The last few days, I’ve been reading a lot about Arne Slot and watching tactical analysis videos and I’ve got to say his system is so fluid it’s damn near impossible to pigeon hole. The level of detail he goes to in training must be incredible. I think the Liverpool players will need to be very open minded to pull it off. I wouldn’t even be surprised if Slot really leans into using the younger players and brings in quite a few of his own boys because those with Klopp / Lijnders ways embedded as second nature over the last 6-8 years of coaching might really struggle to adapt.
Feyenoord were bottom of the pile for switches of play last season, something that is almost a trademark of Klopp’s Liverpool side. Trent to Robbo and vice versa has become a common thing to see several times a game. Might see less of Virgil pinging it out to Salah too, as Feyenoord were 2nd bottom for long passes. The pressing nature looks similar even though they tend to press more through the centre to send opposition teams out wide. The build up phase is chalk and cheese to what we’ve been watching under Klopp though.
With regards to that build up play, it’s amazing just how fluid and interchangeable the roles in the team are. Some of you may remember I shared the thoughts of a Feyenoord fan a few weeks ago, but I think he possibly gave a quite simplistic explanation. Slot does definitely seem to prefer his 4-2-3-1 formation but it actually seems to shift to a 2-3-2-3 or a 3-2-5 formation in possession. It even looks like a rush keeper at times to make it a 3-3-2-3!
Strangely, there is no real consistency in which players invert into which roles. To such an extent it is reminiscent of the old school Dutch model of ‘Total Football’ where almost every player is expected to be able to fill in, in nearly any position. The only thing that is consistently noticeable is that there are always 5 players with total attacking freedom, and 5 players setting aggressive traps to break up counter attacks high up the pitch. I’ve honestly never seen anything so detailed. It probably goes beyond what Pep’s doing at City even. Slots either going to be a genius or a madman.
You can catch moments where both full backs are inverted to make a midfield 3 leaving 2 at the back, there are moments where a couple of the midfielders go beyond the striker to make a front 5, moments where 1 full back inverts and the rest of the defence form a back 3, moments where the goal keeper is actually 40 yards off his line to make a back 3 so the midfield is completely overloaded, moments where both full backs go high and wide triggering the wingers to invert into midfield and the midfielders to drop into defence etc.
This is going to be mental. Strap in lads.