By Andrew Hanna
During their fourth game in the 23/24 pre-season,Liverpoolshowed a new offensive approach vs Bayern using their front line, so what was their new intention?
The Reds started in their normal 4–3–3 shape with Trent joining the midfield with Jones. Gakpo drops on the same line with MacAllister and Szoboszlai along with Salah providing width on the right side and Jota on the left but moving more centrally.
The German side pressing scheme was based on Tel pressing one of the CBs directing the ball to one side. If the ball was on Liverpool’s left side, Sane would press Robertson, Musiala would mark Jones and Gnabry with Trent. Laimer and Kimmich marking Szoboszlai and MacAllister with the fullbacks marking the wingers.
The intention of Gakpo’s dropping is to create a 3v2 situation with Mac and Dominic against Kimmich and Laimer in the midfield (Notice how Gakpo is positioned between Lamier and Kimmich above) and if one of Upamecano and Kim followed Gakpo, a space is created at the backline that could be exploited by Jota, Salah and sometimes MacAllister that gives a final shape of 3–2–5.
As shown below the backline of three with the double pivot of Jones & Trent. Notice how Gakpo dropped again on the same line with Szoboszlai and MacAllister.
Trent’s pass could find Jota with Upamecano again stepping out of his position and deciding to go back so Jota successfully found Gakpo and they escaped the press.
Moreover, as shown below Gakpo received Alisson’s direct pass and was followed by Kim who left a space behind him which MacAllister was going to run into. Davies is pinned by Salah on the right side, Kimmich was coming back from pressing Trent, Pavard stepped to press Jones as Alisson’s participation in the build-up made it harder for Sane to stay with Jones and finally, Upamecano is marking Jota and Laimer is in between both Gapko and Mac Allister.
Later on, as shown above, Jota would be central from the beginning to pin Upamecano so Kim also had to stay in position to cover his French teammate and Gakpo would be free in the midfield as we discussed earlier.
Nevertheless, one of the drawbacks of this new shape was all of the play was directed to Liverpool’s left side. Due to the gap between Matip and Salah as Trent is inverted while MacAllister had to stay in an advanced position, almost the right side didn’t have any part during build-up and failed to progress the ball that is why we didn’t see Salah’s normal performance in the first half, not the same as the L.H.S in which Robertson is present between the LCB and the LW or Szoboszlai can drop in.
Using Gakpo in that role with the presence of Mac Allister, Szoboszlai and Jota happened for the first time during this pre-season and showed an interesting approach. However, it didn’t work perfectly but impressively enough to see again in the future.
