What have we learned about Arne Slot’s tactics and playstyle in the first 3 matches?

We are three games into the new season, and it couldn’t have gone any better for Arne Slot and Liverpool. No major injuries, no goals conceded and most importantly three wins from three.

A lot was made of what this season entails for Liverpool, whether they may struggle with the transition or Slot may struggle to implement his tactics in a new league.

Most fears and doubts have been vanquished, three games against different level of opponents, a newly promoted side in Ipswich, a solid mid-table side in Brentford and finally a clash of the titans against the old enemy in Man United, and all three games have been comfortable wins.

On the surface it is perfect, so let’s look a little deeper and see what the playstyle and tactics are showing us.

Build-up

In all three matches Slot has adapted the way the team builds out from the back. Against Ipswich the back four was extremely narrow and looked to find the midfield quickly and get the talents of Gravenberch and Mac Allister up against the weakest point of Ipswich’s team, the central midfield.

In the other two games it has been more of what we expected form an Arne Slot team, wide back four with Trent occasionally moving into the midfield.

Slot likes his team to bait the opposition onto them so Liverpool can quickly move the ball into midfield and exploit the gaps left from the over worked press.

When this has been done the quickness that Liverpool have moved into another gear for attacks has been unbelievable. All three opposition teams have not been able to deal with the quickness that Liverpool can attack when in full flow.

Attack/Counter-Attack

As mentioned, the speed at which this team can attack is frightening, the interplay between the attackers is fantastic and could split open many different types of teams.

The patience that the team has at the back isn’t just flung out of the window when they get into the opposition half, Liverpool’s controlling play has been impressive.

Having the likes of Alexis Mac Allister, Mo Salah and Dominik Szoboszlai massively helps against a low block, but the fluidity of the front four including Szoboszlai, can pull and disorientate defenses as we’ve seen.

Another aspect of the attacks is the counter attacking potential this team has. The area of the team that so far that has not changed one bit from Klopp to Slot.

The willingness every player has to committing to a counterattack and when they do counter-attack as we saw against Brentford it is lightening quick and so precise.

Defence

So far Liverpool are the only team in the Premier League that has not conceded a single goal, they maybe should have versus Man United but overall, the defensive structure has been fantastic.

With Ryan Gravenberch and Mac Allister having three wonderful performances in front of the back four, the defence has been well protected and covered.

But defense starts from the top and the press has been another impressive yet fluid part of Slot’s tactics.

A controlled press that can overwhelm a defence at the right times. The counter press is fantastic and especially against Man Utd, it completely overran them.

Other than that the defensive play has been the usual, strong and resilient play, with the brilliance of Alisson Becker making sure no player or team can hit the back of Liverpool’s net.