Arne Slot bringing heavy metal football back to Liverpool

Today’s piece is a guest post from Dharnish Iqbal, who you can find on Twitter here.

Previously, Dharnish has written for BBC Sport, Sky Sports, FotMob and Sporting Life. Check out this piece on Matheus Cunha’s move to Manchester United.

Last summer, off the back of Liverpool shockingly losing an influential figure in Jürgen Klopp, the fear was that the Reds were losing the manager who had woken the sleeping giant, bringing unparalleled success that would be hard to replicate.

Fast forward a season later, and Arne Slot's 'calm jazz' has successfully replaced Klopp's infamous, high-pressing 'heavy metal' football. Slot kept players fresh last season, reducing the pace at which Liverpool played games, allowing them to calmly dictate the tempo of matches. By the time the business end of the season came around, the team wasn’t exhausted, which isn’t something you could always say when the former Borussia Dortmund manager was in charge.

It helped the Reds waltz to the title, but after a summer of revamp with influential players leaving and hefty money spent on shiny new attacking transfers, it feels like we're watching a Jurgen Klopp team again. Or at the very least, that’s what the first two matches are telling us.

I’m writing this piece off the back of Liverpool’s insanely chaotic 3-2 victory over Newcastle United in front of one of the most charged-up, raucous and hostile atmospheres in recent seasons, a game that certainly backed up this theory. Last week’s season opener against Bournemouth had some similar themes.

For the second game in a row, Liverpool squandered a two-goal lead. They would’ve dropped points to a ten-man Newcastle side (and deserved to) if not for a 110th minute winner from Rio Ngumoha.

So, what’s going on?

Well, it's important first of all to write an asterisk next to the two games, as both were played in remarkably emotionally charged atmospheres. The season opener was the club’s first match since Diogo Jota’s tragic death. The atmosphere was moving, poignant and littered with emotion.

The game at a fired-up St James Park was the ‘Alexander Isak Derby’ with 52,000 loud Geordies making sure every duel, header and tackle was met with a roar. That normally happens anyway, but in the context of Isak's transfer saga with Liverpool as the main suitors, we all knew the hysteria would be dialled up.

The matches have exacerbated the chaos already created by Liverpool's tactics this season.

Transition Issues

There are clear transition issues in committing men up the pitch.

Jamie Carragher covered this after the Bournemouth game for Sky Sports and then quizzed Arne Slot on the same issue in the post-match interview. Take a look at the six Liverpool players committed in attack up the pitch and how high Wataru Endo (playing at right back) is.

Just six seconds later, Bournemouth have created a 3v3 on the counter-attack. Most elite teams spend games trying to break teams down by committing men up the pitch and overwhelming the opposition.

Liverpool did this well last season, maintaining possession in the opponent's half before one of their wingers would pace things up with a darting run. But because of the players Liverpool have signed and have to play, Florian Wirtz and Hugo Ekitike are both central and want to receive high.

This may not have been an issue last season when you had the Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis MacAllister and Dominik Szoboszlai trifecta, as all of those midfielders are good at winning duels or committing fouls. Wirtz and Ekitike weren't signed for their defensive discipline, but in re-jigging the attack, Slot might've sacrificed the underrated ability his midfield had last season of covering ground.

With both Wirtz and Ekitike in the team, the onus is always on playing the ball forward more quickly than they may have done last season.

Pulling midfielders wide in the press 

Bournemouth and Newcastle United both utilised wide balls to the full-back to stretch Liverpool's press, which is why Tino Livramento and Adrien Tuffert had particularly good games vs The Reds.

As the front three press, the goalkeeper looks to play it wide to the full-back, and when Tuffert dribbles past the forward (Salah), it pulls Szoboszlai wide, leaving the midfield outnumbered and a central pass to Bournemouth's midfielder in acres of space.

With Endo pinned by a forward, he can't come out to challenge for the ball. It was the same story against Newcastle United as the back four moved the ball to the left-back's (Livramento) wing, Salah was baited in the press, leading Ryan Gravenberch this time to come out wide, challenge and miss the ball.

When the Dutchman gets dragged out wide, Livramento finds space centrally from pulling a midfielder out, similar to the Tuffert situation above. Cody Gakpo has smartly dropped back from the right-wing position to give Liverpool a man in midfield, but it's clear in both games that Liverpool's midfield has been overrun.

This tactic is allowing wingers to test out Liverpool’s new full-back, Milos Kerkez. It's led to situations created where the space in between Kerkez and the centre-back is exploited through pulling a Liverpool player wide again.

Coupled with the fact that on the opposing wing, they have used two midfielders in the full-back role (Endo and Szoboszlai), whilst Ibrahima Konate has had an extremely shaky start to the season.

Trent Alexander-Arnold left and was replaced by an attack-minded full-back (Jeremie Frimpong), but whilst the forward line has been replenished, the defence has two new starting full-backs and heavily relies on Virgil Van Dijk and Konate staying fit.

Despite all of this, Liverpool have won two games and scored seven goals in the process. Largely, this is due to Hugo Ekitike adapting to this Liverpool attack like a duck to water, gelling excellently with the rest of the attack.

There is too much firepower in Liverpool's attack to keep them at bay, and they may win a lot of games this season by outscoring teams akin to Klopp's final season in charge, as Liverpool scored 86 goals in the 23/24 campaign. They also have retained a knack that they had last season of not playing well and winning (PSG away in the Champions League).

The team went through a lot of change in the summer, particularly for a side that won the title, with the midfield being the only area that was kept the same.

Slot will be ecstatic with the fact that it's two wins out of two, but concerned at the way his team is giving up space and chances in comparison to last season.

He has the season to sort it out, but it feels like a team that is figuring out the best version of itself with a lot of new personnel.

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