Why Teams Arent Scared Of Liverpool Anymore
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00:00 Liverpool are rubbish! They're terrible, they're Finnish, they're the worst football team that
00:07 has ever existed, I read on the internet this morning. And obviously, I mean, they're not,
00:11 they just beat Man United 7-0 the other week, they're probably still going to qualify for
00:14 the Champions League, they're still one of the most dangerous teams in world football,
00:17 but the internet did say it, so we're going to have to talk about it.
00:20 Now, some of the points you may have observed in the fallout of them crashing out of the
00:23 Champions League to Real Madrid last night include they're just done, they're cooked,
00:27 Klopp's a fraud, Mo Salah's absolutely clap, Trent Alexander-Arnold has had that thing
00:32 happen to him from Space Jam, you know, where the aliens make you touch the ball and it
00:35 absorbs all your powers and now he can't even tie his own shoelaces, and as a result, well,
00:40 they were here last season, and now they are here. However you want to coat it, however
00:45 you want to articulately phrase it, that's bad. Now don't get me wrong, I personally
00:49 still think they're quite a good team, it's just that they're trying to do lots of new
00:52 things and with lots of new things comes lots of new pain when you've been at the top of
00:55 the table, but that's not a particularly interesting video, so let's look at why it's all going
00:59 wrong.
01:00 You can see the great football teams, they have identity, there is something about them
01:07 that immediately comes to mind when you think of that team, like Guardiola's Barcelona,
01:12 you think about Tiki Taka passing and not being able to get the ball off them, Mourinho's
01:15 Chelsea, you think, "Ugh, what a pack of bastards they were!" Tony Pulas's Stoke, you think
01:20 of Rory de Lapp's Little Towel, there's just iconic things that come with iconic teams.
01:25 And what was it for Klopp's Liverpool? They used to literally say it themselves, it was
01:29 intensity. Intensity is our identity. The greatest playmaker is a high press. You used
01:35 to think about them flooding the ball, winning it back, as soon as you lost it in the final
01:39 third, they were all over you. They could not be beaten for energy or effort or desire.
01:45 And I don't know if you noticed over those two legs of Real Madrid, but those are not
01:48 words you would use to describe this current Liverpool team. And I shall illustrate. This
01:53 is the first goal they conceded against Real Madrid, you're 2-0 up in the tie, and you're
01:56 okay there. You're relatively well set, you've got your players back, there's a nice shape
02:00 here, Jordan Henderson's pressing the ball, you're pretty much okay. Except no, you're
02:03 not, because not four seconds later, you've allowed Vinicius Junior to just walk into
02:07 the box without having to ride or face a single tackle. He gets his shot away, the best they
02:11 can try and do is sort of block it, and lo and behold, you've now lost half your lead.
02:15 Now, I know you're thinking the second goal was a bit of a freak, Alisson just kicked
02:18 it off Vinicius and it looped in. There's nothing you can do about that, is there? Yeah,
02:21 there was. If I showed you this picture and said, "Put one million pounds on which team
02:26 you think will get to this ball first," you would never in a million years say Real Madrid.
02:31 Except somehow, yes, they do. It does then kind of break for Liverpool, and they get
02:35 it back for a second, but in such a way that they've already swarmed the ball, and they
02:38 take it straight back off them. And from there, they put the ball through, the Vinicius chases
02:41 down, and we get the whole little freak goal. Now, the thing about a 50-50 is, if you've
02:45 got two players, that should be a hundred, and they still lose it. Maths.
02:49 Alright, well, anyway, 2-2 at half-time's not the worst result, just defend this free
02:52 kick, no big deal. Oh, look, Trent Alexander-Arnold, he's got the defender, nothing to worry about
02:56 here. Oh, sorry, no, my mistake, he stood completely still, allowed him a 10-yard run
03:00 into the six-yard box where he's headed it completely uncontested to make it 3-2.
03:04 Oh, look, it's Karim Benzema, one of the most dangerous attackers in world football,
03:07 receiving the ball on the edge of our box. Should any of us contest this or challenge
03:11 him? Oh, absolutely not, guys, let's give him 10 yards of space in every single direction.
03:15 And finally, the cherry on top of the cake, which happens to be made of complete dung,
03:19 this is the situation from which Real Madrid scored their fifth goal. It is a throw-in
03:23 in just about their own final third. Fabinho takes a loose touch, and it rolls to Luka Modric,
03:27 but still, not to worry, they're still halfway in their own half, and Luka Modric is 85 years
03:32 old. Oh, no, who could have predicted this? Disaster has struck, he has used both his
03:36 raw pace and his raw power, two things you absolutely do associate with a 37-year-old,
03:41 5'8" Luka Modric, to burst clear of Fabinho and Bocetich, and you're now 2v3.
03:46 And to be fair, by the time Benzema does put that in the back of the net, they have created
03:49 a really nice bank of four defensive lines. The only problem is that it's completely sideways on.
03:55 Now, they always talk about them doing a miracle, but they didn't, and the goal that killed it off
03:59 was, you're not going to believe this, that's Kamavinga there in about 10 yards of space from
04:03 everybody else, and Benzema just standing completely between the two centre-backs,
04:06 with nobody particularly bothered about him. He gets it into feet, he's a little sluggish
04:10 turning though, which allows Van Dijk to make the tackle, and everything's going to be fine,
04:13 because Alexander-Arnold is the right side of Vinicius Jr., and will absolutely not be letting,
04:19 oh, yeah, he's done it again. He just stands there and watches, Vinicius rolls it across to Benzema,
04:23 1-0, end of the tie, thank you for coming, see you later, you'll never walk home, because it's
04:28 far too far from Spain. This used to be the most intense team to watch in world football,
04:32 they were just, every Liverpool game was so much fun. You ever had that friend who was a big party
04:37 animal, and they still think they can go, like, into their, like, late 30s, early 40s, except now
04:41 it's like 11 o'clock, and they're clearly really tired, and everybody just wants to go home.
04:45 That's Liverpool. Now, if you remember, I did say there was two things going on at once here,
04:49 and just losing your intensity and losing your identity isn't necessarily the end of the world.
04:52 When you've got players who are this good, and you can still score lots of goals, it's just that
04:56 the problem is that while this is going on, they've also kind of been resoundingly figured
05:01 out by other teams, and they keep getting caught between trying to change their system.
05:04 What do I mean? I hear you ask, well, I shall show you. So last night, Liverpool set up in this 4-3-3
05:09 system, which is very similar to the one they've used for a lot of years, except they've tweaked
05:12 it slightly in terms of what they want certain players to do. The full-backs don't get up quite
05:16 as far as they used to, Gakko doesn't do quite what Firmino did, the midfield operates a little
05:20 differently, but the shape is largely the same. But at times this season, they've also tried to
05:24 play this, like, double pivot 4-2-3-1 system. You kind of want Henderson and Thiago there,
05:29 they've had Salah out on this side, Nunez up top, Jota just off him, and whoever they could get on
05:32 the left-hand side. And that was kind of a bit more structurally sane, they gave away a few less
05:37 goals, but the results still weren't great. Funny enough, they did actually play this as more of
05:41 just like a straight 4-4-2 against Rangers in the Champions League, which was just incredibly
05:45 disrespectful. It's the new VR, it's the new vinyl. Before the next World Cup cycle, everyone
05:50 will play 4-4-2, watch. Now the reason they experimented with this was because at the start
05:54 of the season, they'd only won two games out of their first nine. They'd conceded three against
05:58 Brighton, three against Arsenal, two against Fulham. They'd scored nine against Bournemouth,
06:02 but Klopp was starting to realise that teams had absolutely figured out how you could get goals
06:06 against this system, and they weren't any good at stopping that happen anymore. Just to illustrate
06:09 what I mean, this is kind of how Liverpool used to attack when they had their absolute best
06:13 underclap. You've got the 4-3-3 shape, let's say you've got the full-backs pushed right the way up,
06:17 you've got Firmino, who'd be the central player, he would drop deep to try and pull the central
06:21 defender out of position to allow Salah to get in on that side, or try and pull this defender out to
06:25 get that attacker in on that side. That's why Salah gets so many goals, or used to, from this exact
06:29 position here, because of the space vacated by the false nine. Now because these two were coming in
06:32 field, that left loads of space for the full-backs. Alexander-Arnold used to like to get around this
06:36 kind of area, would tend not to overlap if possible, he would like to stay there so he
06:40 could put balls into the attackers, and Andy Robertson would love, love getting on the overlap,
06:44 would very rarely come inside, but occasionally he would, because again Trent Alexander-Arnold
06:48 could put, where's the ball, a great cross into Salah, into Firmino, into anybody coming in from
06:52 the midfield, and occasionally into Robertson coming in at the back post. We've got loads of
06:55 goals doing that as well, and it worked really, really, really well. But the thing is you can
07:00 already see how to get at this system, it's not like a clever trick to try and beat it,
07:05 you've got all this space here, and you've got all this space here in behind the full-backs,
07:10 and you've got the entire of Liverpool's half pretty much to try and play in. So teams would
07:14 always try and hit these spaces, and look you could park the moon itself in the gaps Liverpool
07:20 leave when they're on the attack. So why didn't they lose all the time? They've got such glaring
07:23 weaknesses in this system, why didn't they lose? Well, because of the counter-press, and the
07:28 intensity with which they used it. Let's say you win the ball back in this kind of position, and
07:32 unless there is a killer ball automatically on, which because you're defending against a very good
07:36 team there almost certainly isn't, you play short, you play safe, and go back to the full-back,
07:39 one of the centre midfielders, and Liverpool's entire system was based on bang, bang, bang.
07:45 Two or three players on you immediately once you play that pass. He's now, he can't get anybody in,
07:50 he can't do anything clever, he's just going to go back there, straight away bang, bang, bang.
07:54 They would constantly try and win the ball back in the Kenny Loggins area, in the danger zone,
07:59 because as we said before, what is the best playmaker? It's a high press. Now as you can see
08:04 here, inherently this is creating even more risk, because as you flood the ball you're congesting
08:08 that part of the pitch, and that part of the space, leaving even more room for people to run into.
08:13 So why didn't we always every week see that pass in there, and teams are behind? We'd see it
08:17 occasionally, sometimes it would work, but they were so good at the counter-press, they would win
08:22 those balls, they would stop that happening. Klopp's even said it himself this season, like
08:26 initially when things weren't going right, and conceding all these goals, nothing had really
08:30 changed, it's just they were winning those tackles, they were winning those duels, they were stopping
08:34 this exact thing happening, and now for whatever reason, they're just not. But the reason is,
08:38 and I'm sorry to say it, it's this area of the pitch here, it's their three centre midfielders,
08:42 the age of them, the various skill sets they've got, the fact they've got young players coming
08:46 through who just aren't quite at that elite level yet, they've got really good players who are now
08:50 ageing past their peak, they've had really bad injuries etc, and the other players, like your
08:54 Thiago's for example, they do some of the jobs required in that area really, really well,
08:58 and then others not at all. Like to be a centre midfielder in that system, you have to be like
09:01 tactically flexible, because as the spaces open up, your job is to recognise that the gap is there,
09:06 and cover over, you've also got to be able to see the odd chance to get into space etc etc,
09:10 you've got to be physically very, very fit, because you're expected to win the ball back in this area,
09:14 as much as you're expected to be on the edge of your own box contesting it. You've got to be good
09:18 in the tackle, you've got to be able to win it back, you've got to be able to intercept the ball,
09:20 you've got to be able to play excellent little passes, because the way this works with a great
09:24 team, and it won't with a good team is, look they're trying to break, but you've flooded the
09:28 ball, you've won it back here, the defence aren't set because they think they're coming out, you've
09:32 got it back here, a good player, he can hit the full back here, you can get a good ball into there,
09:36 he can go back to his centre back, he can play it round the inside with his pals in the midfield,
09:40 but the really good players, the great players, they see that ball and they get it in there,
09:45 and I'm gonna go for it, gonna go for it, gonna go for it, gonna go for it, oh!
09:48 One day, like Fabinho at the height of his powers was excellent at this, Georginio Wijnaldum was
09:55 arguably the best player in the world at doing this, Jordan Henderson maybe lacked a little bit
09:59 on the technical side, but more than made up for it with his athleticism and his positional sense
10:03 and his on the pitch intelligence, Milner great to come in as well, Naby Keita showed a glimpse of
10:07 it, but now they just can't get a consistent solid three of players at that level, Harvey Elliott and
10:12 Curtis Jones may well be those players eventually, but they're just not there yet, and Thiago as I've
10:17 said, one of the best passers in the world, his intelligence is amazing, but he's not gonna steam
10:22 roll it into a counter-press, he's not gonna get over and cover into those positions, that's not
10:25 really his game. I've been racking my brains though, trying to work out who they could possibly
10:29 buy to fix this in an instant, but it's just nothing, just nothing's coming to mind. So this
10:33 season when they were doing all this, teams do then get that ball away and all of a sudden they're
10:37 in behind and the centre-backs get horrendously split trying to cover for the other defenders
10:41 and all of a sudden they're clean through etc etc, it was just creating a lot more chances, which is
10:45 why they've messed around with the system, and it did sort of work after they changed the system,
10:49 they've won six out of their next eight, that was a good run, but they didn't really keep any clean
10:52 cheats in the process, it was all like two ones and three ones, and then they didn't win for four
10:55 games, they got beat three in a row off Brighton, three in a row off Wolves, so they went back to this 4-3
10:59 creep, and as a mid-block, which just in case you don't know, this is a mid-block, the opponent can
11:03 do whatever it wants with the ball in its own half, you will not bother them, you will not chase them
11:07 down, but the second somebody comes into your half, bang, mine, give it back, and if you're thinking
11:12 'oh so they defend a little deeper, like so what?' it's Liverpool, it's Klopp's Liverpool, their
11:16 defensive line being here is weird, it used to be in the advertising hoophings, and it kind of worked,
11:21 they won five out of their next six and didn't concede a single goal, but that was against like
11:26 Wolves, Everton, Bristol Palace, Ten Man, Newcastle, Man United 7-0, yep, fair play, very funny, but then
11:31 came up against Bournemouth, couldn't score, and lost 1-0, and Real Madrid, the first like proper, proper,
11:35 proper team in form that actually took them on, scored five. So where has it gone wrong for Liverpool?
11:41 Let us recap. Teams have figured out how to beat their existing system, which at the same time,
11:46 they're no longer that good at implementing because of changes in personnel, players aging out,
11:50 injuries, etc, etc, it doesn't quite work from the way it used to, and at the same time, the ones
11:55 they're experimenting with, the new things they're trying to do, they're just not really all that good
12:00 at. It's the perfect storm of problems for a team that's had the same manager and most of the same
12:04 players for this long. It's gonna take pain and it's gonna take time to fix this team. I mean I'm
12:09 saying pain, they are sixth in the league at the minute, if they win the game in hand they'll only
12:12 be three points behind Tottenham in four, so it's not that bad when you've had so much success for
12:17 so, so, so, so, so, so long, it probably sucks if you're a Liverpool fan. Oh well, that's my opinion,
12:22 I'm sure you've got one of your own, so get it in the comments below. Should Klopp leave,
12:25 do they need to go buy an elite midfielder, whatever you want, it's all, it's all gravy.
12:29 Get me on Twitter as well @adam3clery, I would dearly love to hear from you. 442 on the entire
12:33 content spectrum @442, and until next time, which will be dead soon because this is what I do for a
12:39 living now, I'll see you soon. Goodbye! And that's it, that's the video, thank you so very much for
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13:01 I do hope you enjoyed yourself, and I'll see you soon. Goodbye!