With the reinvention of Ryan Gravenberch, the continued ascension of Alexis Mac Allister and more, Arne Slot has revived Liverpool’s midfield machine…
IN March 2019, I was stranded in Paris.
I was there on my way back from Bordeaux with my mate Beth.
The plan was for her to stay over in the City of Lights, and I would take the Eurostar back to London. That was the plan anyway.
The French baggage handlers, however, had other ideas and decided to strike. No trains and no flights whatsoever – what with London and Paris being such a quiet – barely used route so I had Hobson’s Choice…
A coach leaving at 9pm and getting in at dawn. Great.
Worse? It was noon when I got that news. I had nine hours to wait at the airport for the bus to turn up. Worse still? Liverpool were playing Bayern Munich that night at the Allianz. That game.
I was supposed to be watching The Reds at home with a selection of carbohydrates, but instead I’d be on an uncomfortable coach travelling through northern France. What’s more, there would be no Wi-Fi on the coach so even watching it my phone was out.
I read the team news in that car park as light gave way to dusk. There were no real surprises. The defence and attack could pretty much pick itself back then. You could probably name them now, five years later, and you’d be right.
Only the midfield changed. James Milner for Fabinho. Jordan Henderson and Gini Wijnaldum, as you’d expect. No big deal.
A look over the socials told me otherwise.
The world had lost its mind.
Without Fabinho it was all over. No point in playing the game. A nonsense to even consider it.
‘Nice way to go out, Jürgen.’
‘Deffo lost this.’
‘No Fab but Brian gets a game.’
Obviously, I blocked every single one. No runners. Never runners.
Under the great Jürgen Klopp sides — and they should be judged as such — the midfield was always the biggest bugbear. Milner, Naby Keita and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain completed the available options with the possibility of Adam Lallana and Xherdan Shaqiri, depending on availability and position.
I often thought it was a pointless argument. Those sides didn’t rely on the centre of the park as they’d done in the past. Being world class in both boxes brought us a European Cup that season.
The midfield remit was a simple one. Win it, give it, feed it wide. The full backs gave the majority of the assists, but Roberto Firmino was also an option if he dropped deeper.
Jürgen had changed the role of the central three. For decades, Liverpool had been more traditional with two wide men, a destroyer and a creator. Liverpool 2019 were a different matter. We won everything while the world caught up.
Arne Slot has more or less changed it back. For the first time in years, we’re watching a controlled midfield again – albeit in a different formation. One of equal importance to those in front and behind them.
Oh, there’s still creativity from the full backs as you’d expect, but there’s more onus on them now. They do more than just fight for the ball and play it to the strikers.
Slot likes midfield control. His is an archetypal Dutch mindset. He likes drive from the centre of the pitch and protection of the ball when there’s nothing on.
Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister and Curtis Jones were peerless on Saturday. Each have taken on the mantle of breaking down, closing and starting again as you’d expect, but they’ve an added responsibility to the sides of old. It’s a joy to watch.
You’d expect the team to pass the ball well, but there’s a wonderful sense of purpose to this midfield. In the 1990s, Roy Evans sides were glorious to watch, but were often criticised for overplaying it without cutting through the lines.
One fanzine back then had a cartoon of a dressing room scene where the team were explaining to the manager that they didn’t take a shot because “Stig hadn’t had the ball eleven times in the attack”. You can pass the ball all you want, but if you’re not creating chances, it just looks like vanity.
This new setup has benefitted Gravenberch more than most. Now that there’s no chance of Zubimendi it looks like we might have saved a few quid. I bet they love that in Boston. In any case, he’s been inspired and inspirational this season.
It may also be the making of Curtis Jones, who, like his mates, was excellent at the weekend. I’ll never understand why he isn’t lauded more. His discipline and positional sense are exceptional.
Midfield is back in vogue, but I’d like us to protect it against tiredness. There’s an awful lot of football to be played and it’s mostly been the same team so far. Hopefully, there’ll be tons of changes for West Ham.
Injuries help no one. Ask Rodri. City, crammed with options as they are, tend to be less effective without him. I like Kovavic, but he’d always be second choice. Quality sixes are hard to come by as we’ve shown repeatedly.
West Ham then. A start for Freddy Church on the left, hopefully, and maybe wholesale changes in the middle of the park.
It’s the good old days.
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