This was to be a rerun of the last match before football locked down because of Covid-19. Both clubs have won their respective leagues since then – Liverpool ending their thirty year drought and Atletico Madrid getting their first La Liga title in seven years.
Jürgen Klopp made just one change to the side that thrashed Watford on Saturday, as Alisson Becker came back in for Caoimhin Kelleher in goal, returning from quarantine after the international break. Liverpool set up in their usual 4-3-3 formation.
Match sharpness rather than fatigue would be more of a concern for Atleti, as their match with Granada was postponed due to them missing several South American players from the international break. Luis Suarez didn’t get to start against his former club – one of four changes from their win over Barcelona. Diego Simeone set up his team in the 3-5-2 they adopted last season.
Unsurprisingly Atlético sat back in a 5-3-2 shape and looked to soak up Liverpool’s pressure. Antoine Griezmann and João Félix stayed central, blocking the passes into Jordan Henderson, however this did nothing to disrupt Liverpool’s build-up. James Milner would drop back on the left, forming a back three with Virgil van Dijk and Joël Matip, making it easy for Liverpool to play around Atleti.
Most of the time Liverpool would just to pass it out to the wide areas though, where the full-backs had space. Milner dropping back meant Andy Robertson had more freedom to push forward but generally he and Trent Alexander-Arnold remained in quite withdrawn positions, making use of the space Atlético’s shape gave them. Thomas Lemar would shift out of midfield to close down Alexander-Arnold on the right, whereas Kieran Trippier would generally rush out of the backline to meet Robertson on the left, although, as Rodrigo de Paul was typically closer, he would sometimes take over this responsibility.
Liverpool highlighted one of the main issues in using a back five: half of your team is in the backline, making it harder to engage the opposition up the pitch. Liverpool’s full-backs had no direct opponent, meaning it was left to either the wing-backs or central midfielders to deal with them – neither of which were in good positions to close them down, with the wing-backs deep in the defensive line and the central midfielders in the centre rather than out wide.
Liverpool would particularly punish Atletico when Lemar or De Paul were forced wide, with Roberto Firmino dropping in, one of Naby Keïta and Milner pushing forward and often Sadio Mané moving inside to join them, outnumbering Atlético’s two remaining central midfielders.
This can be seen in the build-up to Liverpool’s opening goal. Robertson received the ball in an unthreatening position near the half-way line, De Paul moved out to close him down, Mané dropped back into the space De Paul left and played a one-two with the overlapping Robertson. The resulting cross was defended, but Liverpool had easily moved from a weak position to an attacking one in two passes.
The opening goal was, as it always is these days, all about the genius of Mohamed Salah though. Liverpool recovered the ball after Robertson’s initial cross was cleared, only for the Scot to overhit his second. Salah went chasing after it and recovered it out wide on the opposite flank. Showing he very much isn’t a natural defender, Yannick Carrasco showed Salah inside onto his left foot and the Egyptian took him up on the offer, dribbling past the Belgian, then past Lemar, then dummying to shoot to work his way past Koke, before finally shooting from the edge of the area, deflecting its way past Jan Oblak.
Having gone behind, Atlético started to press, however it didn’t work for them. Griezmann and Félix would push up onto Matip and Van Dijk, while Lemar would move up behind them to get tight to Henderson. With Firmino keen to drop off, Liverpool outnumbered Atlético in midfield though, so one of them could drop back next to Henderson to receive the ball, and easily play around Atleti’s pressure with the home side unwilling to risk pushing more men forward and leave Koke alone in front of the defence. Alternatively, Liverpool could just pull Robertson back, forming a back three to play around Atleti’s front two.
Liverpool soon doubled their lead, playing around the Atlético press to force them backwards, playing down the left, then switching out to the understaffed right. Atlético’s midfield three had been drawn over to the opposite flank as Liverpool attacked down that side, meaning that even though Alexander-Arnold had tucked into a fairly central position, Lemar was nowhere near close enough to him to stop him taking a touch and crossing. Felipe got the ball away, but only as far as Keïta on the edge of the area, who took the chance to volley it beautifully out of the reach of Oblak.
After the high of his goal, Keïta was soon brought down to earth. Atlético played a short corner to Lemar, who easily waltzed past Keïta and dribbled towards the near post. This pulled Liverpool’s players back towards the six-yard box, meaning Koke had plenty of space for his shot (maybe a perfectly chosen pass given he side-footed it) from the edge of the area when Lemar pulled it back to him. Griezmann neatly diverted it into the net.
Liverpool calmed the game back down with good spells of possession, combining with quick passes to settle Atlético back down. Firmino was happy to drop even deeper, Alexander-Arnold tucked inside, while Milner and Keïta continued to alternate between higher and deeper positions as they had from the start, meaning Liverpool were quite easily able to outnumber and play around Atlético in midfield.
Nevertheless Atlético soon got their equaliser. With Salah drawn inside to press, Atleti played out to Mario Hermoso, who fed the ball forward to Félix in attack. It was some excellent control that allowed Félix to turn and dribble forward, however Keïta again didn’t exactly cover himself in glory, first struggling to get back goalside then permitting the Portguese to pass with a weak challenge. Likewise, Griezmann positioned himself down Van Dijk’s blind side, took a touch into the space that opened up due to Matip stepping out to cover Keïta and finished quickly past Alisson, however Van Dijk wasn’t his usual commanding self. Facing backwards to combat a potential run in behind rather than on the half-turn, Van Dijk turned clockwise to meet Griezmann, taking his eye off the ball so that he couldn’t see Griezmann’s movements; by the time he got his eyes back on the ball, Griezmann was taking a touch in the exact opposite direction to where Van Dijk was facing, requiring him to do a full 180° to follow the Frenchman. Van Dijk managed it and nearly caught up with Griezmann, but the attacker wasted no time, stretching to finish at the edge of his slide rather than running to catch up with his touch. Nine times out of ten this slight sloppiness would have gone unpunished, but here Van Dijk was playing against João Félix and Antoine Griezmann.
Liverpool continued to keep possession after conceding the second, but they were much slower and sloppier than they had been after the first, frequently passing behind their teammates rather than into feet, while the backline was a mess, some dropping off while others held the offside trap. Continuing to sit back, Atlético failed to take advantage though, allowing Liverpool to get in at half-time and regroup.
With Lemar impressing on the left, Klopp decided Liverpool “had to defend the right side a bit better“, so he brought on Fabinho, moving Henderson to the right as Keïta was removed. Likewise, Geoffrey Kondogbia was replaced by a natural centre-back in José Maria Giménez for Atlético. Clearly neither coach had been impressed with their teams defensively.
Shortly into the half, Griezmann was sent off for a high foot. It clearly wasn’t intentional, but if you are careless enough to kick someone in the head, you are careless enough to merit a red card. Atleti switched to a 4-3-2, pushing Carrasco up into attack on the left and looking to hit long balls up to him on the counter, although he would sometimes drop back to help out the defence.
The red card was bad for Liverpool as it meant Atlético became happier to simply settle for a point, drawing fouls and wasting time to frustrate Liverpool.
Klopp made attacking changes, bringing on Diogo Jota and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain for Mané and Milner, however they got their winner through the stupidity of Hermoso. Contesting a fairly nothing dropping ball in the box, the defender decided to fling himself at Jota in a comically unsubtle way, gifting Liverpool a penalty for Salah to convert.
Simeone responded with a quadruple substitution, bringing on Marcos Llorente, Renan Lodi, Luis Suarez and Angel Correa for Hermoso, Lemar, De Paul and Félix. They nearly got a penalty of their own straight after, only for it to be overturned on closer inspection – Jota was fairly fortunate, as, although there was minimum contact, he had played Giménez onside and couldn’t get goalside of him, sticking to his back.
It was now Liverpool’s turn to shut up shop, bringing on Joe Gomez and Neco Williams to see the game out, earning themselves another three points to extend their lead at the top of a very tough group. It was another spotty performance, however any victory away to Atlético will be hard won.
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