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Already in poor form, and now with extra off-field drama to wrestle with, Liverpool headed to Milan to face last year’s finalists Internazionale in the Champions League.
Arne Slot made four changes to the side that drew with Leeds, as Joe Gomez, Andy Robertson, Alexis Mac Allister and Alexander Isak replaced Conor Bradley, Milos Kerkez, Cody Gakpo and Florian Wirtz. This saw Liverpool move to a 4-3-1-2 formation.
Christian Chivu made just one change to the team that thrashed Como, as Nicolo Barella came in for Piotr Zielinksi.
Defensively Liverpool’s new shape was a little iffy. The strikers would split wide onto the wide centre-backs, Mac Allister would pick up the deepest midfielder, and Dominik Szoboszlai and Curtis Jones would stick tight to the others, leaving Ryan Gravenberch to cover behind them at the base of the midfield.
The obvious issue was that this left the central centre-back free. The Liverpool players would attempt to surround him while blocking the passes into their men, however this did require them to leave who they were marking, meaning if Inter could find a passing angle they were free to receive the ball and advance.
This problem became much worse once Francesco Acerbi went off injured, as Manuel Akanji was more comfortable on the ball, and would just push forward with it himself.
Inter’s midfielders may have been closely marked, however this man-orientated approach meant there were gaps for Marcus Thuram, and Lautaro Martinez to drop off into, enabling them to link play and get the ball into attack.
Inter were able to create more space in midfield too. Both Barella, and Zielinski dropped back into the defensive line, pulling Mac Allister forward to follow them. This left a big gap for the defenders to carry the ball through, or for a midfielder to drop in.
This midfielder was able to get free of his marker thanks to Alessandro Bastoni pushing forward down the left. This concerned Szoboszlai enough that he didn’t want to follow his man and leave Bastoni free, so the midfielder would go free instead.
In possession, the new shape was working well for Liverpool though. Having Gravenberch, or Jones drop back into defence allowed them to play around Inter’s front two, while they also outnumbered Inter in midfield, four against three.
Both Gravenberch, and Jones did really good jobs of using the space this afforded them to their advantage, carrying the ball forward when they had the chance.
Inter did try to even this out by pushing up a centre-back to mark Mac Allister – at one point Akanji following him all the way to the Liverpool box – however this would leave a gap in the Inter defence for Liverpool to exploit.
Liverpool’s press improved a lot in the second half. Isak now picked up Akanji, the central centre-back, while Szoboszlai pushed up from midfield to deal with Bastoni. With all the defenders marked, Liverpool cut off the short options for Inter, making it harder for them to pass out.
This did leave more space in midfield if Inter chose to simply play over Liverpool’s press though.
Both sides were playing well, but neither of them were creating real scoring chances.
Inter were trying to break forward at Liverpool quickly, and this often saw their final balls rushed, ending up inaccurate.
Liverpool continued to pass through the midfield well, but they lacked width, which usually comes from the full-backs with a diamond midfield. Robertson was often holding back or tucking inside on the left, while Gomez did make attacking runs, but, as a natural centre-back, didn’t really look comfortable trying to get past defenders, and his crossing wasn’t great either.
On 68 minutes Slot made a double substitution, replacing Gomez and Isak with Bradley and Wirtz. Bradley was more comfortable in attack than Gomez, while Wirtz looked to unlock the Inter defence.
He ended up doing this not with a pass, but by getting fouled. It was soft, yet Bastoni holding his shirt did impede the German from getting the ball, so the referee pointed to the spot, and Szoboszlai converted the resulting penalty.
It was enough for Liverpool to claim the three points, clambering up into the automatic qualifying places for the next round after a difficult week.
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