Liverpool vs. Bayer Leverkusen-UCL-Nov 5 [R]

what a week indeed! I hope you voted before leaving!

 

I’ve also felt this, especially at the beginning of the season. But I honestly think it is simply reflecting the fact that Slot really, REALLY doesn’t organize his team the same way that Klopp did. While Liverpool under Slot have occasionally seemed to have trouble controlling possession, this is almost always corrected at the half, and likely reflects that Slot sets his teams up so there is a lot more flexibility through the center of the field. As a result he can tweak his system with much greater effect than Klopp was able to with his system.

The tradeoff for this is that Slot’s teams don’t have the same potency during offensive transitions compared to Klopp’s teams. I think this can come across as “hapless” attack, and I also wondered about this earlier in the season. But I think this is a feature of Slot’s setup (at least with these players) rather than ineffectiveness. Slot seems to want a much more stable base for defense, at the expense of a dynamic attack. How I like to think of the difference between Klopp and Slot is that if Klopp wanted to be a viper - always ready to quickly attack, Slot is rather like an anaconda - he wants his team to constrict, and constrict, and constrict - and then when you get tired, he takes advantage and strikes.

I think that for all the popular press about how Slot was a Klopp clone, he really isn’t. He may still employ a high press, like Klopp, but how he employs it is very different. He does not use his midfielders the same way at all. Klopp used a single anchor midfielder and then usually pushed one, or sometimes two, midfielders into the high press. He also would advance his fullbacks really, really high.

Slot doesn’t organize these players the same at all. Instead, he actually has a more aggressive high press, but only with his wingers, a “nominally” central striker, and a high central midfielder, who seems to have a fair degree of freedom to move across the field depending on the circumstances of play (Szoboszlai and Jones seem to be filling this role most of the time). Slot also almost always runs a double pivot, usually Gravenberch and MacAllister, but allows these two players more autonomy than Klopp did with his single deep midfielder. Also, you still see Slot’s fullbacks moving forward and they still attack more on the flanks than through the center. But importantly we are not bombing our fullbacks forward with no cover. Instead if they do push forward they tend to “underlap” instead of “overlap” their respective wingers. By advancing into more central areas they are not as exposed defensively, and similarly, with two deeper midfielders they are covered better when they do go forward.

This is a very different way of using the same types of players. So in a very basic sense, Klopp and Slot like to bring in and use the same types of players… Attacking players that are able to play across the attacking field, but with an emphasis on stretching the field and attacking the flanks. Fullbacks who are comfortable on the ball and who are actively engaged in attacking play. Attacks mostly down the flanks, and a reliance on quick counterattacks when they force a mistake from the opposing team. However, I think Klopp wanted those mistakes to be made closer to the defending teams’ goal, while Slot is happy to constrict passing lanes in the contested central part of the field, and then jump on mistakes with a slightly different organized set of players. Klopp had his attacking three, two more advanced midfielders (usually one who had more offensive license), and one highly advanced fullback. Slot has three attacking players, but this actually looks more like four, since he’s also bringing an attacking central midfielder. Slot also brings in the fullbacks (one or the other), as well as his two more defensive-minded midfielders, but doesn’t push any of these quite as high up the field as Klopp did.

I think this more measured way of transitioning to attacking is why we don’t see the explosive attacks we often saw with Klopp’s teams. But I also think Slot actually pushes more of his players forward during attack, just in a more judicious way. This is why we have a very stable defense. This is also why, at least to me, we see a lot more variety in how we are scoring goals. We don’t immediately push all our offense forward - in a sometimes predictable way. Instead, we see some lagging midfield players joining in as the offensive play develops (if it does). If it doesn’t, these lagging players are not so out of position that we are exposed to counterattack.

Anyway, sorry for the long post. I’ve just been really interested in how differently basically the same players are performing this year versus last year’s team under Klopp. I’m probably also trying to distract myself from the election results tonight! LOL.

 

Sorry, about the multi posts, but I’m just now finishing watching the game and seeing what folks have said.

Hobo, I agree. This is a wasted man for defense. By the time they get off the ground a goal may have already been scored. Soon, someone will figure out how to exploit this, and then we’ll see the end of this somewhat silly way of trying to block low shots (which my guess have a quite low chance of success).

 

Top of the EPL and also the CL... not bad for a brand new football coach...