Having already won the Premier League, Liverpool have little left to play for except a record points total, while Burnley still have an outside chance at qualifying for the Europa League next season.
Jurgen Klopp once again made four changes from Liverpool’s previous outing, a 3-1 win over Brighton, and kept to their usual 4-3-3 formation. Fabinho replaced the injured Jordan Henderson, Sadio Mane came back into the frontline in place of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, while youth products Curtis Jones and Neco Williams both got run-outs – the Scouser in place of Naby Keita in midfield and the Welshman on his favoured right side, as Trent Alexander-Arnold dropped to the bench and Andy Robertson came back in at left-back.
Sean Dyche set up his side in a 4-4-2 shape, although an injury-hit squad limited his options. Chris Wood made the starting eleven as he recovers from an achilles injury, but Johann Berg Gudmundsson and Robbie Brady only made the bench as they are slowly brought back to fitness and Ashley Barnes, Ben Mee, Matt Lowton and Jack Cork all missed out.
Burnley attempted to press Liverpool high up the pitch early on. They tried this is in two ways: either one striker would push up to press the centre-back while the other stuck back close to Fabinho, switching depending on which centre-back had the ball, or both strikers would push up on the centre-backs. The ball going wide to the Liverpool full-backs would trigger the pressure of the wingers, rushing out to meet them.
Neither method worked though. When just one striker pressed, Liverpool could usually move the ball fast enough to get it to the other open striker to progress the ball forward, or alternatively one of Georginio Wijnaldum or Jones would drop back alongside Fabinho to pick up the ball.
When they pushed both strikers forward, Josh Brownhill and Ashley Westwood would be forced up behind them to cover, leaving plenty of space in front of the Burnley defence that Alisson Becker could usually find.
Whether it was the fact their pressing wasn’t working or simply that they only intended to start the match at a high tempo, Burnley soon dropped off into a defensive shape, handing all control of the match over to Liverpool as neither Wood or Jay Rodriguez had the pace to trouble Joe Gomez or Virgil van Dijk on the counter.
Worry over the threat of Robertson had Erik Pieters constantly following him back into the backline though, forming a makeshift back five. This meant there was always a nice pocket of space for Jones or Wijnaldum to pick up the ball on the right side of Burnley’s midfield, while Robertson was timing his runs so well he remained a massive threat, scoring the opening goal, albeit from the opposite flank.
Liverpool started the game at a good pace and it was only the brilliant stops of Nick Pope that kept Burnley in the match, however, in the second half, the speed of Liverpool’s passing dropped significantly.
Burnley weren’t attacking but Liverpool weren’t making much of an effort to find a second, so it wasn’t a great surprise when Burnley equalised from a set-piece. Liverpool quickly scrambled up a gear, while Burnley dropped off even more to protect their point, often forming a back six as their wingers dropped back alongside their full-backs.
This game followed a familiar pattern to many of Liverpool’s games earlier in the season, except without a winner being found: seemingly creating more problems for themselves than necessary by doing the bare minimum in an effort to conserve energy. It certainly makes more sense now that Liverpool have nothing more than pretty meaningless records left to play for, especially as the season will start afresh after a significantly shorter break than usual, but it will be interesting to see how much of their game management carries over into next season.
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