This Merseyside derby was important at both ends of the table: Liverpool needed a win to keep pace with Manchester City in the title race, while Everton needed a win to escape the relegation zone.
Jürgen Klopp made two changes to the side that embarrassed Manchester United in mid-week, swapping out Jordan Henderson and Luis Diaz for Naby Keïta and Diogo Jota. Liverpool set up in their usual 4-3-3 formation.
Frank Lampard made three changes to the team that drew Leicester City, with Yerry Mina, Ben Godfrey and Fabian Delph replaced by Mason Holgate, Michael Keane and Abdoulaye Doucouré. Everton matched Liverpool in a 4-3-3 shape.
Right from the off Everton’s strategy was to waste time and break up play whenever they had the chance. On the surface of it, this would appear to be a bad choice, as they desperately need points themselves, so they were wasting their own time to get a win too, however in practice it did actually make good sense: Liverpool are a far superior team to Everton and so trying to play a straight football match would have likely seen them beaten easily, but frustrate the Reds and stop them from building any rhythm, and they might have been able to get them to lash out, open up and maybe, just maybe, Everton could snatch something when Liverpool were distracted. The odds of it succeeding weren’t great, but they were probably still better than trying to take the game to Liverpool. These tactics are of course against the rules, but the rules only matter if the officials enforce them, which they don’t.
In terms of actual footballing strategy, Everton simply sat back very deep in a 4-5-1 to defend, then would try to counter when they regained the ball.
Everton set out to frustrate Liverpool, but the home side weren’t helping themselves either. Early on, they kept their full-backs deep while also pulling back Thiago Alcântara and Keïta, meaning they had a huge crowd of players just to get past Richarlison. Everton were trying to block up the midfield, but Liverpool were making it easy for them by leaving no one in position to actually do the job of connecting the defence and attack.
Liverpool attempted to go more direct, switching the ball out to Mohamed Salah wide on the right, yet Vitalii Mykolenko and Anthony Gordon would double up on the Egyptian, making it difficult for him to bring it inside into more dangerous areas.
Mid-way through the half Liverpool started to wake up though, pushing Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold forward to stretch play, while Salah and Jota tucked inside into the centre. This still wasn’t ideal for Liverpool, as Everton had Demarai Gray and Gordon follow the full-backs all the way back into defence, forming a back six, however it was at least progress: Everton were crowding the box to deny Liverpool space, but the Reds were now getting into the final third and the Everton wingers getting forced back opened up space elsewhere.
Everton made it through to half-time without conceding, but it was more of the same in the second half, albeit with a much calmer Liverpool. Committing men to attack, Liverpool had Everton’s defenders and midfielders pinned back on the edge of their box, leaving Richarlison isolated. Whereas Liverpool had started the game pulling too many players back, now the only outfielder hanging back was Virgil van Dijk, with Fabinho and Joël Matip pushing forward into the open space Everton left ahead of them. Liverpool continued to probe and probe, moving the ball patiently from side to side to find an opening, with Thiago and Alexander-Arnold hanging around outside the box to supply the passes.
Liverpool finally took the lead after an hour. Matip pushed forward and spread the ball wide to Salah, who squeezed the ball through to substitute Divock Origi then ran to receive the return ball, crossing it with his right foot to the back post for Robertson to head home. Everton didn’t do much wrong for the goal specifically – Séamus Coleman perhaps gave Robertson too much space – but they had allowed Liverpool to camp out in the final third for the majority of the match. They had denied them space by crowding this area, but any mistake so close to goal would have disastrous consequences, and a player of the quality of Salah was still able to make use of the small amount of space Everton afforded him.
In response to the goal Everton briefly began to defend higher. This isn’t to say they suddenly started pressing Liverpool – they still stuck to their own half of the pitch – but they now attempted to defend their entire half rather than just the final third.
This wasn’t enough though. Liverpool were now more than happy to give Everton a taste of their own medicine, wasting time passing the ball around their defenders. Everton needed to go chasing after them if they were going to win back the ball and get back into the game, but they offered nothing – more likely to retreat back into defending their box than attempt to go toe-to-toe with Liverpool.
Liverpool doubled their lead with their tenth corner of the second half. The initial ball missed everyone and fell to substitute Henderson on the edge of the area, who chipped the ball back towards the back post, where five Liverpool players were crowded. Diaz attempted a scorpion kick and Origi was on hand to get it across the line, scoring his sixth goal against Everton.
Managing a pitiful 18% of possession in the derby against their biggest rivals, Everton went out with a whimper rather than a bang. Even with a game in hand, a more difficult run-in than Burnley’s and their current form makes it quite likely that there won’t be a Merseyside derby next season.
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