BUOYANT
Keeping our eyes on the now, a positive spin has suddenly been put on our worldview. Liverpool have finally won a game of football and for me, the word to describe the current mood is buoyant. Their grip on Champions League qualification has tightened in what was nothing more than reassuring performance. Now, quickly glancing at the future, we will all be thinking about how things will proceed against European champions on Tuesday. But as the saying goes, all the real gold lies in the current moment. Looking closely at the tactical performance against Fulham, there was not so much different to point out but rather the change lies in the moments and momentum shift created by a certain individual. Namely a young Rio Ngumoha who took to the stage and flamboyantly displayed his virtues. Through these lenses, we see what ‘tactics’ brought the game home for Liverpool: wing-play. On both sides. As always, let’s go and have a proper look.
What set the tone of the game was Fulham’s high-press, or rather the fact that it wasn’t really a high-press. Often passive or lagging in reaction, Joshua King and Rodrigo Muniz were pulled and pushed apart to create space by Liverpool’s buildup unit. Mainly made up of Virgil Van Dijik, Ibrahima Konate, Curtis Jones & Dominik Szoboszlai — situationally joined by either Jeremie Frimpong or Andrew Robertson. It was these sets of players that were responsible for the earlier stages of Liverpool’s route to Fulham’s goal.
By repeatedly passing the ball among themselves, they were often able to isolate Fulham’s front two from the rest of the team before progressing the ball forwards into the space that had been vacated. Curtis Jones and Dominik Szoboszlai as midfield pairing are both extremely mobile in their vertical and horizontal movements, both made it a case to constantly offer differing angles to make themselves available to receive the ball from their comrades. A common mechanism was seeing Curtis Jones dropping into the backline, drawing the nearest Fulham player to him before passing it on to the team-mate who was to find himself in the vacated space.
Liverpool’s success in the final third came from the sides, not only on the left where the young Rio was situated but over on the right the Egyptian King was making things happen. After Liverpool were able to bypass Fulham with their build-up they looked to attack down Fulham’s right side using combinations, rotations and passes between the trio of Florian Wirtz, Jeremie Frimpng and Mohammed Salah. Between the 3 musketeers, Liverpool were able to overload Fulham’s lines with a numerical advantage or simply overwhelm them with superior dynamic cooperation. A passing combination, usually initiated by Wirtz would end up in either Salah or Frimpong running onto it, behind Fulham’s defensive line.
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On the other side it was simply a case of isolating their teenage maverick against Fulham’s right back, Timothy Castagne. From this moment, Rio took control and toyed with the right-back all throughout the first half. Taking him this way, then that way. Just like Jeremy Doku it’s without a doubt that Rio can be classed as a breaker, a player who can break a whole defensive structure by outplaying his opponent(s) through his utterly deceiving dribbles. Not only do they use the dribbles and carries to get past their opponents, but what most stood out about the seventeen-year-old’s performance was the fact that he sought to threaten his opponent with his pace, rather than using it all the time. Rio sold Timothy the dream, knowing full well he wasn’t giving it to him.
Fulham’s found themselves into the game, mostly due to a slight lowering of intensity by Liverpool in their high-pressures, compared to the first 20 minutes of the game, where Liverpool were able to catch Fulham at every opportunity when build play in their early phases, apply pressure onto whichever player was to receive the ball, forcing play to the left or right which often resulted Fulham kicking the ball long and losing out on the crucial first, second balls.
The two goals scored by Liverpool in the space of 4 minutes was most satisfying from a fans perspective, many a time Liverpool have dominated a period of the game, only to not dot their i’s and cross the t’s by failing to score in their period of domination, as stated by Arne Slot in his post-match conference, it was often a sudden change in momentum via a moment rather than anyone being outwitted was what won the game. It is most in the wins that we see despite all its depth, how fickle the game of football can be. It is likely we have watched many games of football in which tactics did not appear as a defining factor in the deciding of a game.
Fulham made their way towards Liverpool’s goal more so in the second half, with Alex Iwobi moving out into the left-winger position and he was often the catalyst for the away team’s best moments. As the half progressed, Fulham recognised this fact and began gravitating towards that side. It was the carefully threaded diagonal passes, underlap and overlap runs and pinning of any curious Liverpool defenders that led to the increased incursions down the right side. The movements of Ibrahima Konate were especially important to pin down, Muniz made sure to attend to this and allow room for Ryan Sessengon to make headway and whip in dangerous crosses and the like, one of which led to Fulham’s most dangerous chance for Emile Smith Rowe.
The story goes on; Liverpool will be looking to continue in this manner and more against the European champions on Tuesday. Not only will the players have to be at the peak of their powers but also luck, momentum will have to share their secrets with those on the Merseyside. Mohammed Salah’s last champions league for Liverpool? Hopefully not, see you soon.
