Champions League performance insights: How Liverpool coach Arne Slot's tweaks sunk Real Madrid
Monday, December 2, 2024
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UEFA's performance analysis unit examine how the Liverpool manager's positional changes made the difference against Real Madrid.
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Liverpool's midfielders earned much-deserved plaudits after their 2-0 Champions League win over Real Madrid on Matchday 5, and praise is also due for head coach Arne Slot for a half-time tactical tweak which helped the Reds tighten their grip on the game.
This is the view of UEFA's performance analysis unit, which put under the microscope the work of midfield trio Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister and Curtis Jones – and identified the importance of a positional adjustment made by Slot during the break last Wednesday.
As this first graphic shows, Jones was the Liverpool midfielder with the most line-breaking passes against the reigning champions (19) and, as this analysis will explore, it seems fair to suggest he was a beneficiary of Slot's switch from a 1+2 in midfield – with Gravenberch as the one holding midfielder – to a 2+1 with the homegrown youngster playing in front of both Gravenberch and Mac Allister.
To wind back to the first half and Liverpool's set-up before the break, this first video shows how they built with a 1+2 in midfield with Gravenberch sitting deeper than the pair of Jones and Mac Allister. As the clips demonstrate, within this structure they sought to connect with their 8s between the lines.
While Liverpool had the better of the opening period at Anfield, Madrid had the knowhow to respond to the questions being asked of them. They sought to block the passing lanes around Gravenberch – with the screening of false nine Brahim Díaz – and to control the midfield area zonally through Luka Modrić and Eduardo Camavinga. "We defended well in the first half," said Carlo Ancelotti, while Modrić added: "We were compact [and] kept our lines close."
According to Slot, he had told his players at half-time: "You can play with more intensity and you can play better with the ball." Yet that message was accompanied by the above-mentioned positional change to a 2+1 midfield structure for the second period. The aim was to invite the Madrid midfielders on to the pair of Gravenberch and Mac Allister and thereby open up more space for Jones and the forwards ahead of him – and the third video above illustrates the impact of Slot's intervention.
As a result of this change, Liverpool were able to get their attacking players into space more often. The graphic above shows the number of ball receptions between the lines by the home team in the first half – 22 in all.
In the second half, the number of receptions rose to 31. Slot said afterwards that he had asked his players to "let the gaps open up instead of forcing them" yet this was not just about his players being more patient, but about his tactical switch too.
To highlight the benefit of the change for Jones in particular, he received 15% of his passes when in a space of ten metres or more – reflecting the greater freedom he had in the second half.
While Gravenberch was the Reds midfielder with the least space in which to work, his influence was in no way diminished by that, and this final video offers examples of the young Dutchman's composure and passing ability.
Although Slot laughed off comparisons with Toni Kroos in his post-match press conference, joking that Gravenberch was "Dutch and not German", he did sing his praises, saying: "It's always useful to have players that are so comfortable and dominant on the ball and he brings, together with our last line, the ball towards the players that can hurt any opponent. That's what makes him special together with his running capacity; he just keeps on running."
TALKING POINT: In-game changes
The tactical contest at Anfield last Wednesday – and that pivotal tweak made by Liverpool's coaching team – led to a broader discussion among UEFA's technical observer group about in-game changes in elite football today.
According to Gareth Southgate: "The relatively recent change in the rules to allow five changes – and a sixth in extra time – has meant there's greater scope than ever to effect change on a game, whether that's a tactical adjustment, a different profile of player, or the chance to refresh the energy of the team."
For Roberto Martínez, the possibility to change half of your side over the course of a match means that we are seeing coaches increasingly less fixed on a rigid system. "Teams have become flexible and multi-directional in the way they're playing just because the number of substitutions changes everything," explained the Portugal national team coach.
In the view of Martínez, the coach today "can give a good structure to the team and from there be very open-minded on the different tactical approaches. It is more that the modern coach works on concepts, on the way of playing, and then you can use it in different tactical structures and be more flexible in relation to the players you can have in your starting XI."
Rui Faria said that "the capacity to quickly read the match and understand what is happening and why it's happening… is a fundamental ability" and he believes that a coach can prepare, to some degree, by studying the opposition and "their qualities, how they've been performing against other teams and what kind of solutions they've been using. You try to anticipate different scenarios, by putting yourself in their shoes and imagining what kind of problems they can create to your team."
Finally, to return to Southgate, he recalled England's EURO 2024 semi-final against the Netherlands as an example of the flow of changes – from both sides – which can take place, and which ask testing questions of coaches.
"The Dutch changed their regular build-up structures with the [view] we would start with a back five defensively," Southgate explained. "Then they altered their plan when making an enforced sub during the first half, and then again at half-time. We were able to react to these changes, mainly through the individual intelligence and adaptability of Bukayo Saka, who we were able to ask to defend as a wing-back, or tuck inside as a midfield player, or as a narrow winger. It also altered the press from our advanced midfield players.
"Our attacking structure was causing problems, certainly for the opening half, so at half-time we decided to risk Luke Shaw who was returning from injury, to give us better balance down the left and later in the game a change of profile in Ollie Watkins as centre-forward plus Cole Palmer to offer a different attacking threat. Of course, when you then score the winner through one sub creating for another it's the dream scenario."
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