The first real heavyweight tussle of the season saw Liverpool head to Old Trafford on Sunday. After a tense opening, it was Arne Slot's team who began to assert dominance and, by the end, Man United were lucky to get away with the 0-3.
But how can one side only 3 games into a manager's reign look so much more structured and dangerous than one entering their 3rd season. Adam Clery picks apart Liverpool's first half to explain why.
But how can one side only 3 games into a manager's reign look so much more structured and dangerous than one entering their 3rd season. Adam Clery picks apart Liverpool's first half to explain why.
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00:00Right, hello there my eFriends and digital loved ones, Adam Cleary from 442 here and
00:08if you are sitting there thinking 1. Is this video not a day late and 2. Wow, he looks
00:13like s*** then you are correct on both counts, haven't been well.
00:17But I'm feeling better now, despite how I may sound, or at least considerably better
00:21than that Manchester United performance, so I thought I would come and talk to you about
00:26how that whole thing happened because every time I watch Man United, I feel like I'm going
00:32insane. But more importantly, despite the fact they've only played 3 games so far, every
00:37single time I now watch Arnaslott's Liverpool, I feel...better.
00:46One other thing to address really quickly, yes, the studio has changed, it is different.
00:50I'm behind this curtain instead of the blue screen and that camera is far more highly
00:55defined. It's still set up for our transfer deadline day livestream, I just haven't had
00:59a chance to go and fix it. I'll be back to normal next vid. Next vid, listen to me.
01:04Anyway, yes, so this was your Manchester United side and this was your Liverpool side and
01:10let's be fair here, it was a proper, proper do-in. So basically, this was a game of two
01:17presses. So Liverpool, first off, used this 4-2-3-1 shape but it had a couple of interesting
01:23tweaks in it, primarily between the relationship of Twent Alexander-Arnold and Mo Salah to
01:30get around Man United's press. So Man United almost always press in a 4-2-4 shape and the
01:35reason you do that, especially against a double pivot like Liverpool have, is because it matches
01:40up all six players in this build-up, man-for-man. And Man United in particular go really, really
01:46narrow with this, right, and the idea being that it then completely blocks off all progression
01:52through the centre of the pitch. Like this was the thumbnail we used for the FA Cup final
01:57victory over Manchester City and you can see it here, these six players blocking off all
02:02central progression for Manchester City, basically making an impenetrable wall that stops them
02:06building up. But a shiny brass penny, I don't really have a brass penny, for anyone who
02:11can tell me the difference between what's going on in this scenario and what is going
02:17on in this scenario. Anybody? Any hands? Show of hands, shout your name out. Yes, you there!
02:25Is it that one of them's very deep in their own half and the other's very high up in the
02:29opposition half and that's basically two totally different things? Yes it is! Doing it deep
02:35in your own half is very difficult to open up if you're disciplined with it. Manchester
02:39City had an absolute nightmare in that game and Man United deservedly beat them on that
02:43afternoon but doing it right on the edge of the opposition's third is a lot easier
02:47to open up if you are Liverpool. Now I'm just going to show you Trent Alexander-Arnold's
02:52heat map from that game. Now if you've seen the first two Liverpool matches this season
02:56you will have noticed that Arne Slott is not asking him to invert into the middle the way
03:01Jurgen Klopp occasionally was. Back then Liverpool had a single pivot and Alexander-Arnold would
03:06come in and make it a double but now they already have a double so he plays along the
03:11touchline like Fulvax is supposed to. But if you look at the heat map you will see these
03:15little wisps that do move into the centre of the pitch and he wasn't getting involved
03:20there, he certainly wasn't a major part of the build-up but you can see that he was moving
03:24into that area and that thusly made Liverpool's build-up shape not this 4-2 that is perfectly
03:30matched up by Man United's press but instead this 3-3. Now having a 3-3 is not some sort
03:37of magical hack that automatically beats a 2-4 but what it does force Man United to
03:41do is all of these players now have to individually think about exactly what it is they're doing
03:47because they're no longer perfectly matched up. And if you are watching this and you are
03:52a Man United fan what follows should infuriate you beyond the boiling of your own piss. Now
03:59we can see here perfectly Liverpool have that 3-3 build-up shape and Man United have their
04:042-4 ahead of them. And if you just cast a little beady eye over to this side of the
04:09pitch you will notice that despite not being involved in anything right now Dominic Soboslai
04:14just drops into this space here like the inherent gap created by having a 4-2-4 press structure
04:20just goes and sits in it to see if Man United will react to that and go with him. Now initially
04:25the full-back does not go with him so not only have Liverpool sort of like made a complication
04:30by having 3-3 vs 4-2 but they've also made an overload on this side if they can get the
04:36ball there. But instead what they do is they play it out to the far side. They give it
04:40a canate on the touchline and Man United react to this. They're six pressing units. They
04:46all converge round and pen them in again stopping any forward passes. And that's actually really
04:52good by Man United. That's how you want a unit like that to work. Ten Hag will have
04:56been pleased at this moment in time. All six of them have moved as a unit. They've gone
05:00over. They pen Canarty in. They've stopped him moving the ball forward. He's got no option
05:04but to go backwards. Job done. But it's also exactly what Liverpool will have wanted them
05:10to do because they do move the ball back across the defence. They do move it across to the
05:14left hand side and because Man United have already put in a shift going out to that side
05:19they're testing to see whether they can be arsed to put another shift in going back across
05:24the way and not all of them can. And by the time they get it all the way onto the other
05:29flank suddenly that impenetrable block of six now looks like this. And you remember
05:36our friend Dominic Sebozlai, don't you? He dropped off into this space and was not tracked
05:42by the Man United full back. So now not only is he an extra man in this space outnumbering
05:46Man United but he's a forward option for a pass. And what does that mean? Well it means
05:52that to react to this Manchester United now have to improvise. These six players have
05:56to break their current structure. They have to abandon the men they're supposed to be
06:00marking and close down one they're not. So Casemiro in this case he jumps onto Sebozlai
06:06who's the one receiving the ball but oh no that was also the plan. Sebozlai could not
06:12pass the ball forwards. He could not get turned and he cannot run with it but what he can
06:16do is now play the patented Brighton bounce pass into this space here to the awaiting
06:24Alexis McAllister. Because Man United have been dragged from one side of the pitch to
06:28the other because certain players aren't running as hard as others because there's an extra
06:32man on the equation now and they've got to think on their feet McAllister now sits quite
06:36comfortably in the very heart of their block and receives this bounce pass from Sebozlai
06:42facing forward with nobody in front of him. Now if you're a Man United fan you should
06:47be absolutely infuriated by how simple that movement is but if you're a Liverpool fan
06:53you should be massively massively encouraged about how sort of well drilled and intelligent
06:59that sort of build up is. Like I'll be blunt you did not do this under Jurgen Klopp like
07:05you tried to introduce a more controlled sort of like clever technical build up style but
07:10it never quite felt as natural as just sort of like gunning forwards and like pressing
07:15opposition really high like what Slott's already done in three games is quite staggering. Anyway
07:22this move like eventually breaks down and comes to nothing but one other interesting
07:26thing about it is because they've gone from right to left and then forward look at all
07:31this space they've actually made as well on the right hand side so when they do get into
07:37the final third not only they pulled Man United all over the place but they've left their
07:42two most dangerous creative and attacking players in loads of space like it really is
07:49something that like this is Dominic Soboslai's heat map from this game like remember he's
07:53supposed to be like Liverpool's number 10 joining in with Diogo Jota like a de facto
07:57second centre forward but look at how many times he finds those pockets like out to the
08:03right and left to provide an overload so they can get through this pressing structure like
08:07he's just free to get on the ball absolutely anywhere as part of the build up and that's
08:12yeah it's staggering. I feel like I've said staggering like three times in this video
08:16but it is I am staggered the thing is right structures and nice patterns of play and good
08:22things you've worked on on the training ground they're one thing but they guarantee you absolutely
08:28nothing they're not the reason Liverpool smashed Manchester United here so Liverpool and this
08:34may surprise you actually had the exact same pressing structure as Manchester United did
08:39they also went with a four I'll put that on to four the difference is rather than doing
08:45really compactly to try and stop Man United playing through the centre they actually did
08:49it really really wide with the object being to force them to play through the centre and
08:55we saw loads of times in that game both Salah and Diaz basically sitting on the two Manchester
09:01United full backs not allowing the goalkeeper or the centre backs to find them with a pass
09:06more importantly when they did get the ball it forced them to play back into the centre
09:10and that's when Liverpool's pressing trap would sort of come alive like what Salah and Diaz would
09:16both do is they would follow that ball and close down the options in the centre leaving their
09:22defender the person they were marking in what's called a cover shadow like they're stopping the
09:27pass going into there without actually being there and this meant that one of two things
09:32happened right either Casemiro would then drop to provide an option the ball will be played into him
09:36and they would jump onto him being as he was with his back to playing in a risky position
09:41or to counteract that Man United would just drop Casemiro into the middle of the back three
09:46to try and give themselves a numerical advantage in the build-up and the problem with this for Man
09:51United is that Casemiro is clearly specifically instructed by Eric ten Haag that when he receives
09:57the ball deep to try and hit long direct first-time passes into either the wide players or in this
10:03case because he's a much bigger lad than Hoyland Joshua Zirkzee but the problem that Man United
10:07have got and Eric ten Haag does not seem to be able to realise is that Casemiro isn't very good
10:13at that like these are his completed passes from that game and you will notice that not a single
10:19one of them is a deep long ball into a teammate the only time he completes passes are when they're
10:24short and neat and tidy and usually sideways and backwards as for his unsuccessful passes though
10:30you will see that is where all the long and direct uh balls have gone so Liverpool forcing
10:35Manchester United to do this is fine but anyway yes back to why Liverpool won this game and
10:40Manchester United didn't right so the original plan is to sort of force a Man United midfielder
10:44either Casemiro or Maneu to receive it in a dodgy area just as the net is tightening then they win
10:50the ball back in this area and they can attack the goal and is that how they got their first goal
10:54no you can see they actually mess this up like they try and close that net around Man United
11:01but they allow Maneu to get into space you can see McAllister here holds his arms up like lads
11:07oh we'll be right after that but the reason Liverpool won this game and Man United didn't
11:11is because what happens next they can't quite play through and the ball rolls back to Casemiro
11:17now Liverpool know that when Casemiro receives the ball deep his instruction is to hit long
11:22and hit direct and look at the immediate reaction of Ryan Gravenberch he knows Casemiro is not going
11:28to put his foot on the ball and move it sideways he's going to try and hit it forward and he's not
11:32very good at it he reads that pass cuts it straight out and the reaction from his Liverpool teammates
11:37is not like Man United's was which is oh we've already done a bit of running I'm not doing any
11:42more they immediately about face and are bearing down on goal and if you're a Man United fan how
11:48many times last season did you see this exact same thing a deep defensive line a yawning chasm
11:54between that and the midfield and a load of opposition players sprinting at you in it when
12:00Gravenberch turns that ball over he immediately creates a five on three what got Liverpool that
12:06first goal was not the plan it was their attitude and how they reacted when the plan failed which
12:13is obviously way more important but um now that I say that you're not going to believe what got
12:20them the second goal Man United have just got the ball back Liverpool are boxing them in in their
12:24own half and that forces just as we discussed Casemiro to drop short with his back to play to
12:30try and offer them a way out and as soon as he does this entire Liverpool midfield gets the scent
12:36of blood firmly up their nostrils Diaz is straight onto him you can see Alexander-Arnold's body
12:41language is expecting that ball to be turned over neither McAllister or Subozlai panic and drop
12:47right off they stay in that exact area and lo and behold they are able to turn that ball over
12:54in the dangerous area now from there it is an excellent finish and maybe give Diaz that chance
12:59a couple of times he doesn't get it uh every single time but that is what ruthless play is all
13:04about and it's difficult to argue that they didn't deserve it because just to wrap this whole argument
13:10over why Liverpool was so much better than Man United up in two very simple graphs right this is
13:16every single time Man United won the ball back from Liverpool either a stray ball an interception
13:22a tackle anything they could do to get their hands on it this is every time it happened now this is
13:27pretty good it's nothing to be sniffed at but ultimately what Man United want to do by employing
13:32an aggressive 4-2-4 pressing structure that goes right up into Liverpool's half is to win the ball
13:37back in this position as close to the goal and essentially as you possibly can and looking at
13:44that you'd say what that one Garnaccio gets which no shot came from no chance developed from that's
13:51that's about it right let's flip that over and look at the exact same stats get all these
13:56buggers out the way for Liverpool playing the exact same overlay like you barely even count
14:02them can you there's like what 10 15 maybe even 20 in this area of the pitch like two teams
14:08employing almost exactly the same formation the same pressing structure the same everything
14:12but Liverpool can do it and Man United can't and I like to think on this channel we are as fair as
14:20we can be like we slated a lot of ten hogs performances and the setup and structure last
14:24season but when they went into the FA Cup final we said give the man his due that was a brilliant
14:28individual manager Euro performance but we are here in the new season and he has been backed
14:34and he has said they've turned a corner and he's made all these right noises and spent loads of
14:38money again and I'm just looking at this Man United side thinking nothing has changed they
14:44still have no clear passing identity out from the back they're still really disjointed in their press
14:50where some players seem good at it and some don't and they make huge individual errors but also
14:54there's not one overriding clear structure that should help those individuals out like this is his
15:02third season as Man United manager and this was Arne Slott's third game as Liverpool manager
15:09meanwhile Arne Slott has come into this Liverpool side not being able to spend a single penny on the
15:15kind of players he probably wanted and somehow melded this brilliant deep clever build-up style
15:21that all this team's had at Feyenoord with that exact same like high pressing aggressive Jurgen
15:27Klopp style attacking structure like it's been brilliant and not to toot my own cock too much
15:33but we did say when Arne Slott was appointed that this probably was exactly why he got that job this
15:39is a huge period of upheaval and transition for Liverpool we don't know what's happening with
15:43Salah with Van Dijk has Alexander-Arnold signed a new contract I'm not even sure things could
15:48massively change over the next 12 months so they're gonna got a manager who doesn't have this
15:53strict ideology and this way he wants to play but who just looks at his teams I should probably fix
15:58this before I did any of that and goes okay what can we do with this and turns out what he can do
16:04with this is just turn up at Old Trafford and batter them like it's some kind of like FA Cup
16:09fourth round tie away in a lower league club but anyway yes I've only got the studio for another
16:14120 seconds so if you have enjoyed this video please do consider subscribing to us here at 442
16:19I can smell 600,000 and given that it's an international break and nothing else exciting
16:25can happen this month I'd like to hit that we'll have loads more analysis of Premier League games
16:29when the Premier League does return and if you can bear to watch it we will be covering all the
16:33England games as well you can get me on all the social medias at adamcleary c l e r y this may
16:37be the last time I mention it but I am doing the Great North Run in a matter of days with no knees
16:44bad heart asthma just everything sort of hurts from all the training but we're trying to raise
16:50some money for MIND who are a mental health charity here in the UK we did a live stream for
16:53them and we hit an unbelievable figure of three thousand pounds I am already blown away by that
16:58but you have got a five or a tenner kicking around down the back of the sofa and you would consider
17:02donating it that money will go so far and help so many people and you will feel good about yourself
17:07and I will love you get 442 on all the socials at 442 I forgot to bring a copy of the magazine
17:12but that is in stores now and looks beautiful and shiny and has Killian Mbappe on it so pick that
17:17up if you have the chance and until next time that's I'm breaking the set now so I'm going to go
17:24and have a lie down because I am actually quite not well goodbye