Whenever you make nine changes to a starting XI, it is always going to take some time for things to click into place. That’s what we saw against West Ham United in midweek — eventually, Liverpool won comfortably to book a fourth-round tie against Brighton.
As well as the sheer volume of alterations to Arne Slot’s line-up, several players including Wataru Endo and Joe Gomez were making their first starts of the season. Liverpool looked disjointed for a while but in the end, won at a canter.”We like to have the ball, we don’t like the other team to have the ball… but the Premier League is a league where many good clubs are and many clubs want to have the ball, so we have to fight really hard,” Slot explained to the Reds’ official website ahead of the opening day victory over Ipswich Town.”And if we have it, we want to score, we want to be intense in everything we do. If we have the ball, we want to score — that’s quite simple of course! We want to be intense in everything we do.”
So far, that has largely been achieved. There are two caveats — that Liverpool lost at home to Nottingham Forest, and that it is yet to face a major test like Manchester City or Arsenal — but there has been control and the blueprint is clear. That will be the plan against Wolves this Saturday too.
“Maybe the only slight difference there is, is that after we win the ball, I like to go forward just as Jurgen Klopp liked it, but I sometimes like it when players try to keep the ball and not play the difficult ball, where Jurgen or the former regime maybe liked the chaotic scenes in and around the 16 a lot as well,” Slot continued.”And if we have it, we want to score, we want to be intense in everything we do. If we have the ball, we want to score — that’s quite simple of course! We want to be intense in everything we do.”
So far, that has largely been achieved. There are two caveats — that Liverpool lost at home to Nottingham Forest, and that it is yet to face a major test like Manchester City or Arsenal — but there has been control and the blueprint is clear. That will be the plan against Wolves this Saturday too.
“Maybe the only slight difference there is, is that after we win the ball, I like to go forward just as Jurgen Klopp liked it, but I sometimes like it when players try to keep the ball and not play the difficult ball, where Jurgen or the former regime maybe liked the chaotic scenes in and around the 16 a lot as well,” Slot continued.He is a much more rounded player than he was a couple of years ago. And as he goes in search of a position in a midfield so far dominated by Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai so far under Slot, being able to play in any of the three roles can only be a positive thing.
