it's not for him. That space is for Bradley. He's doing his job really
14:14well. It's just that it's a different job for him. Should be fine now. And just come in for a second,
14:21right? Sit down. Okay. Why am I telling you all this? Why am I doing a video on Liverpool's
14:26pre-season tactics when pre-season has finished? Why am I doing such a Subbuteo heavy video for
14:33you? And the answer to that is because they haven't made any signings yet. Now they might feel like
14:38two completely disparate, separate, unrelated topics, but they're actually not. If you go back
14:44to the original video we did on Arne Slott's appointment as Liverpool manager, what we said
14:50was that the reason he felt so suitable for Liverpool at this stage was because he's not
14:56some mad genius ideologue. He doesn't have one like narrow defined way of playing his football
15:03that he desperately needs specific players who do specific things to come to the club and do
15:08for him. The guy just understands football. And while it was interesting to look at his Feyenoord
15:14tactics, I didn't really think for a second that he was going to bring that style of play
15:18to Liverpool because it's a completely different club with completely different players. And yes,
15:22some of the principles of it are here, the double pivot and having nice overloads, but how they're
15:27executing it is totally different. And the reason I mentioned all of this is because if I was a
15:31Liverpool fan, I wouldn't be panicking about the transfer situation. Like you've gone and got a
15:37manager in whose entire thing is, oh, I just look at the players I've got and I get the absolute
15:43best out of them and I find something that suits them really, really well. And looking at Liverpool
15:48in preseason thus far, it feels like it kind of already done that. This system is new and it's
15:55effective. Now, of course, have to clarify all of this with that quote from all the wars that
16:00they have that no plan survives contact with the enemy. So we will see what this looks like against
16:06Ipswich. Hell, by the time you watch this video, you may have already seen what it looked like
16:10against Ipswich. And if they got beat in that game, I truly hope somebody clips this and puts
16:17the always sunny in Philadelphia music on. But I don't think that they will. In fact, I think they'll
16:22look quite good if not the finished article in that game. I would expect them to win and really
16:27surprise a few people with just how slick and fun and passy and movie they look in that game.
16:35I do a serious football tactics channel. People come to me for insight and I've just said passy
16:40and movie. But anyway, yes, that is the video. So Liverpool fans, how are you feeling about all of
16:46this? Because the no transfers thing is making people a little bit anxious, a little bit jumpy,
16:50a little bit apprehensive. So all thoughts, all feelings, all comments, all poetry, verse and
16:55lyric. Welcome down below. And of course, when you're down there, you will see our pinned comment
17:00with all the details and the links and the codes for our wonderful little offer that we have with
17:04HelloFresh today. Genuinely, I know people are like, ah, adverts, adverts, adverts. But this will
17:09help us do some really, really fun stuff. So just honestly, I use it. The food is good.
17:15I'm having it for tea tonight. Give it a go if you haven't already. You can get me on all the
17:20socials at Adam Cleary, C-L-E-R-Y. Four for two socials in the corner of the video. The season
17:24preview of the mag. Bit late for that now, but it's still a good read. If you see that in WH Smiths
17:29or wherever you might be, I would recommend picking it up. But until next time, that's Liverpool.
17:34That's on its slot. Go buy a HelloFresh box and I'll see you soon. Bye. I really hope they win. Bye.