4 months ago
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Photo by Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images
The lack of a striker made for an at times confusing introduction to Arne Slot’s Liverpool but miles in the legs is what matters most.
LIVERPOOL 1 - 0 REAL BETIS
Liverpool: Szoboszlai 34’
Pre-Match
For his first pre-season game in charge, new manager Arne Slot went as strong as he possibly could with a starting eleven including Wataru Endo, Dominik Szoboszlai, Curtis Jones, Harvey Elliott, Kostas Tsimikas, Jarell Quansah, Conor Bradley, Caoimhin Kelleher, and Mohamed Salah. It might not have been a Premier League first choice eleven, but where there were first team regulars missing it was due to injury (Andy Robertson) or international duty-related time off.
It had the look of a new manager looking to impress, with the big question being how his chosen lineup might shake out positionally and tactically.
First Half
On the formation front, Liverpool did indeed line up in something probably best described as a 4-3-3 but in a change from the Jürgen Klopp era the midfield was flipped from a single-pivot 1-2 to double pivot 2-1 with Jones and Endo in the base while Szoboszlai took on a free role ahead of them. The lack of a true striker, though, meant Elliott started as the nominal striker—with heavy emphasis on nominal—and took the idea of false nine to the extreme, often ending up in line with or even deeper than Szoboszlai.
It wasn’t a set-up that did Elliott any favours, with the creative midfielder seeing little of the ball and leaving the Reds without any focal point in attack and muddying any efforts to gain tactical insight into what Slot’s Liverpool want to look like. All that really might matter in a first pre-season game is getting miles in the legs, of course, but for those watching in the stadium in Pittsburgh and at home it made for a fairly indifferent viewing experience.
Things went from a little dull to a bit concerning 30 minutes in when Curtis Jones headed straight to the dressing room with an injury, which saw youngster Trey Nyoni replace him and slot in alongside Endo. It was Nyoni, though, who then started off the move that saw Szoboszlai and Salah combine with a one-two to beat the Betis defence on the break as Salah slid Szoboszlai in on goal and the Hungarian calmly finished into the bottom corner.
Second Half
Vítězslav Jaroš replaced Kellher in goal to start the second half but the only outfield change was Tyler Morton on for Endo, with the youngster slotting straight into the base of midfield. Whether it was due to his introduction or other half-time tweaks, the Reds looked more coherent early in the second half than they had in the first—with the left side of Tsimikas and Fabio Carvalho in particular much improved compared to before the break.
The hour mark saw the major changes one would expect from a pre-season game, with eight changes seeing every outfield player bar Nyoni and Morton—themselves having come on earlier as substitutes—replaced, though the former came off ten minutes later. Slots Tots went on to play Betis evenly the rest of the way, maintaining the 1-0 margin with a fair degree of comfort but with limited attacking threat of their own bar a few bright moments from Ben Doak.
Final Thoughts
Bradley and Salah on the right impressed most consistently on the night, while Nyoni and Morton’s introductions showed promise and will have plenty of people talking hopefully about the youngsters. Meanwhile, Jarell Quansah looked as preternaturally poised as ever. On the flip side, it’s hard to be critical of Elliott given the unfamiliar role, but if the plan is for him to moonlight as a striker this season it’s going to take more work.
More broadly, that lack of any kind of a striker-defined focal-point in attack made it hard to really take much away tactically from a first look at Arne Slot’s Liverpool, but at the end of the day all that really matters from an early pre-season game is miles in the legs and anything more than that is a bonus.
