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Sat just outside the automatic qualification places for the Champions League’s last sixteen, Liverpool headed to Marseille wanting a win.
Arne Slot made three changes to the side that drew with Burnley, with Joe Gomez, Alexis Mac Allister and Mohamed Salah replacing Ibrahima Konaté, Curtis Jones and Cody Gakpo. This saw Liverpool switch to a 4-2-2-2 formation.
Roberto De Zerbi made two changes to the team that beat Angers, as Benjamin Pavard and Geoffrey Kondogbia started ahead of Emerson Palmieri and Bilal Nadir.
Liverpool’s new shape worked really well for them. Defensively, the forwards would press the centre-backs, but curve their runs to block passes out to the full-backs, while the attacking midfielders would stick to the Marseille midfielders. This cut off the short passing options for Marseille and made it really hard for them to pass out.
Both the Liverpool full-backs and deeper midfielders were ready to step up and support behind them too.
Disrupting Marseille’s passing like this meant that even when they did manage to play around Liverpool, they seemed lost on what to do next.
For example, Marseille’s midfielders would drop back into defence to get on the ball, but generally didn’t then use this space to play out. There was one moment where Kondogbia dropped back, then strode forward with the ball and passed wide, but that was it.
On the right, Pavard would sometimes drop back to form a back three, and at other times he would make movements to open up a pass into Timothy Weah, even making runs forward to occupy Milos Kerkez, but Weah wouldn’t actually do anything with the ball once he got it.
Mason Greenwood dropped deep to get on the ball, yet he would then just punt it forward rather than trying to play out.
Marseille might work out a way of passing forward, only to see Liverpool’s defence and immediately stop, preferring to go back to square one. Unable to ping the ball around freely, they didn’t look comfortable.
Liverpool on the other hand were finding it easy to play out, as, with four men in the centre, they outnumbered Marseille. Ryan Gravenberch would often drop back to the right of the centre-backs, forming a back three to play around Marseille’s front two and get it into midfield.
A Marseille midfielder could easily be drawn out towards a Liverpool midfielder, opening up space behind them for another to receive the ball, and so Liverpool had no problems playing through them.
It was thanks to this that Liverpool took the lead. They passed the ball around in midfield, occupying Marseille, then slipped the ball through to Gravenberch between the lines. He was clattered by Leonardo Balerdi, and Dominik Szoboszlai fired the resulting free-kick under the jumping Marseille wall.
Liverpool’s defensive shape, often resembling the 4-2-4 they used last season, also meant they had plenty of players up the pitch for counter-attacks when they won the ball.
In the second half, Marseille did have more success playing out, getting Pavard away from Ekitiké so he could receive passes and progress the ball.
Liverpool were still able to outnumber Marseille and pass through the middle though, looking dangerous.
The Reds doubled their lead with twenty minutes to go. They struggled to work the ball through the middle so passed wide, where Jeremie Frimpong stood up Igor Paixão then burst past him – his low cross deflected into the net by Geronimo Rulli.
They then added a third in injury time. Outnumbering Marseille in midfield again, Gomez found Szoboszlai between the lines, and he flicked it on to Gravenberch, getting Liverpool running at Marseille’s backline. With Pavard drawn inside following Jones’ run, Gravenberch passed it out to Gakpo in space to finish.
The 4-2-2-2 appears to suit the players Liverpool have at their disposal on paper, and this match appeared to confirm it in practice, although given they have already had several false dawns this season, Liverpool will want a greater sample size before drawing any real conclusions.
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