The FA Cup is Liverpool’s only realistic trophy this season, if we’re all being honest. Whilst we’re still in the Champions League, the opposition we’d need to beat in our current form makes lifting big ears for the 7th time a pipe dream.
I think in a way, Arne Slot knew this coming into tonight. We fielded a strong team, on paper, and that showed our intention from the off, but also how seriously Arne is taking this historic competition.
It was almost like deja vu. Only 72 hours prior, the same two teams stood across from each other under the lights and prepared to do battle.
Tuesday night's encounter was boring, stale and frustrating and for the first half, and this one wasn’t much better, aside from one player in particular.
All Roads Lead to Rio
It was clear from the off that the game plan was to get the ball to our tricky little difference maker, Rio Ngumoha. Liverpool fans across the globe have been crying out for Rio to start since Cody Gakpo’s form has been far from the level we expect.
We got our wish, and it went exactly how we all hoped it would. Even from the opening minutes, our passing seemed a touch faster, and our cross-field balls from Dom to the left more often because we had somewhere we wanted to play it to.
Every time Liverpool got the ball, they looked for Rio. We haven’t been actively searching for Gakpo and Salah in recent weeks, as the proof that they’ll do something worthwhile hasn’t been there.
Each time Rio got the ball tonight, he had one focus in mind: attack. He kept Jackson Tchatchoua on the back foot all night, which Gakpo didn’t do once on Tuesday.
The commentators summed it up perfectly in that Rio was such a handful, Tchatchoua refused to leave him alone, at the behest of getting forward himself.
I’d almost forgotten that’s what proper, dangerous wingers do. They restrict the opposing fullback from bombing on, so they don’t get caught out on the break. He tried not to give Rio an inch, but he took one anyway.
It’s amazing to see how he transformed the entire left-hand side. Rio and Robbo regularly traded overlaps, something that doesn’t seem to be in Gakpo’s locker, and it opened up that side of the field massively.
This isn’t a Gakpo hate post, but instead highlighting the impressive talents of the youngster who, in my opinion, needs to be our starting left winger.
But all that aside, that was probably the only plus of the first half. The rest was a carbon copy of Tuesday, leaving me wondering still if Arne Slot will ever figure out the low block. After tonight, I’m still not sure he will.
Out of possession, we’re out of ideas
For the past decade, Liverpool have defended from the front. We’ve been in the opposition's faces and haven’t given them a second on the ball.
That was tweaked slightly last year when Slot brought in a calmer style of football than Jurgen Klopp’s ‘rock and roll’ style. We saw immediate success, but teams have now sussed us out.
When Slot hit his poo run between September and December, teams of any quality had figured out how to pick up points against Liverpool. They pressed us, made life difficult and defended in numbers.
Slot had to adapt to stop us losing games, and the result of that is the style of play we’re seeing now. I’ve said it previously, Slot is extremely wary of losing football matches, and his football shows that.
There is a reason we don’t throw 6 people into a counterattack anymore, home or away. There is a reason why we have 70%+ possession in most games with 3 or 4 shots on target.
It’s tentative football, but that’s only one side of it. The in possession side.
Out of possession, we’re quite lost. These players, who have been taught for years to make life difficult for opposing players, are now being told to do the opposite. We’re sitting back and awaiting the pressure so we can deal with it.
When we don’t have the ball, we may as well not have a midfield. They retreat until the point where they’re practically a part of the back line and in a feeble, low block attempt of our own. We can’t play a good low block because we aren’t used to it.
There were a couple of times Friday night where it seemed the trigger for Curtis Jones to start the press was when the Wolves centre-half got the ball. Bearing in mind that Jones is 40 yards away from him at the time.
He charges, 5 seconds later, he’s 10 yards away from the defender, and he plays a simple pass outside. Where is Gakpo? Or Macca? They’re pedestrians in the press, and we get knocked about the park as a result.
Tentative teams play boring football, and that’s what we saw for 45 minutes tonight.
Wolves (again) changed the game for Liverpool
If Slot ever wrote a book about his time at Liverpool, it would be titled ‘A Game of Two Halves’. That was his MO last year, and it remains the same this year, too.
The main difference is that he’d, more often than not, come out on top last year. This season, he’s found it a touch more difficult.
Wolves were likely pleased with their performance in the first half. No guilt-edge chances squandered. 0-0 at home against Liverpool with 45 minutes to go. They were in the same position 3 days prior and that may have gone to their heads a touch.
They came out with a bit more of a forward focus than in the first half, and with their first real look at breaking onto our defence and causing problems, we stripped the ball, countered and scored.
1-0 in the blink of an eye because they misplaced a pass, and Rio set us on our way by insisting on pushing the ball on immediately.
This wasn’t Slot figuring out the low block puzzle; it was a classic counter. Would they have bothered getting forward had they not won on Tuesday? Who knows, but their little tweak in the game ended up opening the floodgates for us.
The only sliver of hope I hold out for the Champions League is that teams in that competition will attack us and we’ll find more opportunities to counter them.
Tonight proved that we can still be devastating when we have the space to do so, but we still need to work on what to do when we don’t. I wouldn’t be paying too much attention to the final 15 minutes of this one either.
Unlike Tuesday, this game was done and dusted, and Wolves already had one eye on the warm shower coming their way.
All in all, there were positives, but I’m not getting carried away. But I will say, if that wasn’t enough for Rio to start on Tuesday night in Istanbul, then what does he have to do?