Christmas Comes Early
Ange Postecoglou bears gifts for all.
About nine years ago, Wayne Rooney experienced a weird period of his career in which he started to believe his future as a midfielder. No player in history had scored more goals for Manchester United, but the England international had lost a yard of pace, and he knew it.
But on top of his physical decline, Rooney loved dropping deep before spraying the odd 40-yard pass across the field. Whenever he got bored from a lack of touches, he’d drift and showcase his passing range. It was becoming a signature of his back then, with Louis van Gaal encouraging him.
Once the Dutchman left his post, he was replaced by José Mourinho, and the hot topic quickly became whether the Portuguese would entertain the prospect of Rooney playing in midfield.
The answer was no. "You can tell me his passing is amazing,” said the former Chelsea boss. “But my passing is amazing too without pressure."
Premier League footballers — believe it or not — are good at football. They can do things you can’t even imagine. And that explains why football is just a big game of space in many ways.
Rooney’s trademark pass was a thing in 2016. Indeed, Paul Scholes developed a reputation towards the back end of his career for switching the play from side to side, as did Steven Gerrard. But for the most part, those guys were allowed to do those things. They had tons of space around them.
The Premier League is more compact nowadays, but the basic principle of space remains the same. You can be the best player in the world if you’ve got space to use. And you can make the best player in the world look very ordinary by denying the space available to him.
On Sunday afternoon, Tottenham Hotspur gave away space like Father Christmas gives away presents. It was nuts, and it’s worth noting that we’re due to face Spurs on another three occasions between now and the end of the campaign. Lovely.
Ange Postecoglou is known for being an attacking coach, but attacking with a brain would be cool, too. Despite fielding a back four consisting of a second-choice centre-back, a teenage full-back playing as a centre-back and a right-back playing as a left-back, Spurs decided to go for it.
The same high defensive line we’ve seen all season, the same commitment to getting bodies forward, the same unhinged high press and the same desire to build from the back with Fraser Forster in goal, who is basically a basketball player in disguise.
Throughout the bout — which unsurprisingly ended 6-3 to Liverpool — Spurs conceded all kinds of space, and more than enough room to do activities. At one point, Ryan Gravenberch suggested aerobics, but the Reds just decided to play football instead.
Below, you’ll find just a few examples — I had too many to choose from — of the scenarios that Liverpool benefited from. Take as much space as you need. None shall interfere. Do as you please.
Ange, are you insane? Liverpool proceeded to score six times, posting 4.6 xG — despite no penalties or red cards — from 24 shots. As easy as pie. Christmas at White Hart Lane.
It’s no surprise, then, that Dominik Szoboszlai had arguably his best game in a Liverpool shirt. A player is a product of his environment. A player is a product of the space he’s afforded, especially Szoboszlai.
The captain of Hungary is a marathon runner. A Red Bull graduate, he’s a box-to-box monster who thrives when his team are able to use transitions more effectively than settled possession.
Liverpool have been masters at acquiring players who are seriously dangerous when there’s too much space on the pitch. Even Darwin Núñez and Cody Gakpo, who Jürgen Klopp signed and kinda profiled wrong — you can read about that here — are great transition guys.
It feels like Klopp installed that culture given the nature of his game. He was all about the transition, so whenever Liverpool sign a player, the end-to-end stuff gets prioritised. Think about it, there’s only really Alexis Mac Allister from the current squad who can’t do it.
The value of space explains a lot of the Premier League table right now. Manchester City have deteriorated because for all of their dominance of the ball, they just can’t stop giving away clear-cut openings. Their midfield department is full of holes.
Once you break through Pep Guardiola’s high press, you’re as free as a bird, with City on course to concede over 50 goals based on their current pace this term.
And as for Arsenal, they’re pretty great at denying space, but not so special at attacking it, and they’re likely to be even worse now that Bukayo Saka is facing a spell on the sidelines.
Liverpool, on the other hand, have always been excellent going forward and they’ve finally plugged their gaps against the ball this season. Throughout Klopp’s final campaign at the helm, the Reds were good, but simply conceded too much on the defensive side, shipping an average of 10.9 shots and 1.2 non-penalty xG per match.
That’s generally not good enough to finish top. As a rough guideline, you want to allow less than ten shots and less than one expected goal per match. But Liverpool just couldn’t under Klopp because of his desire to accelerate the game every five seconds.
Arne Slot has tackled those flaws. It’s not often Liverpool’s back four is exposed nowadays. Slot is always stressing about the importance of running back and players getting themselves behind the ball. The Reds are more sensible in possession, resulting in fewer dangerous transitions being conceded.
Space is what every player wants for Christmas, and if you’re facing Spurs, that’s what you’ll get. Slot, luckily for us, isn’t quite as generous as Kris Kringle.
Liverpool are top of the table by four points with a game in hand, and if we’re being honest, they’re probably going to stay there. They’ll take some stopping in the Champions League, too.
‘Tis the season to be jolly.
The Tottenham game felt like the Ghost of Christmas Past in a lot of ways seeing just how much space they allowed and how often they allowed it. I remember my whole body seizing up whenever we lost possession in the past couple of seasons simply because it’d take 1-3 passes before the opposition was onto our back line. The Trent-Szobo-Mo-Szobo goal was the epitome of this. Liverpool have conceded more goals over the past few weeks, but not in the same manner in which we used to. Spurs gave us a trip down memory lane, and here’s to never going back!