Arne Slot’s Liverpool comfortably secured a 2–0 win over Brentford in his first competitive game at Anfield. Whilst the game was not the most thrilling, it was a success for all those involved with Liverpool. Let us quickly glean over a few bits and bobs.
Brentford, as they always do, put in a solid performance at Anfield. Wissa and Mbuemo were especially effective in carrying the ball through the thirds from deep positions. Their ability to do so allowed Brentfotd to defend comfortably in a low block.
Defending in a low block meant that Brentford would often have numerical superiority when defending in and around their box, this coupled with the insistence of the Brentford players to crowd the half-space meant that Liverpool were subdued to great success in the first half as they were only able to register 2 shots on target which equalled to a value of 0.70 in expected goals.
However, despite Brentford’s defensive organisation, Liverpool’s struggles to break them down highlighted a lack of dynamism, runs from deep and combination play in the wide areas to get around Brentford’s shape, off the top of my head I don’t recall many crosses in settled play during the first half, compared to the increased involvement from Trent in the second half.
Due to Brentford’s relative passivity in the high press phase, Liverpool were able build out the back with ease. In the moments Brentford did press high, Liverpool were seen dragging Brentford’s pressing unit to one side before going through the press with balls from Konate in particular into Salah, who would either spin his mark and go, or play a wall pass for the oncoming Szoboszlai who would drive with the ball into space, I believe we call this a up-back-through?
Klopp’s influence was evident once again with Diaz’s goal, which was scored just 11.6 seconds after a Brentford corner — thank you very much! (Diaz that was a good finish whilst running at high-speed mate, Salah that was a crucial duel you won there & Jota, cheers for the excellent weight of pass).
This week I was happy with our high press, there was always consistent pressure on the ball, and we were able to win the ball back numerous times, the nature of the press was aggressive. I am really enjoying Szoboszlai’s role in the press. Almost pressing as a number 9 at times, providing strong and aggressive vertical jumps to stop their midfielders from turning whilst also cover shadowing well to stop Brentford’s centre backs from finding players in the centre of the pitch. Liverpool moved between a 4–2 and 3–3 pressing shape, the 4–2 (4 players in the first line of pressure with the 2 pivot players behind to support) seemed to be centred around intense ball pressure in order to win the ball back as quickly as possible, whilst the 3–3 (Szoboszlai jumps up to join Salah & Jota with Diaz tucking into that LCM position) being more centred around defending the centre with 3 players coupled with the willingness to jump out and press the ball once it goes wide. Overall, Liverpool’s aggressive pressing made it difficult for Brentford to build any meaningful attacks.
The second half was much better in terms of chance creation, Liverpool registered fourteen shots, with six being on target whilst also racking up an expected goals value of 1.95. Brentford had three shots with only one on target. Thus, ending up with an expected goals value of 0.16. Liverpool dominated the first half but in the second half their domination was more apparent due to the increase in chance creation. The timing of Trent’s arrivals into the wide areas from his narrow position in the centre was excellent, I recall a few last-ditch tackles from Brentford to deny Jota from increasing the scoreline.
Good game, boring game, onto the next.
