The Slot Machine: How Liverpool set up against elite teams – and beat them

It was the elephant in the room that Arne Slot went out of his way to address.

Up until the last international break, Liverpool’s head coach repeatedly referenced the kind early-season schedule when assessing his team’s start.

The run of fixtures from the October break to this international window was meant to give a clearer indication of where expectation levels should be set.

Premier League matches against Chelsea, Arsenal, Brighton & Hove Albion and Aston Villa were broken up by Champions League fixtures versus RB Leipzig and Bayer Leverkusen, with a trip to Brighton in the Carabao Cup squeezed in.

“If you judge your team on only a week, that would not be fair,” Slot told reporters before the Chelsea game last month. “We have to judge us as a team after this spell of games – not three of them but six, seven or eight. The best way to judge us is in four weeks.”

Six wins and one draw means Liverpool not only finished that block of fixtures unbeaten, but they are top of the Premier League and the league phase in the Champions League and have progressed to the Carabao Cup quarter-finals.

For the most part, it has been done with a smooth efficiency that helps explain why one banner has started regularly appearing on The Kop at home matches, bearing the legend ‘Arne’s Slot Machine’.

Tough challenges continue, with Real Madrid and Manchester City in the next fortnight, so what have we learnt about Slot and his team when they are faced with sterner tests — and what does it suggest about their prospects for the season?

The steady starts

Slot shares stylistic similarities to his predecessor, Jurgen Klopp, but starting matches intensely is not one of them.

At the beginning of his reign, Klopp would have Liverpool on the front foot from the first whistle — under Slot, whether by design or not, Liverpool have tried to make first halves feel like non-events.

Slot wants Liverpool to control possession but that has been a struggle in the opening 45 minutes against ball-dominant opponents. Liverpool had less than 50 per cent possession in the first half against Chelsea, Arsenal, Brighton (in the league) and Leverkusen.

The out-of-possession 4-2-4 system is a strong base from which to press high and build a foundation, but against better opposition it has varied in its effectiveness.

Chelsea took advantage of Liverpool’s shape by overloading the space behind the front four, predominantly via full-back Malo Gusto, leaving Ryan Gravenberch alone in the centre and Curtis Jones marking Cole Palmer.

Chelsea could penetrate the defensive lines, primarily through Moises Caicedo accelerating attacks as he did for Nicolas Jackson’s first-half chance…

… and for Jackson’s equaliser.

The 4-2-4 risks were again tested against Arsenal with Mikel Arteta using Kai Havertz and Leandro Trossard to drop into unorthodox spaces and overload the middle of the pitch. Liverpool were better prepared and were not exposed by the through balls either side of their centre-backs, like they were against Chelsea.

It was exposed against Brighton at Anfield too. Liverpool offered nothing in possession, and on a handful of occasions were opened up by Fabian Hurzeler’s side. 

While Liverpool mixed up their pressing system more, Brighton coaxed Slot’s side forward and exploited the big space between the front four and midfield two. That penetration allowed them to start the attack leading to their goal…

… and Georginio Rutter’s chance to make it 2-0 came via this method too. Liverpool were extremely aggressive, but left plenty of space for Yasin Ayari to drift into and play Rutter in behind. 

Those issues were addressed against Leverkusen, who adopted a similar approach to Brighton and rotated players into different positions to pass through the thirds. 

When they got to the halfway line, however, they were often suffocated and barely threatened as illustrated by the graph below showing their expected goals — xG, the measure of how many goals a team is likely to score based on the quality of their chances.

After the Leverkusen game, Slot offered another explanation to reporters regarding the slower starts. 

“Like many times now, managers change their game plan when they come to Anfield or when they play us,” he said. “We’ve seen a lot of games from Leverkusen but I’ve never seen (striker Victor) Boniface playing from the left. So, they played without a No 9 and that’s why they overloaded the midfield a lot. It was quite difficult to press them high.”

Needing half-time to readjust is understandable for a head coach and set of players who have not even clocked up 20 games together. The interval has been valuable for Slot to properly get his ideas across.

Tactical tweaks

To be a top manager, tactical flexibility is a non-negotiable. 

The ability to adapt, solve problems and expose the opposition has been prominent in Liverpool’s second-half performances.

The scorelines play a role in this, but it was noticeable how much more controlled Liverpool were in possession in the second half against Aston Villa than they were in the first. They were 1-0 up and did not expose themselves trying to score a second.

More prominent have been the minor tweaks to better press the opposition, limiting their ball progression in the second half of matches. Slot has repeatedly referenced an increase in intensity and aggression as key shifts that have helped Liverpool seize the initiative. 

The effects have been obvious, as underlined by this table showing how Liverpool have continually turned half-time deficits or parity into wins with their second-half displays:

After their success in the first half, Brighton were forced to go long more frequently after the break, with Liverpool’s midfield shape more compact.

The shape was more aggressive against Leverkusen, too. The example below saw Alexis Mac Allister take on an advanced position after the German side were forced backwards. Piero Hincapie’s rushed pass went straight out of play and from the resulting throw-in, Liverpool opened the scoring. 

When they have been in the lead, having more control has been paramount. Liverpool averaged 50 per cent possession or more in every second half of this spell except for the first game against Chelsea. Against transitional teams such as Leipzig and Aston Villa, game management was the instruction.

The scoreline was 1-0 entering the closing stages in both, but Liverpool showed their development in giving Villa no encouragement, compared to the more nervy final 15 minutes against Leipzig.

Slot has also shown his tactical creativity in his starting line-ups. The biggest tweaks have come from getting creative in the No 9 position due to Diogo Jota’s injury.

Against Brighton in the Carabao Cup, Slot reverted to having two attacking midfielders instead of a striker. He had used this in the first pre-season game on the U.S. tour against Real Betis, and the system has helped Liverpool have more control in possession. 

Against Leverkusen, he started Luis Diaz in a central role and was rewarded by the Colombian scoring a hat-trick. 

“We chose to play Lucho (Diaz) more from the left or the midfield and then maybe surprise him (centre-back Jonathan Tah) with runs in behind — not only him but in general. If you look at the first goal, that played out — what a pass from Curtis Jones.

 “Tah is one of the best defenders in Germany, maybe the best defender in Germany. He maybe likes to play more against a target man, someone who’s there in the middle.”

The defensive wall

Much of the success in recent weeks has been on keeping teams at arm’s length.

With the exception of the Brighton league match, even when opponents could progress the ball through the thirds, they came up against a brick wall built by Ibrahima Konate and Virgil van Dijk. 

Liverpool have conceded a league low six goals and have only allowed more than one expected goal against (xGA) — the measure of how many goals should have been conceded based on the quality of the opposition’s shots — on four occasions.

That includes two games in this run, Brighton & Hove Albion (1.01) and Aston Villa (1.38), although the latter’s threat mainly came from set-pieces. The other two were in 3-0 victories against Manchester United (1.36) and Bournemouth (1.08) when the opposition built the majority of their xG when the game was over. 

Slot’s trusted centre-back partnership has been dominant, and shown they can deal with elite opposition as their levels have not dropped. 

Of Premier League defenders who have played more than 700 minutes, only Aston Villa’s Ezri Konsa has a higher duel success rate (83 per cent) than Konate (73.4 per cent), who has won 47 out of 64. Van Dijk is seventh, winning 49 out of his 74 duels (66.2 per cent)

They both rank in the top five for aerial duel success of Premier League defenders who have played at least 700 minutes, too. Konate tops the table (82.4 per cent) with Van Dijk fifth (71.7 per cent).

Transition 

Quick transition. High tempo. Ruthless finishing. That was Liverpool at their best under Klopp. 

The expectation from Slot’s stylistic tweaks was that Liverpool would adopt a more possession-based strategy, encouraging deliberate build-up play and controlled, patient attacks. 

Their drop in ‘direct attacks’, as shown below, supports the idea that Slot’s attacking approach has been more varied and malleable. Direct attacks are spells of possession in open play that start inside the team’s own half and have at least 50 per cent of movement towards the opposition’s goal and end in a shot or a touch in the opposition’s box.

That more measured approach has impacted their shooting statistics, too. In the Premier League since 2018, they are averaging their lowest shots per game total (14.1), with a higher percentage of shots in the box (73.5) and shots on target (42.6).

Creating fewer chances but of higher quality does not mean Liverpool are no longer a counter-attacking team. When games have become stretched in the most recent run, that is when Liverpool have looked most dangerous. 

Both of their goals, and the majority of their best opportunities against Villa came via fast-paced breaks.

Against Villa, both came from opposition set pieces. In the first half Darwin Nunez converted following the away side’s corner…

… and then Mohamed Salah sealed the game late on from a long throw-in.

They were moments of opportunity, but Liverpool have demonstrated their ability to be dynamic and progress the ball through the thirds at pace when games have become stretched.

They struggled to create against Arsenal when Arteta’s side ceded territory and possession in the second half, but when they did push forward, it allowed Trent Alexander-Arnold to release Nunez to set up Salah’s equaliser. 

Similarly, after equalising against Brighton, Jones led a swift counter-attack that led to Salah’s winner.

It was the same story against Leverkusen when Liverpool scored two in quick succession. Mac Allister started the move from his own area which ended in Cody Gakpo’s header, the first of three transition goals.

Liverpool were not perfect in this run of more taxing games, but secured positive results in every one of them. As Slot gains more experience, and his squad further develop their knowledge of his methods, the results are a great foundation to then improve performances.

It should mean even Real Madrid and Manchester City do not need to be feared.

(Top photo: Carl Recine/Getty Images)