It's been an almost faultless start for Arne Slot at Liverpool, and coming out of the international break his side sits at the top of the table with a terrifying record in both defence and attack. But rather than some revolution of Jurgen Klopp's old system, the Dutchman has actually made slight refinements to their approach, and given two key players a new lease of life. Trent Alexander-Arnold, Ryan Gravenberch, and the rest could be about to take Liverpool back to their days of silverware.
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00:00Welcome, one and all, to 442, and hello to all the Cleary heads out there.
00:12Note to self, never say that again.
00:15Anyway, yes, it is the international break currently, which is, of course, football's
00:19slow news day, stretched out for two entire weeks, so I thought what I would do is have
00:27you all do my job for me and tell me what you want to see a video about, but the overwhelming
00:32answer we got, more than anything else, was Arne Slott, how he make Liverpool so good,
00:38so quick.
00:39So, yeah, this is that.
00:42Alright, so I had a good, long, hard think about it, and I think the two main interesting
00:49points of Slott's Liverpool are here and here, specifically Gravenberch and Alexander-Arnold.
00:55Now, start with your man Trent here, right, this is a typical heat map for him last season,
01:00you know what a heat map is, it measures weather touching the ball and weather not touching
01:04the ball.
01:05Now, you will see, as part of Jurgen Klopp's sort of desire to have him be this inverted
01:09full-back and move into the centre, loads of his touches of the ball are in this middle
01:14part of the pitch.
01:15And Liverpool fans, you remember how that worked, you had a 4-3-3 at the time, Alexis
01:19McAllister was there, so the idea is he'd shuffle over, Trent would come into the middle,
01:23and then you'd end up with like this 3-2 build-up shape.
01:27But the major thing that has changed now is it's not a 4-3-3, it's a 4-2-3-1, except one
01:32of the pivots pushes right up, you kind of get 2-8, Gravenberch moves into the middle,
01:37then the two full-backs both push up, not that high now, but onto the same line, and
01:42you get a 2-3.
01:43Wow, Adam, fascinating stuff, it was a 3-2 last season, but now it's a 2-3, no wonder
01:50they're top of the league.
01:51End of video, don't forget to subscribe, goodnight.
01:54Okay, yeah, a bit passive-aggressive, but fair enough, the reason you want three players
01:59across this line instead of two is how it enables you to control the ball in the opposition
02:04half.
02:05Now I was physically, in real life, at the Liverpool-Crystal Palace game, and you saw
02:09them do this a lot, right, but imagine you've got good territory and you've got all five
02:13of these attacking players pushed up against the opposition back four, or in Crystal Palace's
02:18case, a back five.
02:20What Liverpool like to do in these situations, rather than over-committing with any of these
02:24three players, is to maintain a gap between that line and the attacking line, which in
02:29Palace's case, they had two other midfielders, baits them out, but obviously it's impossible
02:34for them to close down those three with that two.
02:37But obviously, because they've still got to try and at least put some pressure on the
02:40ball, that leaves you with a massive gap.
02:44And wow, again, Adam, a massive gap, you say?
02:47No-one to the top of the league, end of video, don't forget to subscribe, goodnight.
02:51And again, needlessly passive-aggressive, but this sort of scenario is so perfect for
02:57Liverpool because of the kind of players they've got.
02:59Virtually anybody they would be playing in this front line is really, really good at
03:03receiving the ball with their back to goal, and then turning straight away.
03:07And because you've got this huge gap here to play into, any one of these players can
03:11make that run back into it, receive the ball, get turned, and all of a sudden, that's a
03:16great scenario to be in.
03:18But of course, other teams aren't stupid, are they?
03:19And no, Liverpool are quite good at doing this, so if someone does make that run, and
03:23the defender goes with them to keep the pressure on and stop them turning, this creates huge
03:27areas of space for other players to get into, who can then be found by these good passes
03:32of the ball.
03:33Again, bang, another great situation to get into.
03:36But then, if even that isn't working, because Liverpool so often find themselves man-for-man
03:40in these areas, you can just make the whole thing incredibly narrow and compact, and then
03:47all of a sudden, because you've got two full backs in these wider positions, you've created
03:52room for them to carry the ball up the pitch and get in that way.
03:56Bang, great positions to be in.
03:58And even in far more simplistic terms, if you've just got the ball on that side of the
04:02pitch, everybody naturally is going to shuffle across like that, and that leaves the room
04:07for a diagonal into this space for a full back like Trent Alexander-Arnold to be on
04:12the receiving end of.
04:13Like, it opens up loads of possibilities.
04:16And thus, if we go back to the heat maps he was producing last season, yep, there it is,
04:19you saw it just a few minutes ago, and we replace it with something from this season,
04:24like, I don't know, top of my head, the Crystal Palace game, you will see, all that's pretty
04:28much gone.
04:29He's not getting involved in that central area of the pitch.
04:32He is not the pivot.
04:34He is providing a direct wide threat, both in his own half and in the final third.
04:39His total number of ball carries are way up because he's now got all this space to run
04:43into rather than being in a congested central area of the pitch, and also his passes are
04:48way, way down.
04:49And that's not a bad thing, it just means not every single thing in the centre of the
04:52pitch is having to go through him.
04:54One of the weirdest stats, though, is his pass completion, and in particular, his medium
04:58range pass completion.
05:00Now that might seem really odd, like, is he somehow barred at this type of passing now?
05:04But if you take his heat map right from the Palace game, and you don't show his successful
05:08passes, you show his unsuccessful passes, hmmm.
05:13Virtually all of them that haven't come off is an attempt at playing a killer ball in
05:18behind the defence for Mo Salah to get onto the end of, like Trent Alexander-Arnold has
05:23a standing kill order if he sees that run being made to try and find Salah with it.
05:29And yes, it is wasteful, because it's a low percentage ball, it's not going to come off
05:33all that often, but when it does, it's lethal.
05:36So yes, all in all, Trent Alexander-Arnold in this Liverpool side is no longer a pivot
05:40player who gets on the ball for possession's sake and passes it for passing's sake, he's
05:44being used as a far more direct, effective attacking weapon.
05:49He gets on the ball in better positions, and if you look at his total number of touches,
05:54like per game, last season to this season, this is just not the sort of heat map you
05:58would have seen him have last year, like in any game whatsoever.
06:02This is a proper attacking, classic full-back role, which I think, I think is a better use
06:09of him.
06:10Oh and also, whisper this very, very, very quietly, because he's not constantly getting
06:14caught slightly out of position in the centre of the pitch, and thus being targeted when
06:19Liverpool are in transition, his defensive numbers are very slowly starting to move towards
06:26what you would consider good.
06:29So maybe, again, whisper this one, but maybe it wasn't that Trent can't defend, maybe
06:35it was the system made it really hard for him to defend.
06:40Maybe.
06:41Right, so anyway, yes, Trent Alexander-Arnold is not a pivot in this Liverpool system anymore.
06:46Why has that happened?
06:47Who is?
06:48The answer is this man, Ryan Gravenberg, and I did ask a native Dutch speaker how exactly
06:55you pronounce that, and do you know what she said to me?
06:57She said, leave me alone.
06:58Anyway, so you're constantly seeing Liverpool listed as this 4-2-3-1 shape, like theoretically
07:04it's a double pivot with him and McAllister, but just, I'm going to quickly show you McAllister's
07:09heat map from the Palace game, right?
07:12That is not a man even remotely interested in doing anything in the build-up in his own
07:17half.
07:18He goes and plays as this left-sided A, Curtis Jones moving out with a 10 into the other
07:23side.
07:24That is all, all this guy, and I mean, yeah, fair enough, if we look at his heat map from
07:28the Palace game, that is a man doing the work of two players, like he is so constantly involved
07:35in this area, going left, going right, getting it, passing it, receiving it, moving it, progressing
07:39it up the pitch, but also, he doesn't just dawdle around, he pushes forward into these
07:44attacking areas, provides an extra body, exploits any space, he is as all action in that number
07:51six role as you could possibly hope to see.
07:54He is easily, in my opinion, the surprise package of the Premier League this season.
08:00From a physical perspective, he's got that robust steeliness that you need from a number
08:05six, but also when you get him on the ball or he has to travel with the team, he's really
08:09elegant and graceful, and he's got these just mad long legs that are simultaneously excellent
08:14for tackling and also for just eating up the ground.
08:18More importantly, as far as Liverpool are concerned, he seems to have this in-built
08:22will to want to progress the ball forwards at every opportunity, which is a huge, huge
08:27part of playing that role, because anybody could just get dropped in there and knock
08:31it sideways and knock it backwards, but he wants to move it forwards whenever he can.
08:36If I overlay you his pass map as well, there's probably nothing in that that's going to immediately
08:39jump out to you.
08:40Like yes, there's plenty sideways and some backwards as well, but trust me, right, for
08:44someone parachuted into that position, playing for a team like Liverpool, who so often find
08:50themselves up against two defensive lines, so a really high number of those are forward.
08:55Like lesser players, or even just good players learning the role as he is, would be playing
09:00so much safer, so much more, air quotes, negative, but you just see he's got this in-built need
09:06to want to move it forward, and if we go and look at his numbers, which we're about to,
09:11that's there.
09:12Like his progressive passes, which is any pass that sort of helps you move the team
09:15up the pitch, they're obviously really, really good, but you can see one of his main attributes
09:20is his carrying, like his progressive carries, his carries into the final third, his carries
09:24into the penalty area, like this is a player who is invaluable for moving you and the ball
09:30up the pitch.
09:31And if you watch him, like what he's able to do with his body, the way he's able to
09:34manipulate the ball, manipulate the space, and manipulate the opposition, with just simple
09:39stuff like drops of the shoulder and feints and whatnot, like to have that in that first
09:44sort of part of the pitch where you need to get through, players need to open things up,
09:48like honestly I can't say enough positive things about how he's been this season, like
09:53I think he's the real difference between like a teething period and a settling in period
09:58for Liverpool, and where they are now, like I think it does all mostly come down to him.
10:03And even defensively he's fine as well, like some of these numbers will look low, but they're
10:08more a reflection of the sort of the possession and the dominance Liverpool have, like these
10:11things just don't come up as often as they do for other teams.
10:15Then you look at the percentage of tackles coming off, they're great, and it's not on
10:18here but he's Liverpool's best winner of duels by percentage this season, and nobody else
10:23in the squad, whether it's tackles, interceptions, recoveries, just any way you can go and do
10:28it, nobody in this Liverpool team has got the ball back more than he has.
10:33So yeah, they don't need Trent or McAllister or anybody else for that matter in that position,
10:37because they've just gone down the back of the sofa and found this like rugged, steely,
10:44determined, solid, but also graceful, technical, elegant, and forward-thinking number six just
10:51in the squads already.
10:52And overall these two things have not drastically, but certainly significantly changed who Liverpool
10:58are as a team.
10:59Like if you compare their numbers last season to this season, gone are the high turnovers,
11:03in-your-face, smash-mouth football, they've dropped way down the league for the number
11:08of tackles won in the final third, and instead they press far more selectively, like they
11:13will do it, they will get right up in the opposition, but it tends to be trigger-based
11:18and only in very certain circumstances or certain game states.
11:21And as I'm sure I've seen a graph saying, they've only been losing for two or three
11:26percent of the season so far, we're yet to really see them go and chase a game, so we
11:31might see that change as they do.
11:32Now you combine all of these factors with Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah, two players
11:38who as excellent as they are, a lot of people expect to be entering a period of physical
11:44decline, like maybe their minutes are going to need to be managed, maybe their performances
11:47are going to drop off, and instead they've turned up this season as good, if not better,
11:55than they have ever, ever been for Liverpool.
11:58Like they have been monstrous, they have been massive, they are reaching new levels of the
12:03already insane levels they've set for themselves.
12:06So you combine this good, smart, useful system change with these performances, and you've
12:14got a team, I'm going to be really careful here, you've got a team that could really
12:19do something this year.
12:21Like they are certainly, certainly title contenders, and depending on how important you think the
12:26Rodri and the Oerdegaard injuries are, maybe title favourites?
12:31Maybe?
12:33Actually I'm saying maybe, they've got Chelsea, Arsenal, Brighton and Villa next, and if they
12:37come through that run with like really good results, like whisper it, but if they won
12:42all of those games, or certainly didn't get beat, why not?
12:48Who says no?
12:49Either way though, after that run of fixtures, we will know precisely what we have got on
12:54our hands here with this Liverpool team, and that either way, for me, you've got no skin
12:58in the game here, is very exciting.
13:01Anyway, speaking of very exciting, so is the entire rest of the output of this channel,
13:05so why not subscribe to it?
13:06I keep forgetting to ask you to do that since we hit 600,000, which by the way, if you did
13:11during the journey we've had to get there, many, many, many, many thanks.
13:15I love you big lot.
13:16The comment section is down there if you want to tell me about your feelings, thoughts and
13:20whatever's in your heart about this Liverpool side, and you can get me across all the social
13:24medias at Adam Cleary, C-L-E-R-Y, all of them.
13:27All of our two socials are in the corner of the video, latest issue of the mag is on
13:30the screen there, I'm going to put it on the other side so you can see everything going
13:34on at once.
13:35And yeah, until next time, honest lots Liverpool, as requested by the people who follow me on
13:41social media.
13:42There will be more like that, it was very nice not having to think this morning.
13:46Goodbye.
13:47Well, dead simple, it's Ryan Gravenberch.
13:52Gravenberch.
13:53It's Ryan Gravenberch.
13:55It's Ryan Gravenberch.
13:56Gravenberch.
13:57Gravenberch.
13:58Gravenberch.
13:59Ryan Gravenberch.
14:00Gravenberch.
14:01Gravenberch.
14:02Whatever you want to call him.