Escape Routes
Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez are here.
Football is back. Not the football we truly care about, no. But enough for us to start thinking about the new campaign. We like pre-season on this Substack, and you should too.
Results don’t matter, but friendlies provide opportunities to experiment with fresh ideas. They offer a glimpse into what lies ahead, especially when new signings are being integrated.
Liverpool played their first pre-season bout of the summer on Sunday afternoon, beating Preston North End by three goals to one. The second half in particular caught my attention. The Age of the Flyer — which I wrote about in April — has arrived.
We saw Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez make their debuts over the weekend. The full-back duo were deployed together in the second half, with Conor Bradley and Kostas Tsimikas starting the contest.
I’ve been eager to see the pair on the pitch at the same time, because they offer similar profiles. Two attack-minded carriers. Lots of underlaps and overlaps. Players who pose a threat when allowed to play ahead of the ball.
One of the most interesting things about Frimpong and Kerkez is how much they conflict with the modern trend of using massive defenders shaped like vending machines at full-back.
Pep Guardiola is largely to blame, with Mikel Arteta also responsible for the shift. Ben White, John Stones, Jurrien Timber, Joško Gvardiol, Nathan Aké, Riccardo Calafiori. Utterly miserable. And then we started to see Ezri Konsa, Levi Colwill, Jake O’Brien, whatever. You’ve got blood on your hands, Pep.
Liverpool have gone in a different direction this summer. Frimpong and Kerkez are many things. But they definitely aren’t bullies. You wouldn’t ask either of them to open a jar or carry your shopping home for you.
The Reds have paved their own path for a reason, with the Premier League gradually becoming a weird Royal Rumble of one-on-one duels over the past 12 to 18 months.
It’s all about man-marking when pressing high nowadays. You get the better of your opposite number, you win. Paris Saint-Germain are probably the ultimate example right now. They’ll beat you as a team, and as a group of 11 individuals.
Now, when building from the back in such an environment, passing the ball to a centre-back who’s playing as a full-back isn’t ideal. I mean, someone like Gvardiol — who’s good — isn’t exactly going to beat his man on the dribble and escape, is he?
This is where Frimpong and Kerkez come in. Two solutions. Avenues. Escape routes. And we saw hints of that against Preston, with Frimpong in particular offering an insight into why Arne Slot wanted him.
The below happened just three minutes after the Dutchman was introduced. It didn’t work out, but you could see the intention. That burst of acceleration after releasing the ball will develop into a thing at Anfield.
We’ll see plenty of give-and-go passes as Liverpool attempt to escape their own half, because Frimpong is faster than virtually everyone he’ll come up against. That’s how to beat your man. Indeed, I clipped a similar play — shown below — when I wrote my piece on Frimpong in May.
His positioning was bold throughout the contest, too. I’ve been uncomfortable with the idea of using Frimpong like he’s Trent Alexander-Arnold. My view has been that something will need to be tweaked on Merseyside.
Well, it was minor, but when building from the back, we saw Frimpong advance pretty high. Much higher than Trent last term. And in one moment, we saw what could become a new weapon, with Freddie Woodman finding Frimpong on the move. Again, it didn’t quite come off, but that’s a nice means of escaping an opposition press.
On the negative side, we also saw one of the downsides attached to fielding a player as extreme as Frimpong. Preston hit long from their goalkeeper in the direction of the 5-foot-8 defender, and immediately created a chance to score.
You better believe teams will do exactly that in the Premier League. It’s an easy route into Liverpool’s defensive third. Slot will need to plan for it. Not good.
As expected, though, Liverpool are adding weapons ahead of the new campaign. Frimpong isn’t Trent, but he’ll contribute with his own unique ways of getting his teammates closer to goal. Don’t worry about that.
The Reds are trying to gain an edge over the chasing pack this summer. Slot knows how the tactical landscape looks in the Premier League at present — especially when it comes to build-up and pressing — and he’s using the market to solve it.
It’s early days, but clues are already emerging. We’re back.
Cheers Josh.
I feel there may be some similarities with Trent being exposed down the right (though not necessarily because of height/heading the ball). Konate’s probably asking for that pay rise knowing he’s in for more of the same i.e., depending half a pitch worth of space on his own every week.
I believe you mentioned in the pod a few weeks ago about Kerkez’s tendency to slide in like he’s playing fifa 17. I think we saw a lot of this in the game. Were the stats as bad as the eye test and how much does that worry you going into the season? You cant have you first choice LB missing a 10+ games to suspension.