In what was seen as the first real test of both teams, Enzo Maresca's Chelsea took on Arne Slot's Liverpool at Anfield. While the Reds emerged with the victory, both teams will have seen their performances as massive indicators that they're headed in the right direction.
However, on a day when Chelsea could be argued to have won the 'tactical battle', it was Liverpool's individuals who earned them the win. In particular, Curtis Jones, who put on a display that should see him starting for this club (and his country) a lot more often.
However, on a day when Chelsea could be argued to have won the 'tactical battle', it was Liverpool's individuals who earned them the win. In particular, Curtis Jones, who put on a display that should see him starting for this club (and his country) a lot more often.
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00:00Hello everybody, Adam Cleary here from 442 and no disrespect to international football
00:09but it's nice the football's back isn't it?
00:11And better yet, as an extra special treat since you've all been such good boys and girls
00:16so far this season, we've got probably the two best teams in the Premier League so far
00:20having, if you're a terrible nerd, the most tactically interesting game of the season
00:25so far.
00:26And I think in some respects, both teams can claim to have won it.
00:32I mean mostly Liverpool, obviously yes because they did actually win it and that's what they
00:35end up giving you points for, but let's discuss.
00:38Alright, so to get us started we have two teams who both adore a 4-2-3-1 this season
00:45but also don't play a 4-2-3-1.
00:48In Liverpool's case, you've got a team who ask the 10 to go out here, one of the midfielders
00:53pushes up, Gravenberch stays on his own, the full backs come into the middle like
00:57that and you end up with this, I'm going all over the place, this sort of two, I can make
01:01that neater, this 2-3-5.
01:03But then in Chelsea's case, because so much of what they do goes through Cole Palmer,
01:07he's allowed to drift into his right hand half space here, one of the city midfielders
01:11pushes up to sort of counterbalance that, Malagusto normally comes across from right
01:15back to give you a two and the defence sort of slides along so you end up with a 3-2-5.
01:20Both ways are very good, both ways have been very effective, both ways make the most out
01:23of the individual players both teams have and both teams have been really good this
01:28season as a result.
01:29But the reason why horrid, grubby little nerds like me were really looking forward to this
01:33game was because you had two managers on the sidelines who love to make adjustments based
01:37on the opposition and this was their biggest game each of the season.
01:41We knew some things were going to be different.
01:44Now in Liverpool's case, as we discussed in the video we just did on Liverpool, their
01:482-3 build-up shape is designed to have great big distances between these players so you
01:53can move the ball around and drag the opposition all over the place but Chelsea have a man
01:57for man press.
01:58They were going to match up every single one of these players individually and if you lose
02:02that ball anywhere in this situation, because Chelsea are very good at doing this, you'd
02:06be in a lot of trouble.
02:07So Arnott's slot solution was to sort of get rid of this big gap they like to have between
02:10sort of the attack and the defence, drop Curtis Jones a lot wider, push Trent Alexander-Arnold
02:15a lot further up so you end up with basically these two players on a very similar line and
02:20then, this is the really clever bit, go with a back four that includes the goalkeeper.
02:25So now if Chelsea do still want to press you man for man, that's an awful lot of bodies
02:29they've got to commit to this area of the pitch but also you've got more players in
02:33this area yourself.
02:35The distances are shorter, there's more bodies around the ball, you're in way more control
02:38of that situation and if you do need to get out and go over it, you've got two players
02:43all the way out here who you can play into.
02:45But as for Chelsea, they also want to sort of reduce those risks in build-up, they want
02:49to keep a lot of physicality in the centre of the pitch.
02:52So because Rhys James was back and playing right back, what that meant was, Caicedo and
02:56Lavia both sat deep, Cole Palmer still went into his preferred right-hand half space and
03:02they took the inverted full-back concept and went insane with it.
03:07And that, plain and simple, is why he didn't start Enzo Fernandes in this game.
03:12He wanted this area of the pitch to be combative, to be physical, there was no onus whatsoever
03:16on Lavia to push into that another advanced 8th position, so they just had Gusto come
03:22all the way from left-back to do it instead.
03:24And as a result, Chelsea's average position map kind of looks a little bit insane, like
03:28just sort of ignore Malagusto because he played left-back and right-back so his average position
03:32comes out right in the middle but you can still see how high up it was.
03:36So Lavia is way further over on this left-hand side to A, cover that gap, but also B, be
03:41a problem for Salah.
03:43Now again, good, very clever, we like this, but the problem it presented Chelsea was one
03:48of quality and that is going to be a theme in this video.
03:51The fundamental difference for Chelsea being in this attacking shape versus what they would
03:55normally do is that that is not Enzo Fernandes, that is sort of an 8-10 hybrid role and it
04:01is Malagusto who is a fantastic, fantastic player, but a very different one to Fernandes.
04:06And while Chelsea did a really good job of getting into this shape, they really struggled
04:11to find Gusto in anything even remotely resembling a dangerous area.
04:15Like if I show you his heat map and his pass map, like obviously this is the part where
04:18he was playing as the right-back, just focus on the left-hand side, how rarely he manages
04:22to get on the ball in the areas they would have been hoping to find him.
04:26Like if you're inverting into this sort of attacking 8-10 position, that's where you've
04:31got to do your damage and they couldn't really get him involved.
04:33And on the rare occasions they did, that's where that issue of quality comes in again.
04:37Like I think Gusto's a fantastic player, but he's a very different profile to Fernandes.
04:40He hasn't got those creative instincts, that like technical execution of final balls and
04:45so he kept ending up with little situations like this.
04:48But the real, real problem that Chelsea had, and this was absolutely more something that
04:52Liverpool did to them than just something they did badly, was Cole Palmer.
04:57When you talk about quality with Chelsea, that's where your brain immediately goes and
05:01he had a very, very quiet game.
05:03Liverpool, whether it was Gravenberch, Sobreslai or Jones, all of them, they did a really good
05:07job at locking up Cole Palmer.
05:10And if I show you his heat map from the game, hopefully, maybe you watched our Cole Palmer
05:14video the other week, he loves to be in this right-hand half space, but you can see Liverpool
05:20almost completely forced him out of it.
05:22And this is always where Chelsea try to find Palmer with the ball.
05:25He drops out of the 10 position into this channel between one of the centre-backs and
05:29the full-back.
05:30He can go around them, he can go through them, he can put balls over the top, he can go for
05:33goal himself.
05:34If you can keep him out of that area, you're normally okay.
05:38And you take that and you combine it with the fact that Liverpool weren't playing a
05:40particularly high line, they sat nice and deep, meant he couldn't even do his usual
05:44plan B of drop into the right-back area and hit balls over the top.
05:48Like, they took away all of Palmer's tools.
05:51However, despite the fact that Liverpool did a very good job on Chelsea, I still thought
05:54watching it, Chelsea had the better of the game.
05:57They seemed to be the team that were in control.
05:59Like, I don't normally use this momentum graph from so far, because there's so many
06:03different things go into it, it's very difficult to draw any sort of actual conclusions.
06:06But for Liverpool playing at home, all these bits here are where Chelsea were having more
06:12of the ball, better territory, creating chances, and all these bits here are where Liverpool
06:16were doing it.
06:17You don't often see that sort of balance in a Liverpool home game.
06:20In fact, you never see it.
06:21And I think when you combine that graph with just, like, the eye test when you were watching
06:25it, it's very easy to draw the conclusion that Maresca actually won the tactical battle
06:30against Slotir.
06:31However, however, however, however, you don't get anything for winning the tactical battle.
06:35That's not a real thing, is it?
06:37Liverpool won the actual match because of a difference, here's that word again, in
06:42quality.
06:43And there is no better illustration of that than Curtis Jones, a conclusion you can both
06:49easily and correctly draw from the selection of Caicedo and Lavey as a pair, is that Maresca,
06:54just like Slot, knew this game was going to come down to individual battles.
06:59And Curtis Jones walked off that pitch the world heavyweight champion of winning individual
07:05battles.
07:06Of all the players in the middle of that park, he won the most ground duels, six out of eight.
07:10He made the highest number of defensive actions.
07:13He made the highest number of tackles.
07:14He won the most number of fouls.
07:17And yet you, or I suspect to any normal person watching that match, probably don't even remember
07:22it for being like a rugged battling display.
07:24You're going to remember it, here's that word again, for his quality, especially on the ball.
07:30Now, as we've already said, Liverpool's 4-2-3-1 isn't a real thing.
07:34It's wazoo wazoo, it's fairy dust, it's wee wee wee, or whatever that Matthew McConaughey
07:38bit is in the Wolf of Wall Street Gravenberch drops in as a sole six.
07:41The two eights, they kind of press up and you get these five here and these five here.
07:45And thus, if you look at their average positions across this game, it's a lot more structured
07:49than Chelsea's were because it was a lot more of a structured, sort of compact discipline performance.
07:53You can see the four at the back, you can see a nice midfield three here and then the three up front.
07:57But there was an incredible moment really early on in this game involving Curtis Jones.
08:02Liverpool are sort of back in their defensive shape, but this is a more dangerous situation than it looks.
08:07This ball is loose and if Chelsea win it, they're in a really good position to go attack.
08:11But what it does is he dominates Caicedo here.
08:14He wins it and then more importantly, he doesn't panic.
08:17He gets turned, he goes past two Chelsea players and then drags Liverpool up the field almost on his own.
08:24And from there, Liverpool get into quite a dangerous position.
08:27And when it goes out to the right hand side, look where Jones is now.
08:31He's gone from his deeper sort of double pivot position in the off the ball 4-2-3-1.
08:36And now already he's in that left hand attacking eight slash ten position, making a run into the box.
08:43And if we look at his heat map from that game, it paints actually a pretty interesting picture of this match.
08:47You can see the big splodge in the centre from where he was doing his defensive work, where he was being neat,
08:52where he was being tidy, where he was being the sort of disciplined system player that Slott was asking everyone to be.
08:57But you can also see that the bulk of his work actually comes right out on the left hand side.
09:02So when Liverpool were in possession, he wasn't just staying in this area.
09:05He was floating as far out as he could to get some space to get onto the ball and then driving back in field with it.
09:11But similar to what we've just said about Malagusto, there's nothing really going on on the edge of the box.
09:17I better remind the two of them, despite starting in completely different positions, are the left sided eight slash ten.
09:24Like that's the same position effectively.
09:26But the difference is Gusto in that position is expected to be an on the ball chance creating sort of classic number ten.
09:33Curtis Jones was basically Liverpool's second striker.
09:36And that's where Liverpool's penalty that was a penalty came from.
09:39It's where Liverpool's penalty that wasn't a penalty came from.
09:42And most importantly, it's where his goal came from.
09:44And the fact that goal is actually mad because when the ball goes out to Salah, you can see it clear as Christmas.
09:50They are in that 4-3-3 shape.
09:52And even as Salah cuts inside to put this cross in, if you pause it, Chelsea are actually really, really well set up here.
09:59But again, and I should have had a counter on screen for how many times I'm using this word.
10:03This is where the quality tells.
10:06The accuracy and the pace on the cross, the timing of the run from Curtis Jones.
10:10Like I think Rhys James, if I remember rightly, got absolute pelters from Jamie Carragher on the sky coverage for being slightly deeper here and not in line.
10:17But even if we just, can I do this digitally?
10:20If we put him here, if he was bang in line with everybody else, not only is Jones still onside making the run look even better times,
10:28but he's actually further away to have even less chance of stopping it.
10:30If we are going to talk about the quality involved in this goal, this bit here is where it ends because that is not a good touch.
10:38And it is in fact a lack of, ding, quality by Chelsea that sees it end up in the back of the net.
10:44Robert Sanchez, mate, goalkeeper to goalkeeper here, that cannot go in.
10:50And in fact, not to toot my own cock here, but if we rewind the tape all the way to the very first video I did about Marescas Chelsea,
10:58even I, me, an idiot, said this.
11:02Leicester's goalkeeper was every bit as good on the ball as everybody else in this newly formed back four.
11:08He was patient with it, he wouldn't get panicked, he could play through the press, he could play over the top, he could play long.
11:13He was a really valuable weapon for them to have when they had the ball at the back.
11:17Now, Chelsea fans, I will leave it up to you to decide whether you think Dore Petrovic or Robert Sanchez are capable of playing this bananas role at Premier League level.
11:28But, while I'm not saying I think they'll go out and spend big money on a goalkeeper, I am thinking it very loudly.
11:38But what ultimately Enzo Maresca wants is a goalkeeper who is as comfortable on the ball as anyone else in the back four.
11:44So when you see this shape, there's not obviously one player in it who's less comfortable having it.
11:49Like I show you his pass map from that game, right, you can see there's loads of left and right.
11:53You can rely on him, he isn't going to let you down.
11:55But what you want is passes that actually end up in this area, that find that first sort of stage of the midfield rather than just another defender.
12:05And there's literally one of those.
12:07It's in the 87th minute, this is it right here, and I would not say that is a great deal of pressure.
12:14It's a good pass, it's the right pass, he's done it there, but he doesn't really do it consistently.
12:18Like what this is, is safe, right, which is fine if you're then an incredible shot stopper.
12:23So it's kind of worth sort of the sacrifice of the ball progression because you're going to keep loads out.
12:27But even looking at his numbers this season for that, it's one of the sort of worst ranked goalkeepers this season for keeping the ball out.
12:34And again, just goalkeeper to goalkeeper.
12:36Like I've come in today with what I think is a broken finger.
12:39I don't know if you can see on camera how black that is slowly going.
12:42Because I threw myself, I was playing yesterday afternoon, I threw myself into the studs of a much bigger boy trying to preserve a 1-1 lead.
12:54In this situation, Robert Sanchez should be taking ball and Jones and Jones balls as if it's nothing to him.
13:03But speaking of which, and just to conclude on a Liverpool point, because this is quite a Chelsea focused video,
13:07I think again it's worth pointing out just how important Curtis Jones was yesterday.
13:12Because several times in this video we've talked about Liverpool's system and how disciplined it was,
13:16and how deep they were, and how compact they were, and how they got from one shape into another really, really well.
13:20These are the hallmarks, these are the tenets of Arne Slott's Liverpool.
13:25They are so much more disciplined and better organised than they were under Jurgen Klopp,
13:29which is why they're hardly conceding any goals.
13:31But the thing with really structured systems is you need somewhere a maverick.
13:37Curtis Jones did not win one and a half penalties and score the winning goal yesterday
13:42because he was doing very disciplined, very structured work.
13:45He did all that because he knew when the time was right to ignore it.
13:49And just to go back to his heat map, and you may need to squint slightly for this,
13:52you can see where the structure and the discipline is.
13:55When we haven't got the ball, get back into this position and help us compete,
13:58help us be combative in the middle, do not let Chelsea win those battles.
14:01And when we do get on the ball, drift out into this area where you will find the space
14:06and we can make these attacks from the left-hand side.
14:08But the really important bit is in these two big blotches, these really small yellow ones right in the box.
14:16He was choosing his moments when to go for the jugular superbly
14:20and because of his, in my opinion, incredibly underappreciated
14:26bing quality, that's what won Liverpool the game.
14:29And maybe this is a slight tangent here, right, but I love players like Curtis Jones
14:32because to me they are why you actually have to go and watch football
14:37rather than relying on just sort of data and graphs and stats and dweebs like me.
14:41Like if you look at the data, there's nothing that's ever really going to leap off the page of you.
14:45Maybe this, he's really good at carrying the ball into the box,
14:48one of the best in the league at that,
14:49but he plays for a team that's going to get a lot of those sort of situations,
14:52so that's not really that impressive.
14:54But if you watch Curtis Jones, you just see the levels he operates on,
14:59both up here and with his feet, are way beyond what he gets credit for.
15:03And in fact, not to potentially start a massive argument between Liverpool fans in the comments,
15:08a Liverpool fan friend of mine who has a season ticket
15:11described Curtis Jones as people who don't go to the match don't get it,
15:15people who do go to the match love him.
15:18Is that true? I have no idea, but please discuss amongst yourselves Liverpool fans in the comments
15:22and of course any other thoughts and feelings about the match as a whole.
15:26But now I have important news to share with you.
15:30First off, the more eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed that I am wearing
15:33the finest football shirt you have ever clapped eyes on.
15:36We have collaborated with Admiral, actual Admiral,
15:38to make an actual football shirt, actual football shirt,
15:42to celebrate 442's 30th birthday and I absolutely adore this.
15:47And if you are also someone of incredibly refined tastes and you adore it too,
15:51then you can own it if you would like to do that.
15:53We had a couple of extra ones made, they're available,
15:56I think the link will be in the description,
15:58I probably should have checked that before I recorded the video.
16:01They come in all, they said shapes and sizes, they're all football shirt shape,
16:04but they come in various sizes and you can have one and you can wear it
16:07and you can tell all your friends how cool you are.
16:10But then, second thing, if you really, really want to be cool,
16:12we're not just making football shirts to celebrate our 30th birthday,
16:15we are having the event to end all events.
16:18We're going to be at Classic Football Shirts in London on the 21st of November
16:22for our 30th birthday party.
16:23We are joined by Paul Merson, now that sadly he is out of Strictly,
16:27Andre Parler, I will be there, Adam Monk will be there,
16:30the whole 442 team will be there.
16:31Assorted other luminaries, I don't know who,
16:35but maybe they'll show up and you can get a photo with them,
16:37but you can come to that as well.
16:38We are selling a limited number of tickets,
16:40a really limited number of tickets.
16:42They may not even still be on sale when you see this,
16:44but I'll stick the description down below.
16:47It's going to be a lot of fun.
16:47There is some drink, there is some music.
16:49We are doing a goodie bag, which if you've seen the little advert I've done,
16:53comes with a guarantee of zero tat and is currently worth
16:58several times more than the cost of the ticket.
17:01Genuinely, it's the greatest goodie bag ever made.
17:03And yes, Legal Have asked me just to point out
17:05that the greatest goodie bag of all time claim is me.
17:08It's my personal opinion,
17:09might not necessarily reflect the views of 442 or its sponsors,
17:13but maybe, maybe I know loads about goodie bags.
17:16Do you ever think about that?
17:17But yes, anyway, that is the video.
17:18That's me on all the socials, Adam Cleary, C-L-E-R-Y.
17:21Was that interesting? Did you enjoy it?
17:22Was I talking nonsense?
17:23All opinions are absolutely welcome.
17:25The latest issue of 442, the 30th birthday issue,
17:28hence the shirt and the party, that is on sale now.
17:31It's probably my favourite one we've ever done
17:34in the time that I've been here.
17:36So treat yourself to that would be my advice.
17:40Comments.
17:41Don't forget to subscribe to the channel.
17:42That's obviously really good too,
17:44because when we make videos, you get to watch them.
17:46And that's, that's it.
17:47Liverpool, Liverpool, Chelsea.
17:49Two sides that everyone has said
17:50have been really good this season,
17:51but haven't really played anybody yet,
17:53have now played somebody yet.
17:56And one of them won and is feeling very good about that.
17:58And the other should still feel good,
18:00even though they lost.
18:01Yeah, that's it.
18:02Bye.