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Liverpool’s rivals have gone offside 155 times since the start of last season. Since Jurgen Klopp made it to the Premier League five years ago, his players have taken 526 offside, more than any other club.
That’s courtesy of Liverpool’s high defensive line, which is the cornerstone of the way they play.
It acts as an offside trap, and despite that 7-2 loss, I don’t expect Klopp to make drastic changes against Everton.
This is a philosophy that beat Liverpool in the Premier League and that was also taught to me at Arsenal.
If someone were to try to run behind our baseline, the four of us would have our arms raised, as if calling for an LBW! Most of the time, they were called offside.
This is a system that I believe in. The area between your baseline and your baseline is what I like to call the “indoor playing area.” By pushing up, Klopp players squeeze this gap and most opponents will respond by falling to create space for themselves.
It’s all about territory: suddenly you’re trading in their half more than yours and that’s important. At the risk that it seems simpler than it is: the closer you are to your goal, the better!
Liverpool are then in a better position to recover the ball further up the field and create a possible scoring opportunity. As Klopp said in 2016: “No playmaker in the world can be as good as a good counter situation.”
That’s the Liverpool way. The only area that leaves them vulnerable is behind their high defensive line and, until Aston Villa, no one had properly exploited it in the Klopp era.
Villa had a good game plan. Ross Barkley and Jack Grealish were running from deep to beat Liverpool’s offside trap, with the first balls played in their pockets behind the wings.
Villa often had the space and time to play these passes, and Liverpool’s biggest mistake was that they didn’t react to this. Even Villa’s seventh goal involved John McGinn, without pressure, playing a ball for the first time behind Trent Alexander-Arnold for Grealish to run towards him.
Liverpool players are programmed to play a certain way. It has never gone so bad before, but now they know they need to be able to adapt.
At Arsenal, I was part of a back four that was known for using a very similar trap. After playing for Villa and Everton, he was used to leaving and dealing with potential running backs. That was the conventional way to defend. But that was not the style of Arsenal.
I had to learn to hold the line after coming back to the club in 1993. Statistics were not available back then, but I can guarantee you that, like Liverpool now, no one created more offside than us.
We elevated and condensed the “inner playing area”, and that was the key to Arsenal’s success. Our high starting positions acted as a platform for the team. But, more importantly, we also knew when to quit.
If pressure was not put on the ball in front of us, that was a trigger. If our high defensive line were defeated by runs from deep, we would react. One of us might say, ‘Let’s go back 10, 15 yards and don’t give them room to run.
We would change the image for them. Then, once the threat had subsided, we could start pushing the field again. It is the management of the game.
But Liverpool did not react against Villa. Like Grealish, Richarlison could hurt the left if Everton start to exploit that space behind Alexander-Arnold.
We had brilliant wingers at Arsenal who could read if someone was making a run at the right time. But Liverpool’s equivalents push so high up the field that they leave more room behind them. Alexander-Arnold vs. Richarlison will be an intriguing battle today.
Although Klopp’s high line was well outmatched in that 7-2 loss at Villa Park, you will believe it is still the right way to play. Same, I think it too.
It comes with its risks, but the rewards can be great.
How Villa rioted, exploiting the space behind Liverpool
Three of Aston Villa’s goals in their 7-2 win over Liverpool may have come via deflections, and another from Adrian giving the ball away.
But they didn’t put the champions seven just by luck. Villa had a game plan to beat Klopp’s high defensive line.
His seventh goal (shown below) saw John McGinn with space in midfield. It is not entertained. He makes a first pass in the path of Jack Grealish, behind Trent Alexander-Arnold, who is in the Villa half, and the captain (left) completes the win 7-2.
Klopp’s high line works wonders most of the time, but in-game management should have seen Liverpool drop slightly, until the threat has subsided.
Three of Aston Villa’s goals in their 7-2 win over Liverpool may have come via deflections, and another from Adrian giving the ball away.
But they didn’t put the champions seven just by luck. Villa had a game plan to beat Klopp’s high defensive line.
His seventh goal saw John McGinn give up space in midfield. It is not entertained.
Calvert-Lewin is central to Everton’s plan
When I joined Everton in 1989, I bought a book to learn about the history of the club. I reviewed that during the international break, going over how Anfield was their home until a row of rentals saw them move to Goodison Park in 1892.
Hence, Liverpool Football Club was born. This is a unique rivalry – they were enemies even before meeting in the first Merseyside derby in 1894! The record books also show that Everton have always had someone iconic in front of goal. Dixie Dean, Tommy Lawton, Bob Latchford, then there are Graeme Sharp, Gary Lineker, Tony Cottee, Big Duncan Ferguson.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin is the latest No. 9 to become the leading man for Everton. He’s making great strides, but he’s breaking it with Carlo Ancelotti.
Calvert-Lewin is avoiding channels and instead staying in the center where he can do the most damage. He also did that on his England debut.
Ancelotti’s sides like to support the attack. Lucas Digne on the left flies forward in particular – he has provided the second most crosses of any Premier League player this season, one of which led to the Calvert-Lewin goal at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. But I wonder how Ancelotti will tell Digne to play on Saturday. Villa left-back Matt Targett, for example, rarely vacated his position against Liverpool.
Dean Smith didn’t want to give Klopp’s forwards room to play, and there was security in the numbers behind Villa. But Digne’s creativity is a vital part of the Everton system. That’s something Ancelotti has been thinking about.
Source: m.allfootballapp.com
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