Arne Slot passes Liverpool's first test thanks to clever adjustments to his game | Liverpool
ILast season's champions, Manchester City, started with a 2-0 victory over ChelseaLast season's runners-up Arsenal started with a 2-0 win over Wolves and Liverpool, who finished third last season, started with a 2-0 win at Ipswich.
Both City and Arsenal will acknowledge that improvement is needed, while City may take some satisfaction from failing to beat Chelsea in either league game last season and are therefore already up to the standards they set last season. But it is probably Liverpool's victory that feels more significant. Replacing a figure like Jürgen Klopp It's tough. Any manager who is at a club for nine years leaves a void when he leaves, and even more so if he is as charismatic and successful as the German. Arne Slot had a decent record in the Eredivisie with Feyenoord, but many managers have found the transition from Dutch football to the Premier League difficult. His start, however, was probably as satisfying as could have realistically been expected.
Obviously, there are much tougher tests to come. One of only three teams that, according to the Opta supercomputer, has more than a 0.2% chance of winning the league, is expected to beat one of the promoted teams, even away from home on the opening weekend of the season, when they are riding high. No one can say after the weekend that Slot will definitely triumph. But what was clear was how, after a difficult start, he transformed the game with his adjustments at half-time and, coming from the honest school of Dutch football, he was only too happy to explain exactly what he had done.
Ipswich had plenty of reasons to be pleased. Squad size and lack of resources can come back to haunt a team, but they pushed high and played boldly from the back, as they did to achieve promotion success. Southampton did something similar in losing to Newcastle with 10 men, and the courage of promoted teams, trying to play the progressive football that got them promoted, has been a feature of recent seasons. Burnley last year shows that intent is not enough. That may not be the case for Kieran McKenna's side, but in the first half, without really threatening, they prevented Liverpool from developing any kind of rhythm.
At the time, the temptation was to look at Liverpool and see a team that looked a little lacklustre, in need of some sort of inspiration. Had that continued, there would have been much talk of a post-Klopp hangover and questions asked about Liverpool's future. Lack of transfer activity this season After the arrival of Michael Edwards as chief executive of football and Richard Hughes as sporting director, that was not the case and Slot deserves credit for that.
He took off Jarrell Quansah and replaced Ibrahima Konaté, concerned that the 21-year-old was struggling in the air against Liam Delap. Quansah won just 50% of his aerial duels; Konaté won 80%. That eased the sense of potential threat, but it also gave Liverpool greater control of the ball, and that allowed them to set pressing traps for Ipswich, using their approach against them.
In the second half, there was a clear attempt to get Mohamed Salah into positions where he could play one-on-one against Ipswich left-back Leif Davis. The most obvious, perhaps, was the opening goal, which started with Andy Robertson in the left-back position. Ipswich’s pressing was directed to that side of the pitch to try and corral him, at which point the ball was quickly switched by Alisson to Konaté. Ryan Gravenberch, playing deep in midfield, gave up an option inside, beating Conor Chaplin. That forced Massimo Luongo to cover the area, leaving Trent Alexander-Arnold with a channel of space in front of him. Gravenberch advanced towards Salah in the middle of the pitch, passed the ball to Alexander-Arnold and worked his way into space behind Davis to receive a perfectly weighted return, ran on and crossed low for Diogo Jota to score.
Chaplin and Luongo were perhaps feeling the pace – both were taken off soon after – but while Ipswich may have run out of steam, Liverpool also deserve credit for the greater speed and purpose of their passing after half-time. But there were repeated balls over the top to Salah, while Gravenberch was much more involved in offering options to his back four, with Jota’s movement drawing in defenders covering the area. In the second half they had 15 shots rather than the three before the break, with an xG of 2.6 after half-time compared to 0.1 before.
There is a lots of problems That will determine whether Slot is successful at Anfield, but his first managerial test in the game, of finding a way around opponent pressure, was passed in style.
This is an extract from Soccer with Jonathan Wilson, the Guardian US's weekly look at the game in Europe and beyond. Subscribe for free here. Do you have a question for Jonathan? Email footballwithjw@theguardian.comand will respond better in a future edition.
