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LONDON – Nothing about Liverpool’s 3-0 win at Emirates Stadium suggested that their central defensive partner was anything but their team’s relative weakness, but Real Madrid would do well to learn from Arsenal’s tribulations. It will take an impressive effort to reach the belly of the Reds.
No matter their form, the simple truth is that Ozan Kabak and Nathaniel Phillips at the peak of their powers are not on the same level as the world-class players that surrounded them. Arsenal got it and one of the few things that hit a lamentable display was their early commitment to harassing Liverpool center-backs, Martin Odegaard in particular increasing the intensity of his pressure every time the ball went to those two.
The problem that Arsenal and Real Madrid faced may still be that when Kabak and Phillips are surrounded by a midfield that finally deploys players in their best positions, a striker three who plays with a welcome zip and a side pair revived, Liverpool can cope with the fact that they don’t have Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez at the back. The only thing the center-backs have to do when under pressure is make an easy pass to the man outside of them or Fabinho and Jurgen Klopp’s can build again from there.
It’s hard to overstate the value of having Fabinho back in his best spot at the base of the midfield. Having to play with the Brazilian as a center-back at times was clearly an option Klopp knew he would have to consider at times when he let Dejan Lovren go to Zenit St Petersburg without replacing him. Once Van Dijk and Gomez were seriously injured, it even felt as if the cunning option was to push Fabinho back rather than lean too heavily on a young man, especially since he performed so effectively there.
In hindsight, Klopp’s approach, as natural and logical as it may seem, appears to have compounded Liverpool’s problems. Not only did he have to replace Van Dijk and Gómez, but he had to fill the hole in Fabinho’s form in midfield. The German often did it with Thiago, which meant another sacrifice in terms of creativity by adding a player who was uncomfortable holding the fort ahead of a patchwork defense in a new league. The central defense crisis was bringing out the worst in almost every player.
Similarly, bringing these midfielders together has a cumulative effect. Thiago is a better player because he has Fabinho behind him, Phillips and Kabak look more comfortable because they have Fabinho in front of him. Everything seems to just click.
Thiago was free to show his passing range, to drift where he wanted to help build attacks, and while he was rarely the one to play the last killer ball, it was not necessary to look far back at Liverpool’s play to see the Spaniard’s involvement. It certainly helped the visitors to the cause at Emirates that he was constantly the one to retrieve the ball, only Thomas Partey (11) made more recoveries than his 10.
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Behind him, Fabinho was no less effective in keeping Liverpool running, a reminder that the best way to protect their weak points is to simply make sure they have football. Between him and Thiago, who were deftly aided by James Milner’s moves into wide spaces, 147 passes were completed with a 90.7 percent success rate.
On those rare occasions when Arsenal threatened to counterattack the ball it simply seemed to gravitate towards Fabinho, who with a few steps of those long legs could devour the ground and wrest the ball from an opposing attacker. The performance of his unit as a whole was enough to put Klopp in a good mood, even if he knows he could be one wound away from having his plans thrown off balance again.
“Everything is very good, everything helps, but we have many games and we will see if they can play all the games,” he said about Fabinho and his centrals. “If not, we will have to make changes.
“It’s three goals in a row, great. The whole team defended at a different level than before, I have to say, it’s not just the two in the center. It was a very good defensive performance and that was necessary.” – that’s what you need, that’s what we did and hopefully everyone stays fit for the best part of the season into the final part of the season. “
That is not to say that Real Madrid have no hope of breaking Liverpool’s bone. There was much they could learn from what Arsenal failed to do, not least the puzzling decision to station Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang on the left flank and play Alexandre Lacazette down the middle.
At times, Kabak and Phillips were so far ahead into opposition territory that Aubameyang could have been several meters behind them and still be out of play. The recent success of Timo Werner against this Liverpool team by virtue of his ability to run very fast should weigh on the plans of Zinedine Zidane, as it did not on those of Mikel Arteta, who insisted that only he was to blame for the unfortunate performance of your team.
Arteta was as dejected as he has been in his tenure, noting that “today was a huge shock to the system. We have been really competitive against the big teams. We beat Chelsea here, we beat Spurs and drew against Manchester United.” . “His team did not prepare in the right way to punish Liverpool and missed key players such as Granit Xhaka, Bukayo Saka, Emile Smith Rowe and David Luiz, although the Arsenal manager did not accept the latter as a mitigating factor.” I don’t care who’s missing, they’re excuses … I hate excuses. “
Arteta would probably admit, however, that even if he had guessed his plan, it would only have counted up to a point. The English champions were at a level that a team like Arsenal cannot reach in their current configuration. Real Madrid will have a better chance, but the Spaniards will know they are not facing the bruised side from earlier this year. When the decisive stage of the season arrives, Liverpool has a spring in its wake.
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