Everton managed to avoid relegation last season, but, still searching for their first win of this season, the Blues haven’t been able to use the momentum of their escape to progress. Having won just one of their last 26 Merseyside derbies, it wasn’t the best time for them to be facing Liverpool.
Frank Lampard made just one change to the team that drew with Leeds, swapping out Dwight McNeil for new signing Neal Maupay. Everton lined up in a 4-3-3 shape.
Jürgen Klopp made three changes to the side that defeated Newcastle. Kostas Tsimikas and Fabio Carvalho replaced Andy Robertson and Jordan Henderson, while Darwin Nuñez returned from suspension to take his place in attack instead of Roberto Firmino. Liverpool set up in their usual 4-3-3 formation.
These changes left Liverpool with two young attacking midfielders playing as centre midfielders. We have spoken in detail about how Liverpool’s system asks a great deal of their midfielders defensively, so asking two novices playing out of position to take up those roles appeared to be stretching it to its limits. Several times Liverpool’s midfield were left stretched by Everton drawing Harvey Elliott or Carvalho forward to pressure, opening up space behind them for Everton players to exploit.
The upside of this strategy from Liverpool was that it filtered Everton wide. Pretty much all the Blues’ attacking came from them sending the ball wide for Anthony Gordon and Demarai Gray to quickly run at Liverpool’s backline. Out wide, they weren’t in goalscoring areas though, and, although Liverpool’s midfield may have been stretched, their backline wasn’t. Everton would pass wide but then struggle to bring the ball back inside against an unflustered Liverpool defence.
Everton were sometimes able to threaten when they could overload the Liverpool defence by getting their midfielders forward to attack the box, but, as they were playing on the counter, the attack was generally moving too fast for the midfielders to be able to get forward in time, meaning these moments were few and far between.
Despite on paper playing the same formation, Everton’s midfield rarely had the problems of Liverpool’s. Their wingers tracked back to form a 4-5-1 out of possession, providing defensive width that meant their central midfielders stayed inside to block up the centre.
Unable to play through Everton, Liverpool looked to go around them, down the right. Two Liverpool players would double up on Vitalii Mykolenko – one out on the flank and one inside him – so that when the ball went wide, Mykolenko would be drawn out, leaving the man inside free. With James Tarkowski mainly preferring to stay central and defend any cross, this left a gap for the inside man to exploit.
This strategy generally didn’t work when it was Elliott attacking the gap inside, as Alex Iwobi tended to track him, however this in turn created a space in midfield that Liverpool could exploit, although they never did. Liverpool either simply wouldn’t get any player to attack the gap, or if they did, the pass wouldn’t come off.
This was a much wider problem, with Liverpool often giving the ball away sloppily, killing their attacks dead.
Even when Liverpool attacked that gap behind Mykolenko, it never resulted in a goal though. Part of the problem was how static the receiving players in the box where – rather than punishing Tarkowski by getting to the ball in front of him, they were proving his decision to hold his position in the centre to be the correct one.
Although not exclusively his problem, the issue is linked to the introduction of Nuñez in place of Firmino. Nuñez is a goalscorer to lead the line, rather than a facilitator to make space for others like Firmino. His signing made sense in the context of finishing all those crosses Liverpool whip into the box, offering much more in the air than any of Liverpool’s previous frontline, however that means he’s not going to be dropping off to receive the ball to feet or link play like Firmino would. Nuñez boosts the likelihood of Liverpool scoring from those low quality chances, but he’s less likely than Firmino to help create those high quality chances. Rather than making runs towards the ball, Nuñez tends to make runs away from it, and while this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it does create teething issues when his teammates are used to playing with Firmino.
The minor successes of the early stages soon disappeared for Liverpool however. Much of it seemed to be due to Mohamed Salah coming inside into central positions rather than staying wide. Early on he had been part of the trio progressing the ball down the right, but with Liverpool lacking players to receive the ball to feet in the middle, he moved inside. This meant he was no longer able to help progress the ball down the right, but he didn’t pick up the ball in the middle either, as Everton still had their three midfielders blocking the passes into him. Without Salah’s help, Liverpool’s attacks down the right became more and more about hitting the box with crosses rather than pulling Mykolenko out and exploiting the gap that opened up.
Some of Liverpool’s best chances came from them pumping the ball in behind Everton’s backline, but given these were just half-chances, that’s a greater reflection on how little Liverpool were otherwise creating.
Carvalho picked a knock before half-time so Firmino was introduced for the second half, with Liverpool switching to a 4-2-3-1. This gave Liverpool more presence in the centre, enabling Salah to move back out to the right, however it did have the knock-on effect of leaving teenage attacking midfielder Elliott playing in a midfield two with little cover in front of him due to four attackers staying forward. It wasn’t exactly a surprise that Everton were able to play around Liverpool’s midfield into attack.
With Champions League football in mid-week to think about, Klopp made a double substitution with half an hour left to play, swapping out his full-backs for Andy Robertson and James Milner. The latter was struggling to play at full-back against the pacey wingers of the Premier League years ago, and he hasn’t exactly become more mobile since then. Milner was moved inside into midfield with the introduction of Joël Matip for Elliott, allowing Joe Gomez to take over at full-back, but the Yorkshireman wasn’t much better there – Bob Paisley’s maxim about letting a player lose his legs on someone else’s pitch clearly isn’t followed at the club anymore.
A draw wasn’t exactly an ideal result for either side, both in need of points to get back on track, but it wasn’t a disaster either – it was merely what their whimpering performances deserved.
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