A trait that Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai share is their adaptability.
Their ability to perform different roles is one of the reasons they were signed last summer and it is a luxury that new head coach Arne Slot has used effectively to lead Liverpool to victories in their opening three Premier League fixtures.
The trio have started the campaign well as a unit, with Gravenberch and Szoboszlai earning plenty of praise, but their flexibility is allowing them to dominate and dictate matches.
“The game plan was more: when we had the ball where, normally in the last two games, Dominik Szoboszlai played more from the right, today we played him from the left,” Slot told Sky Sports after the 3-0 victory over Manchester United.
On the surface that appears a small change, but it formed a vital part of Liverpool’s win at Old Trafford.
Slot noted Erik ten Hag’s tactical tweak of pressing in a 4-4-2 and playing through them meant they had to work harder.
The plan and its potential effectiveness were outlined in Liverpool’s first passage of play. Below, Gravenberch and Mac Allister are acting as a double pivot, pulling Manchester United across and attracting the attention of Kobbie Mainoo and Casemiro. Meanwhile, Szoboszlai is just coming into shot at the bottom of the first image.
The ball was moved across the pitch to Szoboszlai, who played it inside to Mac Allister. United’s players followed the ball, but Liverpool used their extra midfielder to their advantage and exploited the spaces created from their build-up — on this occasion, an overload on the opposite flank with Trent Alexander-Arnold and Mohamed Salah.
On the left, Szoboszlai repeatedly positioned himself behind the less-mobile Casemiro and aggressive presser Alejandro Garnacho in the inside left channel, providing the outlet. That meant he created overloads and two-vs-one situations with Luis Diaz against right-back Noussair Mazraoui.
In this example, he was in acres of space behind Manchester United’s midfield to exchange passes with Diogo Jota.
Minutes later, Casemiro was baited into pressing Mac Allister. The Argentina international slipped a pass through to Szoboszlai, who turned and drove forward, eventually passing to Diaz on the edge of the box.
The comparison of Szoboszlai’s touch maps from the opening two games and Old Trafford is stark.
Casemiro’s substitution at half-time saw Szoboszlai vary his position more in the second half, suggesting it was a specific plan to exploit the space behind the Brazilian courtesy of the Hungarian’s powerful running.
Mainoo switched into the position Casemiro had been occupying and Toby Collyer was introduced alongside him. Szoboszlai therefore became more prominent on the right, but it was again in the left half-space where he picked up possession after Mac Allister dispossessed Mainoo to set up Liverpool’s third goal.
Szoboszlai’s presence on the left also opened up more space for Gravenberch. He appeared to have more license than in previous games and helped create the wide passing triangle on Liverpool’s right — as Szoboszlai was doing on the left — to stretch Manchester United and give their midfield pair too much ground to cover.
His own touch map illustrates it.
With Szoboszlai drawing attention on the opposite side of the pitch, there was more room into which to drive. The best example of the benefits that brought was in the build-up to Liverpool’s offside goal.
With Manchester United’s midfield pair pressing high, Gravenberch’s touch and turn took him away from Mainoo and into space. In the opening two games, Szoboszlai would have been positioned on the right side of the pitch, reducing the space. On this occasion, Gravenberch could advance to the edge of the opposition box before he laid the ball to Diaz.
“You need midfielders that can run and we had three of them today that kept on running, and if you arrive in a duel, they are aggressive enough to win it,” said Slot. “That was one of the main things why we could win today.”
Manchester United’s tend to push their full-backs high in the build-up. Splitting Szoboszlai and Gravenberch — the more natural athletes and ball carriers of the midfield three — into half-spaces on either side of the pitch, rather than having them in the same area, allowed them to pounce on turnovers, often when the opposition full-backs were ahead of the ball.
It was prominent in the first goal as Gravenberch intercepted Casemiro’s pass. Again, the inside-right channel was free for him to drive into, while Szoboszlai drifted left. Liverpool worked it well, with Szoboszlai and Diaz queuing up at the back post to score.
Gravenberch’s freedom was facilitated by Mac Allister’s own tweaked role. In the double pivot with his team-mate, it was the 25-year-old who seemed to adopt the No 6 role more frequently.
His touch locations show a noticeable increase in central roles, with his map looking more like Gravenberch’s against Brentford and Ipswich Town. It was vice versa with Gravenberch against Manchester United.
While Slot was keen to reject the idea that his team’s formation is 4-2-3-1 during his first press conference, his fluid midfield trio is made up of a deeper double pivot and a No 10.
However, the setup for Liverpool’s midfield three has been different in each of their three Premier League matches, as illustrated by the passing networks.
At Old Trafford, the double pivot of Mac Allister and Gravenberch with Szoboszlai on the left is clear. Against Ipswich, Szoboszlai and Gravenberch formed the double pivot while Mac Allister was much higher on the left.
Against Brentford, Szoboszlai was in a role more in line with the system and shape Liverpool had been working on in pre-season, with the No 10 drifting towards the right-hand side. Mac Allister was much deeper alongside Gravenberch, with the latter the central axis.
Mac Allister, Andy Robertson and Gravenberch celebrate Sunday’s victory (Michael Regan/Getty Images)
Klopp’s more rigid 4-3-3 rarely altered, with the No 6 and two No 8s having defined roles as the constants, even if they could be slightly tweaked based on the opposition.
There was less rotation, which is unsurprising from a single pivot compared to a double pivot. The No 6 held his position and the two No 8s predominantly stayed in their own areas.
Slot continues to point out that his team and style are not too dissimilar from that of his predecessor, but the organisation, distances and seamless rotations between the three midfielders are notable changes.
They allow the head coach to be one step ahead of the opposition. There is an unpredictability of who and how they are going to operate.
(Top photo: Nick Potts/PA Images via Getty Images)
