Liverpool Tactical Analysis

Manchester City 1-2 Liverpool (1-5): A Tactical Breakdown

When Liverpool lost 5-0 at the Etihad earlier this season, I mentioned in my breakdown that typing in the scoreline just felt wrong, but there is something immensely gratifying about typing out the aggregate scoreline for the Champions League tie: 5-1. I might even do it again. 5-1. Lovely. Anyway, there are five minutes until...

Liverpool 3-0 Manchester City: A Tactical Breakdown

Fine lines. The thinnest of margins. The point at which dreamland meets bedlam. Where delirium bisects mayhem. That's where Liverpool fans found themselves as they watched the unthinkable happen. Liverpool had pressed Manchester City into submission in January, but Pep Guardiola, the greatest manager and tactical innovator of his generation would surely not let it...

Crystal Palace 1-2 Liverpool: A Tactical Breakdown

After the international break, it's always interesting to see how a team performs, and Liverpool appeared to start brightly against Palace, but soon it became clear that if Liverpool were to take anything from this game, they needed to really work for it, as simple passes went astray, and frustration built up. If you...

Liverpool 4-1 West Ham: A Tactical Breakdown

"It was a joy to watch, to be honest." - Jürgen Klopp Jürgen Klopp was all-smiles as he delivered his post-match press conference, and who could bemoan him for being so, after such a strong performance from Liverpool. The Holy Trinity of Salah, Firmino and Mané not only bagged a goal apiece but thrived and...

Do Liverpool Need a Creative Midfielder to Break Down Defensive Teams?

On the most recent edition of the Tactics Weekly pod, host Daniel Rhodes quizzed Paul Dalglish in an AI:PRO Q&A Special (you can listen for FREE for one week). One particular question (below) posed was that of breaking down defensive sides, an issue Liverpool have had for quite a while - harking back to...

Porto 0-5 Liverpool: A Tactical Breakdown

Liverpool are one of the few clubs still undefeated within the Champions League, but few expected the utterly dominant display, away to Porto, which effectively ended the tie. How then did Liverpool approach the game? For while the scoreline suggests a brutal decimation of Porto, it was not quite that simple. The match was predominantly played...

Southampton 0-2 Liverpool: A Tactical Breakdown

It might just be me, but I do love a good-old 0-2 victory. Indeed, this was Liverpool's first 2-0 league victory of the season. And we should not knock that at all, a 2-0 is an underrated scoreline, it usually means control by one side within a fair game, a game in which the...

A Critical Look at Loris Karius

Please note that this article was written before the Southampton game. Over the years, Liverpool have had persistent goalkeeping problems that have ultimately contributed to the club being unable to make decisive surges forward to win silverware. Liverpool’s last trophy was won in 2012 with Pepe Reina between the sticks, and a year later Simon...

Liverpool 2-2 Spurs: A Tactical Breakdown

It was a thrilling game, in which the points were shared, but one in which the away side will be by far the happier of the two sides. Liverpool dominated the entirety of the first-half, scoring early, cutting through Spurs with ease and squandering glorious chance after chance. Liverpool's gameplan, to press aggressively and surrender...

Huddersfield 0-3 Liverpool: A Tactical Breakdown

If I were asked to sum up the Liverpool victory over Huddersfield, there's one term which would immediately spring to mind: game management. Quite often, football games aren't decided by tactics, errors, luck and the like all come into play from time to time, and usually, it's Liverpool making errors where they should not...