Liverpool welcomed Nottingham Forest to Anfield for their first match at home of the 26-27 campaign. Coming off of a draw against Newcastle, the hope would be that the Reds might find their way to a win, though caution given their current record against Forest has been a bit difficult, I think most would have been happy with not losing. Those folks got their wish and, to boot, were treated to an Alexander Isak goal, Florian Wirtz assist, and the first goal of Victor Muñoz’s Liverpool career. Unfortunately,
both goals were equalizers as Liverpool drew 2-2 to Forest. No win but no loss. Let’s take a closer look at what happened.
Winners and Losers
Winners
Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz
While allowing that neither looked close to their respective ceilings, the big duo turned in among the best performances they’ve shown in Red as they notched 2 goal contributions between them – a goal for Isak and an assist for the equalizer from Wirtz.
Let’s start with the striker. Isak’s goal was set-up wonderfully by Cody Gakpo, who’d been playing off of the right for most of the match, beating his man to the by-line and feeding Isak – importantly, to his feet – for an elementary tap-in. It’s the kind of service that Isak had mostly been starved for, with the reminder that the Swede seems to prefer the ball at his feet despite the height advantage he carries. I wouldn’t say that he doesn’t like to attack the ball in the air, but it was clear anecdotally that he’d been asking his teammates to keep it on the carpet. In fact, when Jeremie Frimpong was released via gorgeous throughball in the first half (supplied, I think, by Florian Wirtz), The Dutchman skied a cross that, afterwards, led to Isak expressing a desire for ball to feet.
I get it – when he has the ball on the carpet, Isak is so gifted and technical that it works out. There was a moment, in fact, when Isak received the ball on the left-wing and carried it into the box, looking so exceedingly graceful and assured, that I remembered why he was so sought after for much of his career. It’s only the second match and so I sense everyone will build that familiarity between them – both in terms of what service Isak prefers and then a willingness to attack the balls that simply make it into his orbit.
As for Flo, it was generally a good performance. I was worried that he – and Isak – had managed to have been marked out of the match by Forest’s defense. But I remembered that Flo was brought in not to dominate the ball, but to provide magic moments. And there were quite a few that popped up during the match. First, his ability to thread passes that split defenders was so good and on more than one occasion nearly sprung a Liverpool attacker free before the sumptuous throughball he delivered to Victor Muñoz. He also found himself in decent scoring places as the match progressed. These are very good signs considering he’d sometimes fade and disappear as matches got closer to 90 minutes.
All in all, I think we’re closer to seeing the best of both players, which probably means we’re closer to seeing the best of this Liverpool attacker as currently assembled.
Victor Muñoz
The Spaniard was named the Man of the Match by the fans and it was, in my opinion, a well-deserved honor. Starting out on the left, having swapped flanks with Cody Gakpo, he looked a bit uncomfortable to begin but grew into the game. His positioning, especially as a late-arriving player on the back post, looked good all match. He did seem to shine, though, when returning to the right, as he looked incredibly comfortable finding that half-space between the centerback and fullback for his goal.
Lots to be excited about here and while I’d still like one more right-winger to provide depth/coverage, I feel quite buoyed by Muñoz’s performances thus far. I’d like to make sure that any moves are meant to provide insurance as opposed to supplant what looks to be a real gem of a player.
Losers
Liverpool’s Defensive Solidity
It’s early days but Liverpool’s defense still looks behind the other departments on the pitch in terms of adapting and improving upon last season. It’s tough to tell because I expect that the spaces vacated by certain players – namely, the fullbacks – are a tactical decision meant to increase numbers and tilt the field. And expecting that we’ll have the bulk of possession against most opponents, that’s likely going to need to be calculation in terms of risk.
What’s worrying, though, is that what used to feel relatively automatic in terms of the team’s off-side trap and even the individual quality across the back is suddenly quite the question mark. And, of course, when you’re replacing two of the best fullbacks that the English top flight has ever seen in Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andrew Robertson, needing to integrate new centerbacks, and have to do all of that while accounting for the decline of legendary, best-ever at their positions-caliber players in Alisson Becker and Virgil Van Dijk, then of course things are going to look a bit mixed. This is what a transition looks like.
But I won’t sit here and say I don’t feel comfortable about it. And given the question marks across other departments that might alleviate that pressure – a more defensive minded midfielder, for example, to better screen the defense that isn’t likely to be part of the incomings this window, for example – then it looks like Iraola still has some work to do in terms of getting the balance right. Speaking of…
Talking Tactics
I know that Liverpool’s best formation at present is likely one with a double-pivot. But I’m wondering if maybe the best structure of the team is not the 4-2-3-1, but eventually (when Ekitike returns, perhaps) a move to a 3-5-2. The three central mids would be comprised of a Ryan Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister double pivot, with Florian Wirtz in the 10 behind Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike. You would then have Bradley Barcola, Cody Gakpo, Rio Ngumoha, and Milos Kerkez as left-midfielders, with Dominik Szoboszlai, Victor Muñoz, Cody Gakpo, and Jeremie Frimpong. The team would then be able to utilize Jeremy Jacquet, Ronaldo Araujo, and Virgil Van Dijk at center-back.
What I like about this is that there’s enough flexibility among the attacking contingent that you could see variations that include: Isak/Ekitike and Wirtz as the two strikers with the Germany playing a false-nine, allowing Szobo to move into midfield; utilizing the fullbacks on both flanks to provide a little more defensive steel and flipping to five-at-the-back when out of possession; and creates more like-for-like positional rotation that play off of the varying gifts of the personnel available to each position group.
I’m not tactical genius by any means – just someone playing with structures to see if it might yield the right balance of numbers in different phases of the game. From out here, it feels like Liverpool’s been well-positioned to move towards three-at-the-back for some time. I don’t keep up enough to know if that’s still the flavor of where tactics are or if it’s already a step behind, so this section isn’t so much advocating for the transition as much as asking the question.
The What-If Machine
This is where we talk about a big what-if moment in the match. For me, it’s the VAR call on Wirtz’s disallowed goal. Which, to my mind, felt like such a bummer to get called back given that it was rather well-taken by Flo and came as a timely and welcome response to going down in the match.
Thankfully, Liverpool were still able to rescue a point and if you look at the fact that Florian Wirtz continued to plug away before being gifted for that graft with a well-taken assist for the equalizer, it’s hard to moan too much about it. But I think that would have done Wirtz even more good had it counted.
Still the good news here is that we look closer than ever to seeing Wirtz live up to the hype that came with Liverpool pipping Bayern Munich for the wunderkind’s signature.
What Comes Next
Liverpool head to Ipswich to on Friday evening in search of their first victory. Here’s hoping the lads are able to capitalize on minor – but meaningful – improvements in terms of gameplay, earning a win sooner rather than later.
