With Liverpool without a win in 2023 and Everton in the midst of a relegation battle, neither of the Merseyside clubs are having the best of seasons.
Jürgen Klopp made two changes to the side that lost to Wolverhampton Wanderers, with Jordan Henderson and Fabinho returning in midfield for Thiago Alcântara and Naby Keïta. Liverpool set up in their usual 4-3-3 formation.
New manager Sean Dyche made one change to the team that beat Arsenal, as Ellis Simms replaced the injured Dominic Calvert-Lewin. Everton lined up in a 4-5-1 shape.
The path to beating Liverpool has been set out many times this season and yet Everton came with a somewhat dated strategy. With age and years of intense running catching up with them, Liverpool’s midfield has fallen off a cliff this season, easily dominated by even some of the worst teams in the league, yet Everton made it easy for Liverpool to get around this.
With Simms the lone frontman, Everton were unable to effectively pressure Liverpool’s backline as the striker was left outnumbered. Amadou Onana or Abdoulaye Doucouré would often push forward to support him, but they were having to cover a large distance coming from the midfield, so would rarely get close enough to make the Liverpool backline panic. As a result Joël Matip was easily able to push forward and progress the ball.
With Cody Gakpo dropping off the frontline and Henderson pushing forward between the lines, while Stefan Bajcetic dropped back next to Fabinho, Liverpool also set up in a kind of 4-2-2-2 in possession, giving them a solid base to the midfield and two men between the lines. If Onana and Doucouré sat back, then the deeper Liverpool midfielders were left free, yet if they pushed forward, Idressa Gueye was left with two men to deal with by himself.
Liverpool weren’t playing particularly well, frequently misplacing passes in attack, but they did have control of the match and possession of the ball, which most other teams have denied them recently.
Everton weren’t helping themselves in attack either, as they mainly just lumped the ball forward. Gakpo would drop back to block the pass into Gueye, but even when the Senegalese was able to escape him and get on the ball, he had no passing options with Onana and Doucouré pushing up the pitch, meaning Everton were left with few other options but to go long. Liverpool’s midfield have demonstrated they can easily be pulled apart this season, which opens up gaps elsewhere as players are forced to cover, yet Everton avoided the midfield battle in favour of hoofing the ball forward to a lone frontman, enabling Liverpool to simply recover the ball and start their own attacks again.
Liverpool took the lead on the counter. Everton hit the post from a corner, yet Liverpool got the ball away and sprung forward, getting four men running at two defenders. With three men to aim for, Darwin Nuñez crossed the ball into the middle, where Jordan Pickford rushed out to confront Gakpo, only for Mohamed Salah to get to it first and finish into the empty net.
Shortly into the second half, Liverpool doubled their lead with another breakaway. They won the ball back from Alex Iwobi following a throw-in, and a one-two saw Andy Robertson burst through the middle, three-on-three with the Everton defenders. Robertson spread the ball out to Salah, who knocked it on for the overlapping Trent Alexander-Arnold. With Conor Coady moving back into the middle and Séamus Coleman, initially pulled inside following Robertson but then staying there to track Nuñez, failing to return to his nominal position on the right, Gakpo was left free at the back post, so Alexander-Arnold picked him out with a low first-time cross for the Dutchman’s first Liverpool goal.
Everton began to show more patience, trying to play out from the back rather than going long, but the momentum was firmly on Liverpool’s side. Everton kept giving the ball away, allowing Liverpool to spring forward again. It looked likelier that Liverpool would add to their lead than Everton would pull one back.
Gakpo adding an extra body to the midfield helped to give Liverpool some extra control and the quicker pace of play has been sorely missed in recent times, but in truth it’s difficult to judge how effective these changes were because Everton’s set-up was so bad. The three points will give Liverpool some much-needed confidence whereas Everton’s will take another knock, and rightly so.
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