Triangles, Tempo and Total Football

Arne Slot is taking his Liverpool players back to school.

So earlier this week, I wrote an early take on how Arne Slot seems to be using his full-backs in pre-season. That piece was pre-planned, having been inspired by some things I’d noticed while watching Liverpool’s behind-closed-doors friendly against Preston North End a few days earlier.

I’m looking forward to tracking how that one develops throughout the campaign, but Conor Bradley hasn’t been the story of the club’s pre-season tour so far. Kostas Tsimikas hasn’t, either.

The big thing that everybody has picked up on having watched the Reds against Real Betis and Arsenal is just how much Liverpool seem to be changing when it comes to their use of the ball. It isn’t quite a seismic shift, but it isn’t far off.

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Jürgen Klopp was never especially keen on possession. He grew to respect the ball over time, but our beloved messiah preferred a different brand of football. He was loyal to the devil on his shoulder.

His Liverpool side regularly progressed from A to B like the floor was lava, with the ball often travelling through the air thanks to Trent Alexander-Arnold and Virgil van Dijk. Klopp had no problem with the notion of bypassing his midfield department. It was about practicality. It was about substance.

The Reds played beautiful football at times, no doubt, but Klopp’s means of generating attacks was always known for being chaotic and wild in comparison to your typical champion. He favoured direction ahead of control, often forcing the issue. He was wedded to transitions, coaching his team to thrive whenever the ball was loose.

Supporting Liverpool throughout his tenure was a rollercoaster ride, but our new man looks certain to install new methods. Slot is very much in the process of taking his players back to school.

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Based on Liverpool’s two pre-season matches to date, the Reds are learning a whole new approach to generating chances and using possession. The ball is no longer a tool to be used. Under Slot, it is an instrument to be cared for.

He is adding structure to Liverpool’s build-up phase, which has so far consisted of a back four and two deep-lying midfielders, as shown below in my recent show with Redmen TV. The ball remains on the floor, with players combining to escape pressure by creating triangles between themselves.

I know it’s only pre-season, but in my opinion, most of what we’ve seen so far — including the shape of the team without and without the ball — is likely to persist when the Premier League starts. Excluding the whole double false nine palaver that emerged against Betis, ignore all that.

Patience has been stressed by the Dutchman. Take a look at the below clip from Liverpool’s live training session in Philadelphia. The exercise consists of Jarell Quansah and Sepp van den Berg making passes between them until a coach decides to press, at which point, they must accelerate the game.

From now on, when Liverpool have possession in their own defensive third, it’s going to be about enticing the opposition into pressing. Once they do, that’s when you go. That’s when you shoot your shot. It’ll feel slow, and then you’ll witness the tempo increase out of nowhere.

“It’s Total Football,” said Tyler Morton after Liverpool beat Arsenal by two goals to one during the week. “It’s every midfielder’s dream. You could see it today in the triangles that were played; he’s big on triangles and they were [working] today.”

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I wrote about overlaps and underlaps in my full-back piece. You can read that here, but Slot is adding the ol’ up-back-through to Liverpool’s catalogue of offensive moves, too.

In simple terms, the up-back-through consists of a pass forward, a pass backward, and a through ball. In that order. It’s nothing too elaborate, but when it works, not only is it very effective, it’s just wonderful to watch, too.

You’ll see two examples of Liverpool coaching this sort of thing below, taken from a recent Inside Training episode.