Match date: 17 August 2014

Liverpool and Brendan Rodgers have had a busy summer so far with their sale of Luis Suarez to Barcelona and the spending that has followed. Rodgers has spent the money wisely, including using some of it on Adam Lallana, Dejan Lovren, and Rickie Lambert, all who played for Southampton last year.

For Southampton, the summer has been a hard one. Mauricio Pochettino left for Tottenham, with Ronald Koeman taking over. Along with the players Liverpool bought, Luke Shaw, Calum Chambers, and Dani Osvaldo have all left the club.

Liverpool’s Shape

Much of this summer’s talk for Liverpool has been how they and Brendan Rodgers would manage without Luis Suarez. During Suarez’s time at Liverpool, he played in a variety of systems from Dalglish’s attempts to play a 4-4-2 with Suarez partnered with Andy Carroll, his time as a lone striker under Rodgers’ first year, to last season where Liverpool played a number of different systems.

WIth Suarez gone, it arguably makes Liverpool a bit more stable on the field as Rodgers now has a similar decision to play one striker, making the midfield stronger. This match saw some version of that, with Liverpool lining up in a 4-2-3-1. With the line ups announced, one would have expected Gerrard and Lucas as the pair of holding midfielders, with Henderson in front of them, Coutinho on the left, and Sterling on the right. However, this wasn’t the case as Sterling played on the left, Coutinho in the number 10 role, and Henderson on the right. Below, you can see an example of the 4-2-3-1 shape.

This caused some problems for Liverpool, particularly with Gerrard and Lucas as the holding midfielders. It was interesting that Rodgers elected to play a 4-2-3-1, but it was even more surprising that Lucas was included in the starting XI over both Allen and Can. With both Lucas and Gerrard, Liverpool were forced deep because of their own tactics rather than Southampton’s pressing, which was nonexistent in the first half of the match. However, with Lucas and Gerrard holding it made Liverpool’s build up play in their own half slow and too compact, which allowed Southampton the ability to let Liverpool play in front of their midblock and apply minimal pressure when they wanted, thus eliminating time and space that Gerrard would have had on the ball if Liverpool were in more of a 4-3-3 with either Allen or Can in the side. Below you can see where Gerrard received the ball with Lucas on the pitch and the amount of times he played it to Martin Skrtel during that time, the player he played the ball most to in the match. Prior to the 63rd minute, when Lucas was on, Gerrard played Skrtel 16 times in his own half. Following Joe Allen’s introduction, and the switch to a 4-3-3, Southampton’s midfield were forced deeper, thus giving Gerrard more space. As a result, the captain played Skrtel the ball just two more times, both of which were in Southampton’s half.

At times, Liverpool looked more like a 4-4-2 with a diamond midfield, similar to how they looked last year with both Sturridge and Suarez on the pitch. This time, however, instead of Suarez, Sterling took a role alongside Sturridge, always coming in from the left. In this case, Gerrard was the holding player, with Lucas on the left, Henderson on the right, and Coutinho behind the two front players. Liverpool’s first goal was a good example of the fluid movement between the 4-2-3-1 and the diamond midfield with Sterling partnering Sturridge. The diamond became much more obvious when Lambert came on for Coutinho in the 76th minute. At that point, Lambert not only gave Liverpool a bigger target inside the box, but also allowed Liverpool to match up 1v1 with the Southampton centre backs.

Southampton’s Defense, Coutinho Controlled

One of the most notable differences between Pochettino’s Southampton and Koeman’s is the lack of pressing that was evident in the first half of the match. Pochettino found success with Southampton, and beat Liverpool, because of their intense pressing. Without it, Southampton struggled in the first half and due to the Saints’ playing such a high line, Liverpool were able to consistently pick out long passes to Sterling and Sturridge.

At times in the first half, James Ward-Prowse put occasional pressure on Gerrard and Lucas, but was usually seen holding his position in front of Wanyama and Schneiderlin, who were sitting rather than supporting any pressing from the front three, which again, was inconsistent. Instead they looked to limit the space that Coutinho could play in. The Brazilian playmaker has arguably been Liverpool’s best play in the preseason, impressing against the likes of Roma and Dortmund, but with two holding midfielders, Southampton were able to limit the space that Coutinho enjoys playing in. Below, is a rather good example of just how intent Southampton were on closing Coutinho down.

In the second half, down a goal, Southampton began to press with more intent. Koeman forced his side up 10 yards and they looked much better in the opening minutes of the second half, which eventually led to a good goal from Clyne in the 56th minute.

Prior to their goal, they had at least two other good chances through Wanyama and then had a good ball by James Ward-Prowse cut out by Manquillo. You can notice above the that the tackles by Southampton were being further up the pitch and the high line was able to help squeeze the midfield space now that there was pressure on the ball in midfield and when Liverpool had the ball in the back.

Rodgers’ Tactical Changes, Koeman’s Substitutions

As stated before, following Southampton’s goal, Rodgers took off Lucas and introduced Allen, swtiching Liverpool from a 4-2-3-1 to a 4-3-3, with Allen making good forward runs in support of the front players and also helping a much better pressing effort by Liverpool. With Coutinho playing on the right, Henderson came inside and was able to make more forward runs as well. The second came for Rodgers was bringing on Rickie Lambert, for his Anfield debut, in replace of Coutinho. This, as mentioned above, changed Liverpool into a distinct 4-4-2 with a diamond midfield and allowed Liverpool more pressure on the Southampton centre backs inside their area.

Koeman didn’t so much change his shape, but instead replaced Tadic with Shane Long, who Southampton spent £12m for. The Irish striker didn’t have a huge impact on the match, misplacing many of his passes around the area and missing a good opportunity to equalise for the Saints after Mignolet tipped Schneiderlin’s effort against the crossbar.

Conclusion

Liverpool were lucky to come away with three points. They looked shaky and as they dropped off more and more in an effort to protect their lead, only to invite more pressure from Southampton. Without both Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge available for selection, it seems as though Liverpool should be able to control games easier, but they continued to look unable to close games out.

Southampton looked a much better side than what was expected of them considering the sales of Rickie Lambert, Adam Lallana, Luke Shaw, Dejan Lovren, and Calum Chambers, especially after Koeman’s instructions at half time to press higher up the pitch.