Thread by @Chris17_t

Scene Analysis: How Klopp uses his players’ strengths in the final third

- structure
- attracting pressure
- individual tasks

#LIVMCI #Klopp #CommunityShield #Liverpool

[THREAD]

Liverpool won with the Community Shield their first title of the season against the great rival Manchester City.

There were especially two very similar scenes that stood out to me, which showed how Jürgen Klopp uses his players’ strengths in the final third.

To get a little bit of context in there, Liverpool played in a somewhat asymmetric 2-3-5 when attacking in the final third. Salah and Robertson kept the width, with Henderson and Diaz in the half-spaces higher up. Alexander-Arnold and Thiago stayed deeper in the half-spaces.

Within this structure, Alexander-Arnold can use his crossing ability and Thiago his ability to create from deep. Henderson can use his physical strength to make runs in behind and Salah can outplay his 1v1 dribbling qualities.

Diaz is comfortable in the half-space. Robertson likes to overlap and get in behind with a dynamical advantage.

How these strengths are outplayed can be seen in the following two scenes.

1st scene: Liverpool initially progressed down the left side. Diaz is under pressure and therefore decides to play the ball back to Thiago, who is positioned deeper in the left half-space and has space, as Diaz attracted pressure.

This back pass triggered the ManCity defense to move up. As soon as Thiago looked up, Henderson started a run in behind against the grain. However, Thiago decides to switch the ball wide to Salah.

Salah immediately attracted the pressure of two players. Grealish decided to help Cancelo, as Salah has an outstanding 1v1 dribbling quality. However, this opens space deeper for Alexander-Arnold. Additionally, Henderson made a run in behind, to open even more space.

Once again, the back pass triggered the whole ManCity defense to move up, opening space in behind. Firmino pins Walker inside, which in turn leaves Robertson completely free. The look up by Alexander-Arnold was again a trigger for the other attackers to run in behind.

Robertson gets at the end of the cross with a dynamical advantage, as the ManCity players just moved up. However, Robertson can’t score eventually.

2nd scene: Alexander-Arnold has the ball on the right wing. Henderson and Firmino make an underlap, dragging the ManCity defenders deep, which opened space in behind. Salah notices this quickly, moves into this space and gets the ball.

The Egyptian attracted pressure with a little dribble and eventually played out wide to Alexander-Arnold again.

Due to the attraction of pressure, Alexander-Arnold can switch the point of attack to Diaz. Notice Robertson’s run in behind immediately, after Alexander-Arnold looked up. This run pinned Walker shortly inside (out of frame), giving more time to Diaz wide.

Diaz decided to play the ball back to Thiago, which again triggered the ManCity defenders to move up and the Liverpool players to run in behind, as soon as Thiago looks up.

Thiago decides that a pass in behind wouldn’t be effective and therefore switches wide to Salah.

Once again, Salah attracts pressure of both Cancelo and Grealish, opening space in the right half-space for Alexander-Arnold. This time, Alexander-Arnold is positioned nearer to the goal. Therefore, he decides to shoot and scores an amazing goal.

Another reason, why these mechanisms are so effective is because the defenders firstly have to move wide, after the pass to Salah (pressing trigger, using sideline as extra defender) and then forward after the back pass (pressing trigger).

Alexander-Arnold crosses inside diagonally in the complete opposite direction of the defenders both vertically and horizontally. This in turn gives the Liverpool attackers a dynamical advantage and they can compensate their little aerial strength.

A cross from the half-space is also shorter in the air than a cross from the wide channel. This gives the defenders less time to adjust and defend the cross.

Conclusion:

Liverpool already used these mechanisms in the past season, but it caught my eye during that game and eventually also led to a goal.

As the Liverpool forwards are all fairly small, Liverpool has to prepare crosses accordingly, to use Alexander-Arnold’s crossing quality effectively.