Liverpool Football Formation

Starting Lineup

Versus Newcastle 26-08-25 (more of a long-term fix):
- Main problem was luxury player in Wirtz barely involved and gifted possession from the entire team over and over.
- Gakpo is a great transitional player and also has great crossing against low-blocks, but overall offers less playmaking especially compared to Wirtz. Therefore, putting Wirtz out wide gives him more of an arena to make plays through 1v1s, weighted passes in behind and one-twos.
- Why will this happen more at LW? Well, it's because of the double pivot and wide wingers; the main playmaking from LFC last season came from Salah and Macca, a right winger and left pivot. The CAM position was used as a "dummy" to make space for just these players. Nothing has effectively changed that this season besides getting a new CF but this actually kind of makes it even worse for the prospect of a playmaking CAM as Ekitike comes deep quite often and again there's less good space for the CAM. However, granted a player like Szobo and to a lesser extent Jones replaces Wirtz at CAM, the LW position has untapped potential as Gakpo finds himself in tons of situations deep where you'd prefer a player able to dribble one or two, play a one-two and make plays. However, Gakpo's strength is more in finishing and the final third. That's not to say not to play Gakpo at LW, but also not to say not to again try him at CF as back-up for Ekitike, but I think he would be a better option from the bench and it would more importantly give Wirtz tons of avenues to make space from.
- Of course Frimpong & Macca weren't available, but replace for Jones and Bradley for this specific match.
Lessons:
- My early intuitions are good. I realised IMMEDIATELY that Wirtz at CAM would run into these problems without adjustments made. The idea was that maybe Frimpong at RB to give more running in behind would be sufficient, and maybe indeed that is the case and that Szobo just didn't provide that specific pace (as RB), but relying on ONE of our RB options to provide insane pace to make Wirtz work seems like a long-shot.
- Older point, but do not be too dismissive of two lankier players playing together. Gakpo and Ekitike have reasonably good chemistry, yet you immediately dismissed them. It shall be said that I wasn't that aware of what type of striker Ekitike was when I first stated this, and when I realised he was more of a creator CF I kind of got the idea, making Ekitike more of a set-up guy and Gakpo (even) more of a true inside forward.
- However, another point of Wirtz-Ekitike chemistry you again got right so far. Wirtz meeting and then having Ekitike meeting is counter-intuitive.
- Not a lesson, but will be very interesting to follow: will LFC make adjustments to account for a creator CAM, or will Wirtz be moved to LW, or even CF? I personally cannot imagine anything other than LW/CAM and very occasional CF for him, but if they stick with CAM, I'd imagine the key change to be made is to instruct all FBs, wingers and CF to make much more runs in behind. I still can't imagine how that'd work, because Salah is the tempo-setter now and he makes others run, both CDMs are staying at midfield, Ekitike drops deep and Gakpo likes receiving it out wide. The only tangible change that might actually help a lot is to give Kerkez more positional freedom at the expense of less freedom for Grav, but then I would really rather prefer LW Wirtz with Szobo CAM.