This video can be seen with full footage here.
After back-to-back losses, Liverpool travelled down to London hoping to return to the top of the table in time for the international break, facing Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
Arne Slot made five changes to the side that lost to Galatasaray in mid-week, with Giorgi Mamardashvili, Conor Bradley, Alexis Mac Allister, Mohamed Salah and Alexander Isak replacing Alisson Becker, Florian Wirtz, Curtis Jones, Jeremie Frimpong and Hugo Ekitiké.
Enzo Maresca made three changes to the team that beat Benfica on José Mourinho’s return, as Josh Acheampong, Reece James and João Pedro came in for Trevor Chalobah, Facundo Buonanotte and Tyrique George.
Liverpool’s defensive set-up wasn’t very effective. Isak would pick up Acheampong, Dominik Szoboszlai was on Moisés Caicedo, and Salah was in a position between Marc Cucurella and Benoît Badiashile. This would sometimes see Szoboszlai step up to press Badiashile, but for the most part it was left to Salah, while curving his run to block the pass out to Cucurella.
The first problem for Liverpool was that Enzo Fernandez kept dropping back next to Caicedo, doubling up on Szoboszlai to see one of them go free. Ryan Gravenberch did push forward at times to follow Fernandez, but this would leave space behind him for a Chelsea attacker to take advantage of.
This made it easy for Chelsea to play around Salah. He would block the pass out to Cucurella for Badiashile, but Chelsea could simply play the ball into a midfielder, and they could pass it into him instead. Chelsea didn’t have to do this though – several times Badiashile simply scooped the ball over Salah’s head to get it to Cucurella. As a result, the Spaniard was going free constantly in the early stages of the match.
Although not including Cucurella, elements of this could be seen in Chelsea’s opening goal. With Salah concerning himself with Cucurella, Szoboszlai stepped up to pressure Badiashile while blocking the pass into Caicedo. Gravenberch followed Fernandez so the Argentinian couldn’t easily receive the ball, however Malo Gusto also dropped back. Badiashile passed to him instead, and Gusto bounced the ball into Caicedo, playing around Szoboszlai just as they had Salah. With Gravenberch pulled forward, Mac Allister was left outnumbered in midfield, and Caceido pushed forward into space, before firing a shot into the top corner from range.
Interestingly, Chelsea were doing basically the same thing at the other end. Pedro would pick up Virgil van Dijk and while Pedro Neto would track Milos Kerkez, Alejandro Garnacho would pick up Ibrahima Konaté. Cucurella would push up a little to keep an eye on Bradley, but not wanting to stray too far from his backline, he wouldn’t get tight to him, leaving him in space on the right.
Liverpool barely made use of this though. Mamardashvili looked uncomfortable in possession, not helped by his teammates constantly passing to his weaker right foot, and so he kept kicking the ball long. Cucurella getting drawn out of defence left Chelsea without cover at the back, three-on-three with Liverpool’s attackers, but they had little trouble dealing with these long balls.
In order to get Liverpool passing out, Gravenberch soon began to drop back into defence more frequently. This would allow the centre-backs to spread out and get more space, and it would also draw a midfielder, typically Fernandez, forward to follow him, creating space in midfield.
Isak kept dropping off to receive the ball, although Acheampong was sticking tight to him, not allowing him space to turn. This obviously left a gap in the Chelsea defensive line, however Liverpool struggled to exploit it. There was a moment early on where Isak drifted wide and Mac Allister made a run from deep to attack the gap, but other than that it was Kerkez who provided the biggest threat, making runs in behind the Chelsea defence.
Liverpool also adjusted their press, as it was now left to Szoboszlai to press Badiashile, with the midfielders stepping up to cover behind him. This meant Cucurella wasn’t left in acres of space down the left anymore, but it did mean there was space behind the midfielders for Chelsea to exploit.
Slot made attacking changes, first bringing on Wirtz for Bradley, with Szoboszlai moving to right back, then Jones for Konaté, with Gravenberch moving to centre-back, and a straight swap of Andy Robertson for Kerkez.
These changes did little to really help Liverpool though. They were sloppy in possession just as they had been in the first half, giving the ball away cheaply, and their passing was slow. Both teams were looking lethargic even from early on in the second half too, slow to retreat.
Liverpool did get an equaliser though. Gravenberch had the ball in defence with Garnacho closing him down, curving his run to block the pass out to Szoboszlai. All the midfielders were closely marked, however Isak dropped off into space, so Gravenberch played the ball into him, and he passed back to Szoboszlai, playing around Garnacho’s pressure. This left the Hungarian free, so he pushed forward on the ball, before offloading it to Salah. The Egyptian cut inside, pushing Cucurella back, creating space for the overlapping Szoboszlai to cross, and Isak’s neat touch was enough to set up Cody Gakpo to finish.
For the most part, Chelsea appeared to be targetting Szoboszlai at right-back in the second half. They would cross towards the back post, they would knock passes to runners in behind him, and they would push players forward to double up on him.
It was down this side that Chelsea got their stoppage time winner, although in this instance it had little to do with Szoboszlai.
With Liverpool getting players back to give the Hungarian cover, Chelsea’s attack appeared to have broken down, only for Fernandez to slip a pass through to Cucurella.
Wataru Endo and Gravenberch were both caught ball-watching, so Cucurella had the space to cross to Estêvão at the back post, who himself benefited from Robertson’s slow reactions to finish. Liverpool got plenty of players back in defence for once, yet they were still undone by shoddy defending.
This was a real stinker of a game, with what little tactical interest there was undermined by poor execution. Neither side impressed, but the more deserving did go away with the three points.
No responses yet