First Real Test for Arne Slot's Liverpool

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Foreword
Greetings to all, it's my first post in Sports Talk Social. I am vaynard86 from Singapore and I'm a Liverpool FC supporter. So here I am today to share in the community and talk about the match between Liverpool FC and Chelsea FC at Anfield yesterday. I want to share more on my thoughts on this match especially that this match to me is the first real test for Arne Slot.

Before The Match
This is a match where Arne Slot will be without his trusty Number 1 Alisson Becker between the sticks and had to depend on Caoimhin Kelleher, often being regarded as the best substitute goalkeeper in the words of Jurgen Klopp. The likes of Harvey Elliot and Federico Chiesa are nursing injuries and not available to start. Arne Slot also has a big cohort of players back from International Duty with the likes of Alexis Mac Allister and Conor Bradley coming back at not 100%.

It is known that players coming back from their respective International Duties that they will not have sufficient time to prepare for the big clash with Chelsea so it added another big uncertainty for Arne Slot.

To also note, Arne Slot inherited a Liverpool team that is 99% Jurgen Klopp works with only 1 new player in Federico Chiesa whom is unavailable due to injury.

With only Manchester United and AC Milan the bigger names that Liverpool FC cross path with so far this season, the in-form Chelsea team will be the biggest test so far for Arne Slot.

The Match Itself

Formation: 4-2-3-1

GK: Kelleher
Defence: Alexander-Arnold (RB), Konate (CB), Van Dijk (CB), Robertson (LB)
Midfield: Gravenberch (DM), Jones (DM), Szoboszlai (AM), Salah (RW), Gakpo (LW)
Forward: Jota

Subs: Mac Allister, Diaz, Nunez
Unused Subs: Jaros, Endo, Tsimikas, Quansah, Morton

First Half
Against a star studded/deep team that Chelsea had (spending big money on recruitment many more time that of what Liverpool have spent, on paper Chelsea look like a destined winner. Not forgetting the two Liverpool targets that last minute decided to sign for Chelsea, Caiceido and Lavia, whom both started today's match for Chelsea.

From how it looked, the Chelsea team looked almost like replica to Liverpool deploying a double pivot in the defensive midfielder role, similar to that of what Arne Slot setup. One notable player that played out of his usual position was Gusto whom often played at right back but instead deployed at left back today for Chelsea.

The game started out lively with Chelsea deploying a stronger press that consist of a man-marking model to choke out the strategy that Arne Slot like to use. With this, there were many instances of Chelsea press leaving on Kelleher and Konate to do the build up from defence. And alot of times, it needed long ball punts towards Salah in order to get the ball out of defence which was easily intercepted by opponent. This gave Chelsea a lot of control in terms of possession and Liverpool was soaking up all the pressure. With all that possession from Chelsea and occasional break away by Liverpool, there was no shot attempts for a good 20 minutes.

The tempo build up with Curtis Jones being able to put up a heroic block to deny Cole Palmer a goalscoring opportunity before Salah was brought down by Levi Colwill in the penalty box but was denied a penalty by the referee as Salah was deemed to be waiting for Colwill's contact to win a penalty.

However, minutes later, Colwill is again caught in the midst of bringing someone down in the penalty box, this time Jones was the victim and a penalty was awarded. Salah cooly slotted the ball home to give Liverpool the lead.

Diogo Jota whom was taken down by Chelsea's defender Tosin, couldn't continue much longer before Darwin Nunez took over the frontline duties from him. While Jota was Slot's preferred forward, in a match where Chelsea defenders all look huge compared to Jota, the effectiveness of Jota to find space becomes limited. Darwin on the other hand, because of the way he does his darting runs into defence or running into space, it gave the game the opening it needed.

Even with the lead, Liverpool still looked like in second gear with not much threat in front of goal. Towards the end of the first half it looked almost a 2nd penalty to be awarded to Liverpool from first look due to Chelsea goalkeeper Sanchez tripping Jones but was quickly verified by VAR that Sanchez got to the ball first. The half ended with Liverpool leading through the penalty.

2nd Half
Chelsea brought on Pedro Neto and immediately created threats for Liverpool with his take ons with Trent Alexander-Arnold on the right flank. And one through ball from Caiceido released Nicholas Jackson whom slotted the ball home to bring the match level. There was a VAR check for possible offside but was quickly validated for the goal to stand with Konate's trailing leg keeping Jackson onside.

In a quick turnaround, Liverpool struck again and it's Curtis Jones whom latched onto Salah's clever ball by sticking a foot out to nick the ball past Sanchez into the Chelsea net.

After the goal, the match become very scrappy with loads of poor passes and bad runs. There were also notable heated rows between Darwin Nunez and also Chelsea substitue Badiashile. The reds hang on to win the match 2-1.

Arne Slot's Tactical Brilliance
I have to be honest, I was a little worried when I heard that Curtis Jones was in the lineup ahead of Alexis Mac Allister as this is a game against Chelsea, we should put in our best lineup if possible.

However Arne Slot did had a plan up his sleeve. Not only Curtis Jones wrecked havoc by winning a penalty and scoring the winning goal, there was more to it. He was in charge of keeping an eye on Chelsea danger man Cole Palmer. For those whom watched the match, you will observe that Jones is everywhere that Palmer went. For the whole match, Palmer had been kept really quiet and did not give any big threat in front of goal.

On top of Curtis Jones, another 2 tactical brilliance was observed deployed by Arne Slot. While Jota was removed due to injury, Darwin Nunez's introduction provided a secondary target for the defence instead of punting the ball to Salah. Nunez runs, follow up play also help to thread things around to bring constant threat to Chelsea. And lastly was the introduction of Joe Gomez to be a counter to Pedro Neto whom was giving Trent a hard time though he did cope well. But when Gomez as on, Neto was effectively shut off and many passes attempted by Neto were intercepted by Gomez.

These tactical brilliance are really important as Liverpool charge into a new era with Arne Slot as they continue to shape up under his leadership.

Closing
This is the first of many test that the new Liverpool will undergo. There are many masterstroke of tactical brilliance already on display especially seen so this season with the transformation of Ryan Gravenberch as the new number 6 and also the inverted forward role for Diogo Jota. Looking forward to more amazing football from Liverpool under Arne Slot's leadership.

Till then... You'll Never Walk Alone!