With two back-to-back wins, Liverpool hoped they had finally gotten over the winter hump.
Jürgen Klopp made two changes to the team that beat West Ham – Roberto Firmino joining back up with the starting eleven as Divock Origi dropped to the bench, while Alisson Becker missed out due to illness, giving a start to Caoimhin Kelleher in goal. This saw Liverpool return to their usual 4-3-3 formation.
Always changing formation, Graham Potter set up Brighton in a 3-5-2 shape, making two changes from the team that emerged victorious against Tottenham Hotspur, as Dan Burn replaced Joël Veltman, seeing Solly March switch flanks, and Steven Alzate came into midfield, replacing attacker Alexis Mac Allister.
Despite the upturn in form, we did note that neither Tottenham nor West Ham attempted to pack their defence, as so many other teams have done to frustrate Liverpool recently, meaning we didn’t really know if this problem has been dealt with at all. This match very much suggests it hasn’t.
Brighton’s attacking strategy was to pack the first phase of their build-up with players, with the back three accompanied by either the three midfielders ahead of them or two of the midfielders joined by March tucking inside onto his stronger left foot. With six players in this first phase, Liverpool would need to commit men to their press if they didn’t want to be played around easily.
Once Liverpool had been drawn forward though, Brighton would go long, sending an aerial pass to Burn high on the left flank. At 6ft 6, there was little chance of Burn losing out in the air against Trent Alexander-Arnold, so he could knock the ball down for Leandro Trossard in support.
This was how Brighton scored their goal. They won the ball back in their own half, easily played around Liverpool’s press and switched the ball out to the right flank. March then whipped in a perfect cross for Burn at the back post, heading it back inside for Alzate to finish.
With six or seven outfielders back, not only was it easy for Brighton to play out, but it meant that whenever Liverpool recovered the ball Brighton could drop back into their defensive shape quickly, getting men behind the ball before Liverpool could counter.
Liverpool didn’t help themselves though. In the opening minutes, they had some joy hitting balls over the top for a teammate running in behind. First Burn was pulled forward to press Alexander-Arnold, leaving Mohamed Salah untracked as he made a run behind Adam Webster, then Ben White, pushing up to Xherdan Shaqiri, failed to drop off as Andy Robertson tried to beat March in a foot race. Liverpool recognised weaknesses in the Brighton backline and tried to exploit them.
The problem was these weaknesses didn’t last for long. Brighton sharpened up, shutting down the openings Liverpool were trying to exploit, and Liverpool didn’t respond. Instead, they just kept trying to send these passes over the top, seeing them repeatedly trickle through to Robert Sanchez.
After taking the lead, Brighton sat back more to protect it, gradually becoming a 5-4-1 in defence as Trossard dropped back alongside the midfielders.
Liverpool finally stopped trying to send balls over the top, instead reverting to their usual crosses into a packed box.
This was a truly abysmal performance by Liverpool. They have had nothing but problems against packed defences this year, yet behaved as if they had never come up against this issue before. They went 68 games unbeaten at home only to now lose two back-to-back.
Brighton on the other hand put forward a good gameplan, mixing short and long passes in a way so that one cohesively fed into the other.
If you enjoy these posts, please consider subscribing to our Patreon or making a one-off donation. For just $2.99, you can get access to premium videos and training sessions.
No responses yet