Club football is, once again, on pause for the international break and I have returned to my default position of loathing these breaks. Yes, I’m a sucker for club football. Yes, my supporting obsession is centered almost solely on Liverpool Football Club. No – for reasons – I don’t have strong ties to any international side.
Which are all very good reasons to find one’s self twiddling thumbs in angst during these windows in the schedule. But the biggest reason is this thing called momentum. And, quite
frankly, I am more than a little concerned about it.
Now, the thing about momentum is it’s fickle. To wit, for most of the matches between the previous international break and this one, Liverpool looked on the upswing – taking care of business in the Champions League and holding steady to their position within the top end of the table thanks to their results. More importantly, the team itself looked to be in good shape.
We talked a little bit about progress last week, but suffice to say that Andoni Iraola’s side look to generally be on the end of the progression curve that we’d hope to be: pointing generally upward and away from the bleak play and flat results shown at the end of Arne Slot’s time in charge.
All of that can be and is true even factoring in the note that Liverpool saw a minor blip in this run of form when they dropped two matches in a row – one to Arsenal two weeks ago and another mid-week to Dirk Kuyt’s Fenerbache in the Champions League. Two tough results that bring LFC’s placement on the curve a bit flatter.
Liverpool, though, managed to get back in gear with a solid and gritty win away at Crystal Palace last week, helping to right the ship and put the team in a positive position heading into the break. It’s the chief reason I hate to meet the break: the team are forced to pause when things feel like they’ve gotten tweaked. And with Manchester United coming to Anfield on the other side of the fortnight, I would’ve loved to carry that momentum into the derby.
Its is, then, a lot of fan wishcasting – the thing we do in between matches where we overthink and analyze to the nth degree in the foolish hope that we might be able to exert some influence over things we simply cannot control. It is a reflection of my frustration over that inability to do much of anything, but pace the floor of my office and wring my hands until next Sunday.
And so, I’ll just reflect on some good things that happened this past week for the club, starting with the biggest lede: Liverpool’s big attacking signings were once again all vital to securing the three points at Selhurst Park. None perhaps more so than Florian Wirtz, who notched a goal an assist in the match, bringing his goal involvement total to 5 in league play (7 in all competitions). Those contributions mean that he’s currently on pace for double-digit goal contributions from the midfield and, with a bit of luck, might get into the high-teens in league play.
This is vital because Wirtz’s output has been the subject of intense scrutiny since his transfer last summer. And while there’s no doubt that the German prodigy hit some bumps in terms of finding his feet in the Premier League, it’s hard to argue how vital his presence is in making Liverpool’s attack function well. This season, his improvements are just in terms of where he’s finding himself with respect to final balls or adapting to the physical demands of the Premier League, but he’s also developed the kind of understanding and partnership with Alexander Isak that was always necessary to make the entire attack hum. And with the quick adaptation of Bradley Barcola into the mixer, these three have all provided a consistent source of attacking nous and end-product that have carried Liverpool in ways that were simply lacking last season.
Isak himself looks an entirely different player, much more secure in the touch and more trusting of the fact that if he finds a space, his teammates will get him the ball. It’s clear that the lack of pre-season affected him and, of course, the major injury that ended his inaugural campaign early has to be accounted for. But much should also be said of the adjustments in terms of how Liverpool are now feeding the ball towards the center of the pitch.
I’ll never know what challenges a head coach at the top of any sporting pyramid endures, but one thing that’s clear is that the focal point of the attack is tilted towards getting the ball into the space that a center forward would occupy – to Isak. And last year, it felt like that wasn’t exactly the case. Yes, Isak looked uncertain in some space, but there also was a sense of misunderstanding amongst the attack – perhaps a holdover from the Klopp-Era’s focus on inverted forwards, which would naturally require the center forward to act more as a magnet to move defenders out of the way in order to allow for the wingers to move centrally.
In Barcola, Cody Gakpo, Rio Ngumoha, and Victor Muñoz, Liverpool have a bevy of wingers who prefer to stay wide, keeping the fullbacks busy, and allowing for Isak and Wirtz more room to pull the central defenders apart. Yes, that crop of wide men can certainly score a goal – Barcola and Gakpo in particular have contributed important finishes across the campaign so far – but their main objective in this set up is to provide the necessary width to ensure opposing defenses cannot fully commit to crowding the box.
It isn’t perfect – we’re not exactly seeing Liverpool in free-flowing motion all throughout the pitch. But we are seeing a version of Liverpool that is incredibly tenacious, resilient, and capable of the type of quality that will unearth a reward after the hard work.
Which is to say, we’re seeing a version of Liverpool that I’ve deeply missed: a competent, committed, and ultimately gifted footballing side.
There’s more to say, I suppose, because the construction of this group is owed in large part to decision makers that aren’t here. But I’ll leave this week’s ETB at this juncture, which is to say: it looks so very, very good and I simply wish we could have kept on for the sake of holding onto our much-improved form.
