Arne Slot & Liverpool: Without the Ball

Samuel AP
9 min readDec 25, 2024

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Contents:

Initial Impressions

Vs Klopp

Tendencies, Behaviours, Intent, Formations

Potential Flaw(s)

Horizontal and Vertical Compactness

Departure

December 25th, 2024

Samuel AP

Initial impressions

Jurgen has well and truly left, and Arne has slotted in as his replacement. As we look forward to the future and come to terms with our present, what is to be done? We must get to know our new manager and discover for ourselves what his philosophy is. This can be perceived in a variety of ways so, let’s see where the day takes us.

Slot’s tenure so far at Liverpool has offered us a lot of insight in how he chooses to set the team up out-of-possession and how it differentiates from Klopp’s style of play. As we all know Jurgen Klopp was known for the way in which he chose to press opposition teams. Buzz words such as heavy metal, high intensity, gegen-pressing come to one’s mind. Though Arne Slot displays similar principles, he has different intentions for why he chooses to press the opposition. There are many similarities between the past and present, but there are fundamental differences between the two coaches. In this composition we will present an overview of Arne Slot’s philosophy when his team is out-of-possession across the different phases of play whilst comparing it to that of Jurgen Klopp’s for context.

Vs Klopp

A fundamental difference in the way Slot wants to press in comparison to Klopp is the intention we see from individual players when going to press, in a Klopp team we often saw players in almost every situation pressing to win the ball. Pep Ljinders made the distinction that pressing and chasing the ball are 2 different things. Pressing is more sophisticated in the sense that it is about forcing the opposition to pass the ball into specific zones on the pitch before actively trying to win the ball back. When ‘chasing’ the ball the intention is singular: when you sprint towards the ball, go and steal the ball back. Within this framework players are encouraged to actively try to steal the ball back, not just to force the player on the ball one way or to force an error on the ball, but to steal the ball in every situation wherever possible. As seen under Klopp this methodology was more proactive and chaotic, whilst the approach was incredibly effective, there were sometimes varied outcomes in how consistently Liverpool were able to win the ball back and how easy teams found it to create situations in which they were constantly able to find themselves running at Liverpool’s backline in transition moments.

The behaviours of players in an Arne Slot team in the high pressing phase are slightly different. Whilst players are encouraged to steal the ball back when they can, there is more of an emphasis placed on pressing to block passing lanes or pressing to minimise how much time and space the opponent has on the ball, rather than trying to steal the ball back, under Slot you are more likely to see players trying force the ball to a specific area before actively attempting to win it back, or waiting for a pressing trigger.

Tendencies, Behaviours, Intent and Formations

In this section we will take a closer detail into some of the common formations Liverpool have assumed under Slot before going on to detail the behaviours and tendencies of the players within said formations, upon doing this we will then discuss the overall intent behind the categories (formations, behaviours, tendencies).

Slot alternates between different shapes when his teams are pressing high and/or sitting in a mid-block. Two common features within this shape are central compactness and cover and support in case lines of pressure are broken, as-well as recovery running from the forwards. Looking at the behaviours of the pressing unit, there are well defined triggers which dictate when the team should be pressing more aggressively:

· Opposition player receives the ball with their back to goal.

· Pass being played backwards towards the oppositions own goal.

· Loose touches by an opposition player after receiving the ball.

· Ball being played into opposition player who is deemed to be the pressing trigger

· Ball is played into wide areas in which wide pressing traps have proved effective

Jurgen seeks chaos over order, Arne seeks to find the balance between the 2.

There are different formations that Slot uses that can be loosely separated into 2 distinctive categories:

· 4–4–2/4–2–4 — This often used when the team is defending zonally, prioritising key zones and spaces rather than directly marking and pressing the opposition. In these formations it is often the case that the team will press for the ball only when certain triggers are activated, for example: opposition player receives with their back to goal. In this sense these formations are often reactive in nature as they prioritise the protection of space rather than actively winning the ball back, unless triggers activated.

· 4–1–4–1/4–2–3–1 — These formations are often used when the team is prioritising maintaining pressure wherever the ball is. In these formations a player-orientated approach is encouraged, the team will reduce the distance between themselves and the opposition by increasing the number of pressures against the opposition. For example: the number 9 is often tasked with pressing the opposition centre-backs to force the opposition to play forwards to allow the second line of pressure to pounce. It is in this sense we can see that these formations are proactive in nature as they prioritise ball pressure, with the structure being centred around man-marking the opposition.

Theoretical diagram of the 4–4–2 pressing shape against the traditional 3–2–5 in-possession structure in which the players movements are determined by the location of the ball and movement of opposition players. Depending on the intention behind the press, it becomes easy to see this shape shift between a 4–4–2 and 4–2–4 shape, with the wingers usually positioned deeper next to the midfielders (no.6 & no.8) ready to join the first line of pressing depending on ball location.

Potential Flaw(s)

An early flaw that can be spotted when watching Liverpool this season in high pressing situations is the lack of variation between a zonal or player-orientated approach to effectively apply pressure. When watching Slot’s teams, both Liverpool and Feyenoord prefer to press zonally. This allows the opposition ball possession under little pressure in certain areas of the pitch due to a weak trigger activation, which in turn gives the opposition’s backline (defenders and goalkeeper) more time and space to execute actions that will progress the team forward.

Choosing to press the opposition zonally rather than going M2M allows the opposition to exploit the structure and create overloads with their movements and positioning, while having possession. As the focus is not on monitoring player movements but on defending zones and spaces. For example, in Liverpool’s 4–2–4, only 2 midfielders cover the centre, this can be exploited in timely fashion if opposition teams allow 3 (diamond) or 4 (box) players to move into the centre.

To date, this tendency has not affected Liverpool majorly because of one factor: running backwards. The front 4 players apart of the pressing unit are tasked with running backwards once they have been bypassed, this allows the team to recover their shape quickly to defend in a lower block. How many times have we seen Szoboszlai busting a gut to tackle a player from behind? The benefit of running backwards is that it is a relatively effective way of winning the ball back if you have players who have the physical capacity to cover the ground required and duel for the ball (Szoboszlai, Nunez, Diaz, Jones, Salah, Gakpo, Jota). To be honest, the recovery running from the front players in the front line has been outstanding and has made it so that Liverpool can rely on recovery running to limit the amount of threat they concede from these transition moments.

Horizontal & Vertical Compactness

Another potential flaw I would like to highlight is horizontal and vertical compactness, When defending in a lower block there seems to be a lot of reactive rather than proactive defending. Under Slot Feyenoord employed a player orientated system when attempting to track runners and block the half spaces, something that Slot takes very seriously. Often times you will see midfielders man-marking and tracking runners into the half-spaces, which results in a back 5 being formed, the benefits of this are clear, this approach allows for horizontal compactness, with more players in the backline it means that the team has defensive width which allows for more optimal defending in the case the opposition want to attack from the wide areas, it also adds numerical superiority to their defensive arsenal in the case it is necessary to defend in numbers in and around the penalty area.

To date, this tendency has not affected Liverpool majorly because of one factor: running backwards. The front 4 players apart of the pressing unit are tasked with running backwards once they have been bypassed, this allows the team to recover their shape quickly to defend in a lower block. How many times have we seen Szoboszlai busting a gut to tackle a player from behind? The benefit of running backwards is that it is a relatively effective way of winning the ball back if you have players who have the physical capacity to cover the ground required and duel for the ball (Szoboszlai, Nunez, Diaz, Jones, Salah, Gakpo, Jota). To be honest, the recovery running from the front players in the front line has been outstanding and has made it so that Liverpool can rely on recovery running to limit the amount of threat they concede from these transition moments.

A noticeable drawback of this approach is that vertical compactness is compromised. By adding a +1 to the backline it means they are losing bodies further forward, closer to the ball. The opponent is essentially able to circulate and retain possession with relative ease due to the lack of proactive pressure on the ball. This will mean that teams have found it easier to pin Liverpool into a low block which allows opponents to sustain pressure in their final third for periods of time within games. Now a distinction must be made here, a prioritisation of horizontal compactness as explained allows for numerical superiority within the backline and in the wide areas. It is effective way of making sure that you do not concede high quality chances in the case that the opposition is able to reach your last third, an extra player in the backline should usually result in better defensive protection however variance must be taken into account — ceding possession for periods of time due to tactical/theoretical reasons means that you are allowing incredibly gifted opposition players receive the ball facing your goal with more time and space, it is logical and rational that over the course of season variance will take its course and we will see this being taken advantage of.

Conclusion

Whilst Slot is slightly less proactive than Klopp in his philosophy. He understands the importance of increasing the proactivity of the high press against teams that can use the buildup phases. This season we have seen Liverpool press aggressively in a player-orientated fashion against teams like Leipzig, Man City, Tottenham, Southampton especially in the early stages of these games. Before switching to a more zonal press, only pressing when specific triggers were activated

Overall, we can see that Arne Slot is a manager that is heavily conscious of the opposition. All throughout this piece, I have found myself talking about the dichotomy between proactivity and reactivity, when to be aggressive and win the ball, when to sit in the structure to limit transitions.

More than anything, I do not find much to be inherently wrong with Arne Slot’s approach tactically, rather for me the potential problem lies in tempo, fostering an environment where the team understands the need to switch from low intensity spells to high intensity spells when his teams are defending without the ball. There are 2 sides to this argument, Liverpool under Klopp often used their high-intensity spells to stamp their authority on games, Slot wants the best of both worlds. Finding the right balance between the two approaches to not be too aggressive or too passive is Slot’s biggest task. One that he is faring quite well at.

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