Concluding Triumph
Liverpool three, Crystal Palace, one. For the first time this season Arne Slot wins a fight against the excellent Oliver Glasner. Culminating their 3 straight losses with a victory at last. In this concluding triumph it was Florian Wirtz’s 96th minute strike that sealed the deal. Further increasing the gap between those below them, whilst closing the distance to those above Liverpool climbed to 58 points, now level on points with Aston Villa, in fourth place. Though Manchester United continue to maintain their four-point lead, third place is a real possibility with the Northwest Derby on the horizon, the chance to close the gap is nearing, Arne Slot will be intent on ending the season strongly.
Moving onto the match itself, Liverpool struggled to break down the Crystal Palace block with the precision and repeatability that they would’ve hoped for. Evidenced in their xG total of 1.14, to Crystal Palace’s 2.26. Glasner’s men as usual amassed a plethora of attacking transitions that got them in behind Liverpool’s defensive line. Liverpool, having to resort to settled possession when attacking struggled to find the spaces behind the Crystal Palace defensive line. On the day, the visitors created more chances, had more shots and accumulated more corners than Liverpool. Put this context on a par with the outcome of the game, Oliver Glasner would be right to be scratching his head at the result.
The Eagles, lining up in their 3–4–3 formation, started their build-up situations using their three centre-backs and goalkeeper. Nudging their wingbacks onto the outskirts of the pitch, this provided Liverpool with a tension to resolve in the moments they wanted to press high. Mohammed Salah and Cody Gakpo focused themselves on the outside centre-back (Jaydee Canvot & Chris Richards) and largely left the Palace wingbacks on their own. Considering that Curtis Jones and Andrew Robertson had their hands full with Sarr and Johnson, it was important for Liverpool to time their pressing jumps to account this wide danger.
For example, in any case could Curtis Jones pass of Brennan Johnson to Ibrahima Konate and get himself as close as possible to Tyrick Mitchell to stop the wingback from carrying the ball forwards? Or could Alexander Isak harass Maxence Lacroix with enough vigour to stop the central centre-back from accessing his wingbacks with a diagonal pass?
Liverpool struggled at times to contain the visitors in this sense, which led to prolonged periods of possession and forays into the Liverpool third, due to the wingbacks being the regular free player, in the first half alone Palace attempted 12 crosses, 6 of them being successful. As the first half waned on, Liverpool were forced into a low block to limit any space their Palace wingback could run into, in the event they bypassed the high press. From these situations, though Palace had ball possession, their attacking threat was limited.
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Liverpool responded to this dilemma in various ways, the most noticeable being the vertical jumps from the impatient Florian Wirtz who could be seen chasing passes back to the goalkeeper to prevent Crystal Palace from consolidating possession.
Whilst this was a proactive measure, the issue bared its teeth when you looked at who was being left free to receive the ball, the silky Adam Wharton. Dominik Szoboszlai and Florian Wirtz were the two central bodies behind the Liverpool front 3, marking the midfield duo of Kamada and Wharton, Palace were able to take advantage of the space left behind by Wirtz and find Wharton on a few occasions by horizontally circulating the ball to either side to find their English talisman. All in all, Liverpool struggled to control the wide spaces the Palace build-up phase and ceded a portion of control to the visitors.
Liverpool’s deep build-up phase also offered them minimal respite in their quest for momentum control. All round; there was a lack of consistent central penetration and chance creation from the deep areas. Consistently forcing play into the wide areas playing ambitious long balls, the Crystal Palace front three should be proud of themselves. Sarr, Mateta and Sarr spread themselves adequately across the centre of the pitch, stopping any passes from the Liverpool defensive line from connecting with the midfield lines.
Liverpool best chances came from what they did in the wide areas, their wingers were especially important as it through this avenue that Liverpool could consistently get themselves into the Crystal Palace. Mohammed Salah until he came off was Liverpool’s most dangerous attacker. Constantly engaging his wingbacks with dribbling attempts and combination play with Dominik Szoboszlai and Florian Wirtz. A look at the first goal illustrates this story, the Egyptian winger bulldozes past his marker, attempts a cross that is headed out to MacAllister who shoots on goal, only for the fox in the box to make sure the arrow hits target. Completing defeating Dean Henderson by ensuring he hit the ball into the ground, the finish was befitting that of a number nine.
In conclusion, though this was the concluding triumph in the four-part series against Crystal Palace, Liverpool struggled in a similar manner to their previous 3 losses against the Eagles this season. What was different this time around was the change they got out of their opponents in the wide areas; Mohammed Salah was crucial in the lead-up the first goal for the way in which he stormed past Canvot. At Anfield, Liverpool have been known to sweep their opponents away in a matter of minutes and in some sense, we saw this come to fruition in the between the 35th and 40th minute as Liverpool suddenly generated the best periods of momentum in this interval. Resulting in two goals, the fate of the game was sealed.
Four games left. Next up, the Red Devils.
