One of the things that the Liverpool-Arsenal game got me thinking about was the gradual shift we're seeing in build-up intentions in the European game.
In the first half, Arsenal were able to press Liverpool well enough to prevent them from getting the sort of settled possession that they want to build their more direct attacks.
And at the other end of the pitch, Liverpool weren't able to stop Arsenal from being able to progress the ball down the field in the way that they want to: with controlled possession ending up forcing the opposition deep into their own half.
In the second half, things flipped over. Liverpool started going much more m2m oop and they found solutions in build up to enable them to generate the sort of settled possession that they need progress quickly and the momentum shifted.
Two very different approaches: the first (Arsenal's) being very much in the dominant theory of the last decade and a half: you build up in order to arrive cleanly with control into the final third and then look to break down the opponent;
the second (Liverpool's) being much more focused on moving from unsettled possession to settled possession to afford yourself better access to the areas higher up the pitch through more direct means.
Of course, all of this has been prompted by the difficulty of doing first phase build up vs more man-oriented presses. It's now much more functional to generate overloads in build up (underloading as it's confusingly called within coaching circles...) and then look to attack...
...more directly but with fewer players. Because oppositions are much more ready to throw players forward in their press against first phase build up, there is space in behind that can be exploited if you access it well enough.
So yes: we need to think about build-up a little differently to the way we used to. For some teams, it's beginning to be less about sustainable controlled ball progression through the thirds and much more about achieving the settled possession that can trigger direct attacks.
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