On June 1st, the two English teams will be facing each other in the UEFA Champion’s league final, after having both overturned unfavorable first leg results in the semi-finals.
This season, the two sides have met twice in Premier League with the same result in each game, a 2-1 win for the Reds. We will use these two games to support our analysis, as well as the most recent games of each team in the UCL.
How will Liverpool approach the game?
It’s very unlikely that Liverpool will change their system for that game, and their lineup should be quiet predictable, with one or two exceptions.
Liverpool should be lining up in a 4-3-3 as they most often did this season. There shouldn’t be any surprise in the composition of the back four, nor with the front three, assuming that all players are fit. We could expect some changes in the midfield though. At the time of writing this analysis, Naby Keita is still injured and is not expected to be ready for the final, at least not as a starter. Should he be available, he could potentially be in the starting eleven. After a difficult start of the season, him and Fabinho have progressively earned more game time. The Brazilian seems to have become a key player, starting most of the games since February and playing in all four of Liverpool’s last UCL games. Wijnaldum is the midfielder Klopp has the most used this season, ahead of Henderson and Milner. However, it is difficult to imagine the German manager benching his captain in such a big game, therefore Henderson seems to be favorite to start over Milner or even Keita.
The Reds have had an impressive season so far, scoring 97 points in the Premier League, only losing the title race against Manchester City for one point. In the UCL, they got out of one of the toughest group, facing Napoli and PSG. In the next phase, they have knocked out Bayern Munich, FC Porto and Barcelona in a memorable two-legs’ opposition. Generally speaking, Jurgen Klopp is not seen as very tactically flexible. He would rather be classified as a dogmatic manager, who follows his principles of play independently of the opponent or the game. We can therefore use previous games to draw a pretty clear picture of what to expect on June 1st.
High and intense pressing
This is Jurgen Klopp’s trademark since he started being known at Mainz. The German is famous for making counter-pressing popular. His teams always press very intensively in the defensive transition to regain quick possession of the ball. When the counter-pressing is not successful, Klopp’s teams typically still press high and aggressively. Since the signing of Van Dijk, this aggressive pressing has become more effective, the Dutchman’s positioning, height and pace allowing the defensive line to play higher. At the front, Mane and Salah demonstrate an impressive work rate, and they are able to apply intense pressure on the oppositions’ defenders with their pace.
Use of the width
One of Liverpool’s major strength this season has been its fullbacks. Alexander-Arnold and Robertson are the top two players in term of assists so far, with respectively 15 and 13 in the Premier League and UCL combined. In Liverpool’s system in possession, the two fullbacks are broadly responsible of controlling the wide lanes. While nowadays it is quite common for teams to use inverted fullbacks to control the central area and free up their wingers in the wide channels, Liverpool tend to do the opposite.
The role of the wingers, typically Salah and Mane, is to attack the central space opened by Firmino’s false nine’s positioning. The threat the two wingers represent when they cut in has for effect to pin the center back and fullback, preventing the latter to step up and press forward, leaving space in front of Arnold or Robertson.
Liverpool also tend to position their fullbacks high on the pitch to pin the defense and open space in the middle (above picture). One of the midfield would then drop to integrate the defensive line and provide support should the team lose the ball. Below is an example of this shape during the second game against Tottenham in the Premier League this season, with James Milner (on the ball) who dropped from his midfield position and Robertson on the left wing on the same line as the three forwards.
Quick vertical play
Another of Klopp’s trademark. The German himself qualified his style as “heavy metal” football in 2015. Unlike some of his colleagues, the German is not obsessed by possession and rather want his team to play a slightly more direct style. His team still manage to be have one of the highest possession rate in Premier League – 3rd with 58.8% – however in UCL they rank 12th with 51.6%. Even more significant, their percentage of completed passes in UCL is only 80.6%, ranking them 21st. This statistic could be wrongly interpreted as if Liverpool were lacking quality in their passing compared to other teams. Manchester City for example have a success rate of 89.6% in UCL, the highest in the competition. In reality, it is perfectly in line with Liverpool’s style of play and well representative of their mentality and their manager’s one.
For other teams, a rather low percentage of successful passes could be a major issue since it means a higher number of turnovers and could translate to longer out of possession phases. In the case of Liverpool, it is not so much an issue, and it can even be an advantage. With their counter-pressing in defensive transition, missed passes should not be a real problem for Liverpool since they should be in a position to either win the ball back quickly or at least prevent counter-attacks from the opposition. Against some teams with less technical defenders, it might even be a strength since losing the ball in advanced area could actually result in winning the ball back close to the opposition’s goal.
Another characteristic of Liverpool’s passing style is the frequent use of long diagonal balls towards the wingers or the fullbacks. Diagonal passes are typically more difficult to defend. To keep it short, they combine the benefits of vertical and horizontal passes, and they allow the receiver to be in the right body shape to play forward on his first touch.
Tottenham’s tactical flexibility
Unlike Liverpool, Pochettino’s team is tactically versatile and has shown different faces this season.
Spurs have mostly started their games with a back four this season (around 70% of their games), using a back three or five in the other matches, one of them being the Premier League second game against Liverpool. More recently, they have used a back three in the UCL semi-final’s first leg against Ajax. In both occasions, the North Londoners have displayed weaknesses in this system. In the Ajax game’s analysis we already discussed the issues Spurs faced when playing with a back three ( https://tacticandtechnique.com/a-two-faced-ajax-brings-back-a-win-from-london/ ). Against Liverpool, the same issues arose.
In the build-up phase, Spurs were not able to overcome the high pressing applied by their opponents. Both Ajax and Liverpool play with a front three, matching up Tottenham’s defense and therefore blocking the passing options at the back. Lloris was then forced to play long balls more often.
In the Premier League game, Liverpool’s plan was to prevent Tottenham from playing wide passes from the back. To achieve this, Mane and Salah would position themselves in a way they could quickly access Alderweireld and Vertonghen should the center backs receive the ball, but also shadow mark Rose and Trippier to prevent wide play. By doing so, Spurs were restricted in their passing options, and the Reds only needed three players to block five of their opponents. Another part of Liverpool’s pressing plan was to deliberately leave Sissoko free in the middle to invite Lloris to play to his fellow French teammate. Sissoko has many qualities but he is certainly not the best at building up plays from a deep position, hence this pressing trap set up by Klopp’s men.
Spurs also faced problems out of possession. As mentioned previously, Liverpool’s front three and fullbacks could often find themselves in advanced areas to force Tottenham’s wing backs to stay in deep positions and prevent them front pressing. The first goal of the match is a good illustration of the problems caused by the Reds.
To beat the press, Pochettino changed his set up to play with a back four with Alli dropping deeper to assist Sissoko with the build up.
The Argentinian manager made a similar tactical shift against Ajax. In both games, that change gave Tottenham a better control in possession, making Liverpool’s pressing less effective since it wasn’t possible for Klopp’s players to maintain their system against a back four. Firmino had to deal with two center backs now, while Salah and Mane could no longer shadow mark the fullbacks without opening gaps for Sissoko and Alli.
With Rose, Kane and Lucas higher on the pitch as well, Robertson and Alexander-Arnold found it more difficult to step up to press the Spurs’ fullbacks, allowing them more space and therefore time on the ball. The below clip gives an example of how this tactical adjustment created new options and more control in the build up.
With more possession in their favor and more frequent phases in advanced areas, Spurs had less defensive situations to deal with, and above all, Liverpool were recovering possession in deeper positions, allowing the Londoners to apply quick pressure in the defensive transition phase, and have more time to recover their defensive shape. With Robertson and Arnold forced to defend deeper on Rose and Lucas, the Scousers had more difficulties to quickly transition after regaining possession. Mane and Salah also had more defensive work to do every time Spurs’ fullbacks were able to go forward.
Outlook
Teams’ systems
As discussed at the beginning of this analysis, Liverpool are most likely to start the game in their usual system.
We can imagine that Pochettino will opt for a back four in the UCL final. It appeared obvious in the previous game against Liverpool and the semi-final against Ajax that his team was more comfortable in that system to face a front three. In terms of line-up, it will probably largely depend on Kane’s availability. Should the Englishman be available, a potential system would be similar to the one used in the Premier League game’s second half.
However, Kane is likely to be absent, Pochettino might then reproduce the same system as displayed in the semi-final’s second leg against Ajax. A third possibility for Pochettino is to line-up Llorente as a striker, although the Spaniard is more likely to be kept as a joker, his height and strength allowing his team to have a long passing option. His impact in the Ajax game was remarkable, however, it is doubtful he would dominate Van Dijk in the aerial challenges as much as he did against De Ligt.
Key phases
A crucial aspect of the game will be the control of the wide areas and the half-spaces. Liverpool’s attacking system relies mostly on the use of their fullbacks and wingers. Tottenham should therefore aim at keeping the game in the central area. If they were to play with a midfield four, they could use their numerical superiority to their advantage in midfield to force Liverpool to play through the middle in the build up.
In this clip, we see Alli and Sissoko’s roles in controlling the wide areas, while Lucas and Son are initiating the pressing and blocking the passing lines to Robertson and Alexander-Arnold. With a 4v3 situation in midfield, Spurs should be able to maintain a spare man in cover. To beat this pressing, an option for Liverpool is to have a midfield dropping into the defensive line. In the below clip we use Fabinho as a dropping midfield, but in reality Henderson and Wijnaldum would also hold this position depending on the situation. Salah and Mane’s positioning in the half-spaces allow Robertson and/or Arnold to move forward without being pressed by Rose or Tippier who are pinned at the back by the wingers.
An issue Tottenham had in their latest match against Liverpool was to apply pressure on Arnold and Robertson when they found themselves in advanced area (Cf. Liverpool’s 1st goal). A first option is to allow the center midfield on the strong side to press the fullback. The striker then needs to drop to cover the zone and maintain compactness in the center of the pitch.
Another option is to press with the fullbacks. In that system, The central midfielders need to cover the half-space left free by the fullback. Wanyama should be the spare man in most situations, therefore it makes sense for him to drop and join the back line to cover the fullback. In the situations where Salah or Mane will move out wide to drag Wanyama out of position, he will still behimself covered by Alli or Sissoko. An advantage of this system is to keep the two strikers high on the pitch as opposed to having one of them dropping in the midfield. Having two players in advanced areas will limit Fabinho’s forward movements as the Reds will want to maintain a back three structure ahead of the defensive transitions. A threat to Tottenham though will be the switch of plays to the weak side, one of Liverpool’s strength. The structure needs to slide quickly on the switches, with the risk of getting disorganized.
From Liverpool’s perspective, a key aspect in the defending phase will primarily be to control Lucas, Son and Eriksen. Lucas and Son tend to position themselves in the half-space between the fullbacks and the center backs, opening space in the center for Eriksen. Behind them, Sissoko could be described as a Mezz’ala, a center midfield who makes forward runs in the half-space to support the attack, the Frenchman using the space vacated by Lucas who has a natural tendency to drift wide. On the other side of the midfield, Alli is more attracted by the center of the pitch and is typically attacking the box. Liverpool therefore has to defend against four attacking players, Lucas, Eriksen, Alli and Son, with Sissoko as a support and Trippier and Rose to maintain the width. The compactness with which Spurs are attacking the 18-yards box will be the main threat for Liverpool.
Conclusion
Jurgen Klopp’s men are considered favorite, with two wins against Tottenham this season and a an impressive record in European cups under the spell of the German manager, playing their third consecutive final this Saturday. Nonetheless, in their latest confrontation, Spurs have demonstrated that they could compete on equal terms with the Reds, only conceding a late goal following a mistake from Lloris. The North Londoners’ tactical versatility and wide choice in terms of players’ profiles provide Pochettino with different options to solve the problems caused by Liverpool.
