Liverpool – Chelsea: Liverpool Win In Restrained Fashion (2-1)

Chelsea had a slight majority of possession and played much of the game in Liverpool’s half, finding space in the wide areas. However, they were unable to take advantage of this in the final third, and were punished by goals from Mohamed Salah and Curtis Jones which secured Liverpool’s win.

Tactical analysis and match report by Josh Manley.

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Liverpool were top of the table going into this match, having secured relatively comfortable victories in most of their games so far this season. Their opponents, Chelsea, have shown signs of improvement under the leadership of Enzo Maresca as he looks to put his positional play ideas into action with Chelsea’s array of recent signings.

Arne Slot’s side lined up in a 4-2-3-1 shape here, with a back four of Trent Alexander-Arnold, Ibrahima Konaté, Virgil van Dijk, and Andrew Robertson. Curtis Jones joined Ryan Gravenberch in the double-pivot, while Dominik Szoboszlai played as the number ten. Mohamed Salah, Diogo Jota, and Cody Gakpo then completed the forward line.

Chelsea also started in a nominal 4-2-3-1 formation, with captain Reece James returning from injury at right back, accompanied in the defensive line by Tosin Adarabioyo, Levi Colwill, and Malo Gusto. Moisés Caicedo and Roméo Lavia were in central midfield, while Noni Madueke and Jadon Sancho played wide. Cole Palmer then supported striker Nicolas Jackson.

Chelsea’s proactive approach

Marsesca is a coach who asks his team to be proactive and try to dominate games, and this attitude was seen at Anfield, as they pressed Liverpool high up the pitch and ended up having a slight majority of the possession over the course of the game.

When Liverpool did have the ball, Robertson was often playing in a slightly more cautious manner compared to Alexander-Arnold on the other side, which has been a trend in Liverpool’s games this season.

With Robertson playing in this manner, Jones had the freedom to make runs forward to join Liverpool’s attacks, which would end up being decisive later in the game. Gakpo was mostly responsible for the width on the left, as was Salah in his high and wide position on the right.

Chelsea were keen to press high against Liverpool’s buildup. 

Salah was one of Liverpool’s main outlets in this match, as they liked to seek him with longer passes and switches of play. In midfield, Szoboszlai tended to play towards the right halfspace and Jones towards the left halfspace, with Gravenberch generally the deepest midfielder.

Chelsea’s high press saw them marking Liverpool’s midfielders man-to-man in certain situations. When the options close to the ball were closed off, Liverpool were happy to play more directly towards the fowards, as Chelsea’s backline did not always look the most assured in their encounters with Liverpool’s forwards, especially when Salah was involved.

Space on the wings

Liverpool’s pressing approach was less aggressive. They generally defended in a mid-block in a 4-4-2 shape, which sometimes appeared as a 4-2-4 or similar formation because the wingers often tried to stay higher than the central midfielders, at least in the first half.

This attempt not to be forced into a passive stance caused some issues for Liverpool in the wide areas though. Madueke and Sancho were the ones holding the width for Chelsea, and in the first half they found it relatively easy to get into one-versus-one situations with Liverpool’s fullbacks in the Liverpool’s own third of the pitch due to the Liverpool’s high wingers and the narrow starting positions of their fullbacks.

Unfortunately for Chelsea, they were quite wasteful in these situations. Madueke had a couple of decent moments, but Sancho on the left side was nowhere near productive enough with the space afforded to him on the ball.

Part of the problem on Chelsea’s left was also caused by the unnatural role of Gusto, who was playing as the left sided number ten when Chelsea had the ball, inverting from his starting left-back position. Gusto was unable contribute much in terms of attacking threat from here, given that it was quite unnatural for him to operate in these areas of the pitch.

Chelsea’s 3-2-4-1 shape in possession helped them reach the final third, but they were wasteful from there. 

Palmer usually played in the right halfspace as a number ten, while James would generally join the center-backs to make a back three when Chelsea had the ball. This left Caicedo and Lavia as the central midfielders in a 3-2-4-1 shape.

With the positioning of Palmer and Gusto in the halfspaces, there was sometimes space for Caicedo to drive forward into the space between Gravenberch and Jones, who were at times pulled slightly wider by the Chelsea number tens, leaving space centrally.

In the end though, despite the promising signs in Chelsea’s buildup, they were mostly unable to convert this into clear chances due to a lack of cutting edge on the day.

Liverpool win pragmatically

One exception to Chelsea’s wastefulness was their goal just after half-time, which was very well-constructed with Jackson timing his run perfectly to stay onside before slotting the ball past Caoimhín Kelleher.

This put Chelsea on level terms after Liverpool had gone ahead through a first half penalty, but the equal game state did not last long. Just moments later, Chelsea’s attempt to play an offside trap on the edge of their penalty box went wrong, and Jones was able to break forward from midfield to meet Salah’s cross, putting Liverpool ahead again.

The second half saw Liverpool taking a pragmatic approach to try and protect their lead, as they began to defend deeper as the game went on. The wingers were playing more in line with the midfield, which reduced the space for Chelsea in wide areas and made it easier to double up on Chelsea’s wingers.

Chelsea had made a change out wide at half-time, as Sancho was replaced by Pedro Neto, who was more direct in his dribbling style against Liverpool’s defense. Further changes followed after Liverpool’s second goal, as Enzo Fernández, Renato Veiga, and Benoît Badiashile replaced Lavia, James, and Adarabioyo. This meant Gusto moved to right back while Veiga played left back, while Colwill switched to right center-back to allow Badiashile to play on the left side.

Despite Chelsea’s attempts to break down Liverpool’s defensive block though, they were unable to find the equalizer they needed, and Liverpool took all three points.

Takeaways

Liverpool did not always look solid in this game, as they allowed Chelsea some time and space on the wings, and perhaps should have been punished for this. They played in a slightly reserved manner for much of the game, and relied a lot on the threat of Salah on the right.

Chelsea once again showed some promise, able go to Anfield and take the initiative for much of the game. However, they were unable to take advantage of the situations they had, and their defense did not always look authoritative.

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