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Having finally got their first draw of the season against Sunderland in mid-week, Liverpool travelled to Yorkshire to face Leeds.
Arne Slot made four changes to the side that started against Sunderland, as Conor Bradley, Milos Kerkez, Curtis Jones and Hugo Ekitiké replaced Joe Gomez, Andy Robertson, Alexis Mac Allister and Alexander Isak.
Daniel Farke made two changes to the team that beat Chelsea, with Ilia Gruev and Noah Okafor coming in for Ao Tanaka and Lukas Nmecha.
Leeds would drop back into a 5-3-2 shape, yet their strikers were often quite keen to step out to Liverpool’s centre-backs. Liverpool easily played around this though, having either Jones, or Ryan Gravenberch drop back into defence to outnumber them.
They were attempting to do the same thing in midfield. Dominik Szoboszlai would tuck in off the right, and Kerkez off the left, so Liverpool had five men in midfield to Leeds’ three. One man would look to draw away a Leeds midfielder, opening up space for a teammate.
The idea was good, but the execution was often lacking. For example, Liverpool would work to open up space for a player, and then not play the pass into him.
They generally had more success overloading the wide areas instead, often pulling four men across to outnumber Leeds’ three. They would then exchange passes to work the ball in behind the Leeds defence.
This approach ensured Liverpool had full control over the first half, yet they were still struggling to create real chances.
Leeds handed Liverpool the lead minutes after the break though. A woeful pass by Joe Rodon was pounced upon by Ekitiké, putting him through on goal and finishing low.
He then added another two minutes after. Pascal Struijk stepped up into midfield to follow Szoboszlai, so Ibrahima Konaté played a pass into the gap he left for Ekitiké to run onto. Leeds recovered the ball as Ekitiké threw himself to the ground, but Liverpool put the Leeds defenders under immediate pressure when they rolled the ball out, seeing Bradley win it back and square it to Ekitiké to finish.
With 65 minutes gone, Farke would make a triple substitution, bringing on Wilfried Gnonto, Brenden Aaronson and Tanaka, seeing Leeds switch to a 4-3-3.
Leeds gave Liverpool a taste of their own medicine, overloading them down the flanks to pass around them into attack.
This took less than five minutes to bear fruit, as Leeds played down the left, seeing Gnonto go free. He was foolishly tripped in the box by Konaté, and Dominic Calvert-Lewin converted the resulting penalty.
They then did the same thing again minutes later, overloading the left flank, then slipping the ball into Anton Stach in the gap, who turned, drove inside and finished.
Liverpool would soon retake the lead however. Tanaka pushed forward to pressure Jones, leaving space in midfield for Gravenberch to receive the ball. Ahead of him, Mac Allister and Szoboszlai had doubled up on Gabriel Gudmundsson, so when Gravenberch slipped a pass towards Mac Allister, Gudmundsson went towards him, only for the Argentinian to dummy the ball. This saw it run through to Szoboszlai, who attacked the box and finished low.
Liverpool would throw away their lead again though. At a corner, the ball would go sailing all the way through to the back post, where Tanaka was free to finish.
It was more dropped points for the Reds, and Slot’s headache would only get worse with Mohamed Salah’s post-match interview.
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