Twice trailing to Mikel Arteta's side, Liverpool fought back for a 2-2 draw away at Arsenal. Despite the home team missing key players, this was still the best defensive team in the Premier League, and Arne Slot needed to find a way to turn the tide. Adam Clery looks at how a substitution, and a change in mindset, got Liverpool a point... and should have gotten all 3.
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00:00Right, hello there everybody. Adam Cleary here from 4-4-2. Yesterday we saw Arsenal
00:092, Liverpool 2 and today we're going to try something a little bit different involving
00:15the number 2. Which sounds wrong. Now I actually thought the Desmond was a good result for
00:20both teams for very, very different reasons and I spent all last night agonising over
00:25which way to approach this video and in the end I couldn't. So what we're going to do
00:29is two videos, one that really focuses on Arsenal, how they got on top but how they
00:34let it slip but how that's actually not a terrible thing in context and another one
00:38on Liverpool, why they were dominated the first half and how they changed it and came
00:43back and got the draw. They'll both be sort of the same at the start but then they'll
00:46drill down really specifically into one team or the other. If you are neutral in this regard
00:51and you want to see both sides then you've got two videos you can watch. This may be
00:56a complete disaster, I have honestly never tried it before. So yes, that is why Arsenal
01:022, Liverpool 2 was a really good result for Liverpool.
01:09Right, okay, to start, some generalised comments on the pattern of play in this game. This
01:13bit, the next few minutes, this will be the same in both videos. Now despite the differences
01:17in the starting XI's both in terms of personnel and formation, we've got Arsenal in a 4-4-2
01:23here because it kind of just felt more like that than a 4-3-3 which we'll get into in
01:27some detail. Both managers came with a very similar game plan. What you have here are
01:32two teams who are very good at pressing but also two teams who are very, very good at
01:37playing through a press. So the approach for both Arteta and Slot was to stop any sort
01:44of central progression. You don't want the other team to be able to play through the
01:47middle of you and you also don't want to give them chances to win it back in those
01:51same areas. But then by the same token, because you're both very good teams, you don't want
01:55to just sit back and sit in a low block for the whole game and try and hit the opposition
01:59on the counter. So you are neither pressing too high but nor are you dropping too deep
02:03and we kept getting both teams in this very compact shape in the middle of the pitch.
02:09And thus, from there, probably goes without saying, if you are trying to stop the opposition
02:14playing through the centre but you yourself do not want to get caught in the centre, you
02:18then must target the wide spaces. The very first real kick of the game, Liverpool get
02:23into their 3-2 build-up shape that we have seen time and time again this season, but
02:28Arsenal are already locked onto them in the middle. They are not pressing the defenders
02:32or the goalkeeper too much, they don't want to over-commit, but they will not allow that
02:35ball to come into Gravenberch. They're sitting off the full-backs but they are prepared to
02:41jump onto them if the ball goes out there, so what do Liverpool do? They hit long and
02:45they hit into the channels. The hope is because Thomas Partey is not a conventional full-back
02:50and will want to meander into the middle, is to get Diaz into the little bit of space
02:55that might leave behind him. And you can see here it is, a little bit of space. And it's
03:00not the prettiest approach from Liverpool, especially when they've got players who can
03:02play far more shorter, intricate, more eye-catching stuff, but it is definitely worth trying and
03:08from here they get a free kick, a really dangerous one right at the start of the game. And then,
03:12just mere minutes later, Arsenal have their first real spell of possession. They are setting
03:16up at the back and you can see, likewise, Liverpool want to make sure they outnumber
03:21them in the middle. You can count them for yourself here, they are blocking off the central
03:25progression. So Arsenal then do likewise. In this example, Martinelli has pinned Alexander-Arnold
03:30all the way back, he can't really push up, so that leaves Timber a bit of space to move
03:34into and that's where Raya lands the ball. And just to show you how much of a theme this
03:38was for both teams across the game, right, this might be a little bit messy, right, this
03:41is the passing map of David Raya in that match. Now he's a cheeky little chap, you
03:46know what he's like, he's got his little lefts and rights to his centre backs to see if they
03:50can pull and prod and take Liverpool out of their shape, but by and large, he is not only
03:54going long, but he is going into the channels when he does it. Now you may well be looking
03:59at this going, there's an awful lot of reds in there, Adam, he was giving the ball away
04:02quite a lot, but I think this is genuinely quite a commendable pass map for a goalkeeper
04:06in a game such as this, because not only is there still a lot of accuracy, there's plenty
04:11green in amongst all of this for what is a very low percentage thing to do, but also
04:16look how far forward he comes to do it, like he is playing, he is trying to push them up
04:21the pitch, this isn't just a, oh give it to me and I'll pump it, he is, pump it, he is
04:25getting into decent positions and then trying to find a teammate. But then we look at the
04:29same pass map for Kelleher and you can see largely a similar pattern, a lot more red
04:33because he's not as good at kicking as David Raya is in my opinion, but you can see almost
04:38exclusively he is going out to the flanks and going long, and in fact, get them both
04:44up here, of these like what, 30 or 40, I can't actually see them right now, 30 or 40 kicks
04:50going into the channels, between the two of them there are what, three that go centrally
04:56and none of those work. But the thing is, this isn't really that surprising because
04:59in these big Premier League games now where you get two really big teams and one of them
05:04doesn't get a man sent off, they have become so tactical and so sort of like marginal.
05:12And that's because teams like Arsenal and Liverpool have such meticulous, well prepared
05:17intelligent managers now that they put so much work into negating the opposition's threat,
05:22fairly confident that even if that happens to them, they've got really good quality players
05:27that will find solutions on the pitch. And it was kind of a mad game because it felt
05:31very sort of like high energy and it went both ways, but if you look at like the XG,
05:35the whole game, I know some people don't care about XG, just go with me on this, it was
05:39like 0.8 and 0.9, like in a game with four goals that felt like it had quite a lot of
05:44chances, that's like very little. And that is like as mad as it might sound, exactly
05:50how both of these managers will have wanted this game to go. Like you could see from both
05:54the set pieces, they were well worked on, they'd obviously practiced that in training,
05:58but the other two goals, individual moments of brilliance. Like Arteta will not have sat
06:03Saka down at the start of the week and said, oh, if you get down the channel, make sure
06:06you nutmeg Andy Robertson and blast it in the near post. But he will have trusted him
06:11that should such a situation develop, he'd have the quality to do something. But why
06:15then specifically did this end up actually being quite a really, really good result for
06:20Liverpool? Well, in short, because in the preparation for this game, Slott got slightly
06:26outmanoeuvred by Arteta and did really well to change that up. They got a great result
06:31against Chelsea, but if you watch that game, they did get a little bit sort of bullied
06:35in central midfield, certainly physically, like they had better quality. Curtis Jones
06:38was excellent. Yes, yes, yes, I know. But in terms of the physical battle in the centre,
06:42they didn't really win it. So I'll show you the average positions and one thing will jump
06:45out at you, but we will address that. First of all, you can see Curtis Jones not really
06:49playing as a 10, not really pushing up. He is pretty much sitting exactly where McAllister
06:53and Gravenberch were. And this was because, this was because, is that English? This was
06:58because, this was because Arsenal had, that still doesn't sound right, Mourinho and Rice
07:02in the middle. So dropping Jones there gives you a 3v2. Well done, you've won. But the
07:06reason Mr. Slott was outmanoeuvred by a master was because A, Arsenal got these mixed up.
07:13Arsenal had Thomas Party inverting from right back into this area, but also we discussed
07:17at length in the Arsenal video, Kai Havertz dropping from the number 10 into it as well.
07:22And I don't know how good all your maths is, but 4 outnumbers 3. So what this meant,
07:28and yes, that was the problem you had already spotted, that that forced Darwin Nunes to
07:32drop all the way back into this central area to help them try and compete with Arsenal's
07:384, which is very good. Darwin Nunes is a big, strong lad. He had a lot of presence there.
07:42But it now gives you a big, yawning, great big chasm where your out ball should be. And
07:49just to be blunt, these four here, there is excellent technique in there. There's a
07:52lot of sort of diversity of skill set. But in a purely physical, can we scrap it in the
07:57centre of pitch matchup, Mourinho, Rice, Party and Havertz had the beating of them. Not better
08:03footballers, I'm not saying that, just collectively more bastardy. And that meant that on the
08:09rare occasions Liverpool got the central progression they so desperately craved, he was here locked
08:16in this 4v4 tussle with Arsenal's midfield. And that's obviously very bad because it means
08:21you can't continue then to progress centrally. He's not going to be running at the defenders
08:24or creating space or pulling anybody around. And also, when you do have to go back to the
08:29wide players, inevitably, they haven't got the friends in that area that they would be
08:34expecting. But on a slot, I don't mind sticking my neck out here given that he's had the best
08:38start to a Liverpool manager ever, I think, is quite a good manager and he fixed it. Around
08:44about the hour mark, he made a triple substitution and all three players coming on addressed
08:49very specific things that were wrong with the balance of the game, from his perspective.
08:53First off, Dominic Sobozlai coming in at the 10, moving Curtis Jones back into the middle
08:57to sit alongside Gravenberg. This was the best change of them all. He may not currently
09:02have the sort of output in front of goal I think we were expecting from him, but in terms
09:06of just his engine, his work rate, his determination, his reading of the game, his ability to press
09:11how good he is out of possession, he does the job of two Alexis McAllisters. And if
09:15you are swapping one Alexis McAllister for two Alexis McAllisters, that means straight
09:20away there's way less need for Darwin Nunes to drop from this position. This is his very
09:25first contribution after coming on. Arsenal have a decent counter-attack opportunity,
09:29but he muscles Havertz off the ball. Great, that's what you want. And straight away, with
09:33possession regained, what is Darwin Nunes doing? He's sprinting forward. He's not coming
09:39short to make sure they retain the ball in that area because Arsenal are going to fight
09:43them for it. He's like, no, no, we're fine now. I can just go. And this massively changed
09:48how Liverpool were off the ball. They're now aggressive enough to press really high. You
09:53can see here, they are massively outnumbered in this area. This is technically quite a
09:57bad situation to be in, but Sobozlai is not only cutting off the central pass upfield,
10:03but he then jumps immediately onto Declan Rice, forces him to play back. They box Arsenal
10:08in, they go long in a total panic, and they get the ball straight back. And I've only
10:12just now had that thing that my brain does, where I'm sure it's Sobozlai, but then maybe
10:17it's Sobozlai, and now I can't remember which one it definitely is, and I haven't got time
10:22to check. So if I'm doing that wrong again, sorry Dom. The other two substitutions just
10:28made sense. Obviously, Arsenal were targeting the space behind Andy Robertson. He seems
10:32to be a little bit out of form. Maybe he's physically not right. So Simicast coming on
10:36just kind of shored that area up. And Cody Gakpo, what he did, oh I like that. Now obviously,
10:43Cody Gakpo, much bigger physical presence than Louis Diaz. You're not going to get him
10:48off the ball as easily. He can win headers, which, you know, if you're going wide into
10:52those channels, is a really beneficial thing to do. But also, he likes to stay really,
10:56really, really, really, really, really wide and make full backs worry about where he is.
11:02And not only did he worry Thomas Partey, he really worried Thomas Partey. Like if I was
11:07being a nerd about this, I'd show you Louis Diaz's heat map, which is this, and Cody Gakpo's
11:11heat map, and explain why that's different, and really, really good. But instead, what
11:15I'm going to show you is Thomas Partey's pass map. This is everything that Thomas Partey
11:19did on the ball when Louis Diaz was on the pitch. Oh boy, is he enjoying some freedom
11:23to get into the middle of the pitch, be involved in the game, compete, fight, give Arsenal
11:28that sort of dominance in the midfield. And this, you're going to like this, is everything
11:33he did on the ball when Cody Gakpo was on the pitch. There is not some clever footballing
11:37term for this, that is just a man who is now **** scared. So yes, brilliant, all that's
11:43really, really good. You're getting beat and the other team are on top, but now you've
11:46turned the tide and you are dominating the game, as we can see from this section of the
11:51momentum graph, which I keep saying I don't like using, and then I keep using. But how
11:55do they then get the equaliser? Now, it would be very easy for me to praise the run and
12:00the finish of Mo Salah. It would be very easy for me to praise the movement and the pass
12:04of Darwin Nunes. It would be even easier for me to praise the through ball and the vision
12:09of Trent Alexander-Arnold. But I think the praise for this goal, and indeed a performance
12:14commendable comment in general, goes to Canarte. Performance commendable comment. I am, this
12:22two video thing, brain has fallen out. Now, if you were wondering why Arsenal seemed so
12:27keen to target Andy Robertson, someone who in theory is a very versatile, industrious,
12:32good, solid, defensive full-back as well as an attacking one, rather than Trent Alexander-Arnold,
12:39someone for which exists a narrative that he can't defend. The reason for that is because
12:44Canarte is on this side, not on this side. Trent Alexander-Arnold, this is his heat map.
12:49You can see that across the course of the game, he had that freedom to push up into
12:53these spaces. He would occasionally even start flirting with the idea of getting into this
12:57like Cole Palmer style half space that left loads of room in behind him. And yet, and
13:03yet, Arsenal got no joy down there. And in fact, not only did Arsenal get no joy from
13:08this area, this area is what gets Liverpool the equaliser. Now, this is right before the
13:14goal, right? Arsenal have now been boxed into this shape. Gabriel's gone off. They've sort
13:18of ceded all sort of control of the game. They're just trying to hang on. They're in
13:21this really compact, deep shape that they're hoping Liverpool can't break through. So Slott's
13:26solution to up the pressure and find a way through, understandably, is to allow Trent
13:30Alexander-Arnold to go here with more freedom. But of course, you know how the fates work,
13:37risk versus reward. By doing this, that opened up loads of space in this left-hand side for
13:43Arsenal that they could potentially exploit. Now, this attack breaks down and Arsenal do
13:47turn the ball over and their first thought, their only thought, can we get into that channel?
13:52And they do. You can see here, Trent Alexander-Arnold visibly muttering, oh God, oh God, oh God,
13:57oh God, as he sprints back to try and cover that space. But that is fine because look
14:02who is also sprinting. Martinelli's touch actually takes him beyond Alexander-Arnold.
14:07He does well here. He would be in, but Canarte has read the danger and he has flown across
14:14to win that ball back. And now, because they've effectively sucked Arsenal in down this side,
14:20he gives it back to Alexander-Arnold and he then hits the ball into this channel, into
14:24the space they have left. In the space of two passes, Liverpool go from this brilliant
14:29Canarte reading an interception to this position here. And I broke it down in a bit more detail
14:36in the Arsenal video. Basically, this is the problem with Kiriol being there and not Gabriel.
14:40He misreads the flight of that ball. And Arsenal go from this nice little defensive
14:44shape into this one, which if you do around players the quality of Nunes and Salah, will
14:50almost always F you in the A. Try not to swear. And there it ended. Liverpool did not go on
14:58and get a winning goal. So why is the draw actually quite a good result for them? Because
15:02I could envisage, I could very easily imagine some disappointment at not taking that dominance
15:07of the second half and Arsenal's back four being made out of like lollipop sticks and
15:12PVA glue, not getting the winner. Why is it good? Well, because with every single passing
15:17Liverpool win, you keep hearing, well, they've not really played anybody yet. And even when
15:22they beat Chelsea, it was like, well, it was at home. And I guess it's only Chelsea in
15:26the grand scheme of things. Not really played a top team. Well, now they've gone away to
15:30a top team and yet a top team that had injuries. But so did Liverpool. Alisson wasn't here.
15:36Jota wasn't here. They would definitely have started as well. And not only did they not
15:40get beat, not only did they get a very valuable point, but for large stretches of that game,
15:45they were the better team. It was ultimately Arsenal who ground out the draw here, who
15:50were probably quite relieved to hear the final whistle. Liverpool, I think, will regret maybe
15:54not getting that third one, but it's a long old season. This is where they are in the
15:58league so far. They've now definitely played somebody and they look really good for a title.
16:06Challenge. So, yeah, that was how Liverpool turns this game around. As I said at the start,
16:10there was so much to go through with this. We've done it as a two part. If you'd like
16:14to know what went wrong with Arsenal and why it's actually quite a good result for them
16:17as well, that video should also be up. I think the plan was to do Arsenal first and Liverpool
16:22second. So the link will be in the description and the comments somewhere. I'll make sure
16:26I do that. If you want to go watch that, drop that. Treat yourself. Now, if you have been
16:31sat there this whole video looking at this football shirt thinking, oh wow, oh my God,
16:36I sure would love to own something as stylish and as collectible and it's just generally
16:41comfortable as that football shirt you're wearing. You can. This is the incredibly limited
16:46edition 442 30th anniversary shirt produced in partnership between us, Legends and Admiral,
16:51also Legends, and is available from Admiral right now for, I have forgotten, I think it's
16:57a number loosely related to 442, might be £42. We are making precious, precious, precious,
17:03few of them. And every time I'm in the office, I steal another one. So if you'd like one and
17:06you are size small to, I think extra, extra large, you can have it. The link for that will be
17:12downstairs. This is kind of what it is, I guess, as well. Treat yourself. If you didn't absolutely
17:16hate all of this, you can get me across all the socials at Adam Cleary, C-L-E-R-Y, and I would
17:20implore you, nay beg, to subscribe to us here on 442. The more subscribers we get, the more cool
17:26stuff we can do. And hopefully, if you've been watching the channel for a while, you will agree.
17:30We do cool stuff. The 442 socials are in the corner of the video. I actually remembered to bring
17:34the special 30th anniversary edition of the magazine, which is still in stores now. You
17:38can pick that up. It comes in this cool little wrapper, which I'm not going to open because it
17:42will destroy the resale value for when I retire. Until next time, though, thank you very much for
17:48watching. I have been Adam Cleary. This has been 442. He's what? They've sacked him? Oh my God.
17:58Oh, I'm never going home. Really? Oh, fuck's sake. Right, bye. 10 orgs gone. Bye.