Liverpool’s fourth consecutive defeat could be put down to the players’ lack of clinical finishing, but Arne Slot shouldn’t be relying on chance to win matches.
At the beginning of Liverpool’s 2024/25 campaign, it became evident that part of Slot’s approach to evolving from Jurgen Klopp was to eliminate some of the risk involved in the German’s style.
The team were controlling games more often and 2-0 became a common scoreline – they won 12 of their 56 matches in all competitions by a two-goal margin.
Only three times in the Premier League did they score more than three goals last season, four fewer occasions than in the 2023/24 campaign.
However, it was their ability to control games and see them out comfortably that saw them win the league in April.
That control no longer exists, and the 2-1 defeat to Man United was a glaring example of why Slot needs to change his approach.
Alexis Mac Allister’s lack of impact
Key to Liverpool’s control was their midfield three of Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai or Curtis Jones.
Against Man United, Liverpool started the former three but there was a gaping hole in the middle of the pitch at times.
Alexis Mac Allister‘s lack of form is clear for everyone to see; FotMob tells us he made zero defensive contributions, had just 22 touches and created no chances on Sunday.
He was largely anonymous and, of course, that is in part down to his individual drop in form, but his position was also strange to see.
With Man United sitting deep out of possession – not a surprise – he would often take up positions just in front of Man United‘s backline.
He wasn’t the only player to do this, though. Szoboszlai and the front three were all playing almost on the last defender, leaving just Gravenberch and one of Liverpool’s full-backs to essentially cover the entire midfield.
Having Mac Allister receive the ball so high up the pitch surely negates his greatest strength of creativity on the ball, hence why he didn’t create a single chance against Ruben Amorim’s side.
Instead, Florian Wirtz would have been better suited to picking the ball up in tight spaces with his back to goal. When the German did come on in the second half, he was excellent, creating three chances in 28 minutes.
Going back to the advanced position of Mac Allister, though, the extra yards to chase back and lack of energy only served to benefit Man United as they broke.
As we have seen almost all season, Liverpool were exposed on the break.
Both teams missed big chances
When Slot elected to change the team around the hour mark, his substitutions only made Liverpool easier to exploit on the counter-attack.
In effect, the Reds now had a midfield two of Wirtz and Jones, who both played well individually but would leave Liverpool even more exposed when losing the ball.
This made for an entertaining match if you were neutral.
Cody Gakpo hit the woodwork three times and missed a header worth 0.3 xG (expected goals) according to FotMob – a sitter in normal footballing parlance.
In addition, Virgil van Dijk, Mo Salah and Alexander Isak all missed ‘big chances’.
However, to say Liverpool would have won if they had taken if they had been more clinical is to ignore the threat Man United posed.
The visitors missed three big chances, as defined by FotMob, and could easily have gone 2-0 up through Bruno Fernandes before half time.
To summarise, the players’ luck or form, whatever you want to call it, may soon turn. However, that alone wouldn’t fix all of the Reds’ problems.
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