It was the Community Shield, and that should not be forgotten. There isn’t anybody who has been watching English football for any period of time who hasn’t made the mistake of taking too seriously a conclusion drawn in the midst of the traditional curtain-raiser, giddy on the sight of Wembley in its pomp and the return of competitive club football from the summer wilderness.
Any analysis has to be tempered. Teams are always works in progress, evolving and developing, but that is never truer than in early August with new signings adapting to their teammates and surroundings, and others shaking the summer from their legs. Things will change. But after Liverpool’s 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace and subsequent defeat on penalties in the Community Shield, it can be said with a degree of certainty that their new signings have gelled better at the front of the pitch than the back.
Hugo Ekitiké, signed from Eintracht Frankfurt, and Florian Wirtz, signed from Bayer Leverkusen, had hugely encouraging debuts. Ekitiké and the attacking right-back Jeremie Frimpong, another from Leverkusen, both scored. But Liverpool were shockingly, startlingly open at times, as they have been throughout pre-season – and it cost them the game.
They are learning a new system, the 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 hybrid of last season yielding to a 4-2-3-1. It’s not a huge shift but Wirtz, as the most advanced of the triangle of central players between the centre-backs and the centre-forward, is very much a forward, whereas Dominik Szoboszlai, who tended to be the most advanced of the central midfield triangle last season, is an attacking midfielder. It’s not that Wirtz does not perform his defensive duties – he does, and is notably assiduous in doing so, a highly effective presser of the ball – it’s that he does so in slightly different positions.
The expectation is that the midfield two in most games going forward, at least when Liverpool are not going to monopolise possession, will be Ryan Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister. Gravenberch was unavailable for the Community Shield after becoming a father on Saturday night, while Mac Allister is still regaining fitness and was restricted to the final 20 minutes. That led to Szoboszlai occupying a deeper role than usual alongside Curtis Jones, who made a convincing case for occupying the role more frequently with a controlled performance in which he completed all 53 of the passes he attempted. It was after he and Ekitiké were withdrawn that Palace began to mount concerted pressure.
Coming to terms with an unfamiliar system without the two key cogs at the back of midfield, the area that was always likely to come under pressure with the change of formation, was far from ideal for Liverpool. They had looked entirely comfortable for the first 15 minutes but then a simple straight through-ball opened them up, Jean-Philippe Mateta played onside by at least one and possibly…
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