Can you see The Vision ?

ARTICLE BY MATTY

After a defeat to Crystal Palace in which Liverpool looked far from dominant, making silly mistakes and once again shooting penalties as if they’d never done it in their life, one could definitely have reason to panic. The squad isn’t set yet, we believe. Neither is the chemistry with a bunch of new players, mixing in with a core that just won a league title but could be starting to show signs of age. Ultimately the Community Shield, however small, is still a trophy to be won and we let it slip through our grasp. We’ve done that all too often in recent years. However, I’m both intrigued and excited by the changes and new dimensions that we’ve seen thus far in the preparations for the new season. Slot’s stamp on the squad means things will definitely be different, but just how different? Let’s try to find out.

Something that Slot and others seem to be emphasizing is the versatility of the players we have. While many will dismiss this as “FSG won’t give us the cash to PROPERLY upgrade”, I’m more so interested in the players he’s talking about and if there’s any sense to what he’s saying. This season more than most, in my mind I’ve split the squad into three categories: core players, squad depth, and youth with upside. Examining the core players we currently have, plus who we’ve been excessively linked to, has led me to believe Slot might be onto something.

Here’s the core players for this Liverpool team for the upcoming season, adding in the two players I expect to be signed by the end of the window: Alisson, Virgil, Konate, Guehi, Kerkez, Robertson, Frimpong, Bradley, Gravenberch, Mac Allister, Jones, Szoboszlai, Wirtz, Gakpo, Ekitike, Salah, Isak. I considered putting Robertson in with the squad depth but his cameo against Palace tells me he’ll force his way onto the field more often than not and be absolutely spectacular with proper rest. The squad depth, at least according to Slot’s recent conference, suggests to be: Chiesa, Endo, and Gomez, Elliott as well if he stays. Your youth talent would be: Rio, Nyoni, Mamardashvili, Bajcetic, maybe James McConnell and Jayden Danns.

Again going off of what Slot’s done and what he’s told us, I’m intrigued by some of his experiments. Gravenberch at CB, Szoboszlai at RB, using Frimpong somewhat regularly as a winger, using Hugo both as a winger and as a striker. It seems like a mad scientist but when you think of the skillsets and where these players are positioned anyways, it weirdly makes sense. Gravenberch already was a machine when it came to dribbling out from the back. Szoboszlai is the closest thing we have to the specific type of playmaker we lost when Trent left the club. If we want that type of player on the field at RB, why not see if Szobo could do a job? He has more of a motor than Trent ever did anyways. Slot’s repeatedly said he views Frimpong as not just a RB but an option at right wing. He’s repeatedly said he views Wirtz as an option from the left. At first glance it’s puzzling to see these versatile players being used in so many different ways. Then I remember Slot’s Dutch, trained in the Total Football style of Johan Cruyff.

Sports in general have seen a significant shift recently. Basketball has seen five positions dissolve into three categories of guard, wing and big man. American football has seen the importance of wide receivers, tight ends and running backs boiled down into one category of skill positions. Baseball has many examples of players playing five or six different positions. Positions have become more nominal rather than set in stone. Ryan Gravenberch for example, is a central midfielder by nature but dribbles all over the field. Sometimes he’s dribbling from the position of a CB, sometimes he’s on the opposite end of the field, other times he’s driving straight at goal. His skill set isn’t tied to a position, he’s just really good at progressing the ball up the field from various spots on the field. I wouldn’t say Slot’s being radical in suggesting that some of his core players can play in various roles. He’s looking at the skills, not necessarily the position.

The purest form of Total Football is inevitably the team that originated it: the Dutch national team of the 1970s, spearheaded by perhaps the most brilliant mind to ever play or coach the game, Johan Cruyff. Ultimately the nickname “Total Football” itself came from such a radical idea because you couldn’t describe it as anything else, really. Constant player rotations between defenders and midfielders, attackers and defenders, everybody was incredibly skilled at many different things and it showed. The player movement, the attacking movements were so fluid and unpredictable, impossible to defend. A DM like Johan Neeskens would find himself as a LB or a striker at times during one game. Cruyff would drop deep and carry the ball from a nominal DM position into the attacking phase (sounds like another young Dutch player we know).

Ultimately it succeeded because the players were intelligent, could understand the game and had many different skills required to move and play up and down the field. Moving forward to today, in an era where marking seems tougher to beat than before, why not make it impossible to mark your players by moving them around before the markers get there? This requires players with the intelligence and skills necessary to do so, but I think a lot of the core players have both of those requirements.

I think we saw this in the attack against Palace. Wirtz was floating into half spaces on the left and right, Hugo would rotate with him and find himself attacking defenders from the left or slipping by defenders through the middle. The fullbacks were flying up and down the wings, but even Frimpong found himself with a goal by floating into the half space. I think it’ll take time for the existing core like Salah and Gakpo to properly mesh with the new guys, but the movements were breathtaking at times. I could say the same of other preseason matches, like Bilbao for example. Slot’s building a young, versatile squad with game changing talent from back to front. Isak and Guehi would add more goals and quality to the core, with Isak also familiar with rotating positions up front and Guehi having a skillset similar to Gravenberch while also being built like a brick house.

I get the sense that Slot is sacrificing defensive stability for more goals and fluidity this season. We’ve overwhelmed teams in attack yet have been incredibly susceptible to the counter. I don’t expect that to change, and I could see us dropping games rather easily because of that. What Slot’s trying to do seems radical, but it could also be Liverpool as always being slightly ahead of the curve in the analytical department. We did gegenpressing before it was cool, now everybody does it. We had playmaking fullbacks before it was en vogue, now Europe is flush with attacking fullbacks. Especially given how Guardiola’s positional play has become the standard, I could see us shifting into less positional play and more interchanges as a means to break that positional low block and bring back more fluidity into the game. It’s bold, it’s daring, it’s fraught with potential problems. But it just might work.