Liverpool were very fluid going forwards. It was PSG-esque. The general 2-3-5 structure remained, but the players interchanged within the idea. For example, here we can see Isak on the left wing and Gakpo in the #9. These rotations are good and make you very hard to press.

However, Liverpool were very left-side heavy at times, especially when Frimpong came off for Bradley. Frimpong specialises at holding the width. Bradley doesn't. Plus, Jones, Wirtz, Ekitike, & Isak play central, yet they prefer to drift to the left. It can become too lopsided.

Also, with Gakpo, Ekitike, and Isak, although all of them can drop, link, and interchange between the lines, sometimes they timed their movements incorrectly and they all ended up in the same area. This moment looks promising, sure, but at times they occupied the same space.

Defensively, Liverpool defended in a 4-4-2 with Wirtz on the right of midfield and Gakpo on the left. But they struggled to get effective pressure on the ball against Frankfurt's 3-2-5. Slot changed his pressing idea to man-to-man against United, but he reverted to zonal again.

Here we see Liverpool press with 4 against Frankfurt's 5. The idea is to force them to one side of the pitch and collapse the far-side winger onto the far-side #6 leaving the centre back on the opposite side of the pitch free. This can work, but top technical teams exploit it…

Frankfurt switch the play and instead of Gakpo being aggressive to jump from the pivot to the centre half, he is passive positionally. Frankfurt have a clear 2v1 because Jones is attracted to the #10 with van Dijk and Konaté passive in the defensive line.

Frankfurt were awful on the night, but Liverpool's press was a concern. These are the same issues we saw in Arne Slot and Liverpool's mid-block against Amorim, Glasner, and Maresca. Slot wants to keep a +1 at the back but in doing so Liverpool are often overloaded in midfield…

Or, if Liverpool are more cautious, they give the opposition a spare man in the first line. Again, Jones is passive and manages the opposition #10. Gakpo digs in to manage the #6 which leaves the far-side centre back free. And, once again, Liverpool lack pressure on the ball…

Things were definitely much improved for Liverpool with regards to personnel selections from Arne Slot which gave the team better balance, but there is no doubt that the mid-block needs massive improvements and the team needs more positional discipline high.

People will point to a 5-1 win, and that's because most of what Liverpool did with the ball was excellent (and Frankfurt were awful), but better opposition can cause Arne Slot's mid-block issues. We've already seen that against Chelsea/Palace this season. Still work to be done.

@EBL2017 The way you interpret these tactics show me you see the possibility of playing the game from only one lens Have you sat down and asked yourself Why does slot prefer to press passively rather than aggressively like Arteta or Klopp What does he want to achieve with it Because

@forcee99 Touched on why he does it in the thread. Read before criticising.

@EBL2017 So dropping Salah is key?

@DonStefanooo I think it’s too early to write Salah off just yet. People are very reactionary in football. You don’t write off guys with skillset, let alone his skillset and mindset together. He deserves time.

@EBL2017 Wirtz having Frimpong with him on the right was great. Gave Wirtz freedom to roam inside. Much better overall. Frimpong needs to get healthy!

@EBL2017 Think this is the idea ultimately, depending on the players’ chemistry to develop so the season ends strongly - inverse of last season. Interested to see how it looks with Salah in for Isak (injured). Difference with PSG: they pressed like monsters. Will Slot risk that?