Arsenal 2 Liverpool 0: Outperformed rather than Outplayed | Tactical Analysis

Liverpool’s attack

One of the key talking points before the game was whether Liverpool would be able to play 2 v 2 against Arsenal’s centre backs on the counter attack. After all, Sturridge and Suarez were staying high up the pitch waiting for these opportunities.

Really however, such a strategy didn’t really pay off. This was partly because Arsenal’s pressing high up the pitch was very good, making it hard for Liverpool to attack quickly and behind the Arsenal defenders. When Liverpool’s block was pushed deep, it was hard to avoid the Arsenal press when they recovered the ball and this made it difficult to surprise them.

The other reason it didn’t pay off was that on many occasions, wrong runs were made from the front two. Sturridge often came very deep for the ball on transition and marked tightly by Koscielny, it made it difficult to attack with pace. Koscielny it has to be said put in an extremely good performance, marking Liverpool’s strikers tightly, even to deep positions between the lines and not allowing them to turn. This made it hard for Liverpool both on the counter attack and generally in possession.

Much of Liverpool spacing in attack was decent. Suarez and Sturridge often drop off between the lines to receive the ball. Often teams will overplay the middle in order to stop condense the area around there or to block passing lanes to them – wingers will pinch in to block forward passes to Suarez who moves in horizontal channels between the lines. What this does is create a lot of space wide. Indeed Liverpool’s wing backs, Flanagan and Cissokho, often had the most amount of space on the pitch.

The problem was that it was never really taken advantage of. Because Liverpool only had one layer of width out wide, they needed dynamism and thrust. Unfortunately Flanagan couldn’t provide that, nor could Cissokho who is getting used to a new league. There wasn’t much aggression or positivity on the ball in these areas and crosses were poor.

What this match particularly showed was how much of Liverpool’s goal threat is reliant on Suarez and Sturridge. Although both still managed to be a threat in parts, because they were closed down quickly and couldn’t cause problems on the counter attack either, Liverpool were stuck. The wing backs weren’t providing any goal threat, Henderson for all his defensive work rate is not the most controlled or penetrative in possession, Gerrard didn’t have the space to mark vertical runs forward, Lucas clearly wasn’t the person to threaten to score. In short, Liverpool ended up being too reliant on Suarez and Sturridge and because they were generally handled well and marked tightly, it became difficult for Liverpool to get into Arsenal’s penalty area.

Change of shape

In all fairness, the first half wasn’t a disaster for Liverpool. They started off brightly and but for a refereeing decision to pull play back after Suarez tried to take a quick free kick or Henderson being a bit more positive and composed and Liverpool could have been at least level at half time. The truth however was that Arsenal had been a level above and Liverpool needed to affect the game in a different way.

Rodgers’ change at half time was positive and well thought out. Cissokho had a pretty poor game in the first half and bringing on Coutinho to provide an extra penetrative threat made sense even though it clearly wasn’t ideal to throw him back in at half time in such a big game.

The shape of the team changed to a rough 4-4-2 with Sakho moving across to left back, Henderson right-wing and Coutinho left. What this did was mean Liverpool had two layers of width, even with Coutinho and Henderson often moving between the lines. Coutinho interestingly often pulled very wide on the left to receive the ball, opening up the channel and then looking to play a pass behind into Suarez. This caused immediate problems in a couple of moves early in the second half, one of which created a chance for Henderson in the box.

It has to be said however that Coutinho clearly wasn’t going to be at his optimum level after being out injured for a few weeks. His movement was good in parts as was his ideas but his passing was a little off he had problems adjusting defensively to the speed of the match. Not a worry for Rodgers long-term – this was his first game for a few weeks. But in this match, it meant that the team didn’t quite have the final pass on a number of occasions.

What the shift also did was lead to a more open game in the second half. It wasn’t necessarily down the shape – Arsenal theoretically had more of an advantage through the middle than they had in the first half but Liverpool’s midfield four also defended fairly narrow. The reason it was more open was simply that Liverpool were pushing for an equalizer – they were getting numbers forward and trying to score.

What this did was sacrifice control in the middle. While in the first half, Arsenal had threatened between the lines, here it became a lot more crucial. Liverpool were very open on transitions, understandably so, and Arsenal had a lot of space with which to use through the middle when they regained possession.

Should Liverpool have tried to be more calm and controlling? Probably. There was a whole half left and with Coutinho, Suarez and Sturridge, there was always going to be a threat. With Lucas and Gerrard in the middle, there can be a lack of pace and mobility and an open game wasn’t exactly suited to that midfield partnership – they didn’t want to be running back towards their own goal and trying to deal with Arsenal’s runs between the lines.

Arsenal’s second goal

There should be a caveat when analysing the goals conceded that both were very well taken, with a high amount of technique and quality in the finishing and movement. Most teams don’t have the quality of Arsenal and such small details won’t always be punished so comprehensively.

However it has to be said that both goals were very preventable. On the first goal, there was a big space in midfield when Arteta received the ball. Gerrard was walking back in the build up through midfield from a position wide and high on the right and never once looked like getting back into position quickly enough. As the ball progressed, Sagna was allowed too much space behind to get the cross in and very crucially, Cazorla’s diagonal run was untracked. Flanagan was out of position and because of Gerrard’s positioning and failure to recover quickly, he was unable to get to Cazorla’s run. Such a flaw in Gerrard’s game is becoming more apparent at the moment it was important in this game.

The second goal was very much one of basic errors. Whereas the first one is more difficult because of the fact that players are chasing back at pace, the second will be very disappointing for Rodgers.