Ньюкаслтай 2-2-оор тэнцсэн тоглолтын дараа Ливерпүүлийн шинэ дасгалжуулагч төвийн бүс дэх сул талыг засахаар ажиллаж байна.
Ливерпүүлийн шинэ дасгалжуулагч Андони Ираолагийн өмнө тулгарч буй хамгийн том сорилт бол хагас хамгаалалтын шугамын тэнцвэрийг сайжруулах явдал юм. Райан Гравенберх бөмбөг хүлээн авах чадвараараа Премьер лигийн шилдэг тоглогчдын нэг хэдий ч багийн довтолгооны бүтэц алдагдах үед хамгаалалт эрсдэлд орж байна. Ньюкаслтай хийсэн тоглолтын үеэр Ливерпүүлийн хагас хамгаалагчид босоо байрлалд шилжсэн нь сөрөг довтолгоог зогсооход хүндрэл учруулж, Энтони Эланга болон Жо Уиллок нарын гоолыг оруулах боломжийг бүрдүүлжээ.
Андони Ираола хамгаалалтын шугамыг урагшлуулж, багийн нягтралыг хадгалахыг шаардаж байгаа ч сөрөг довтолгооны эсрэг байрлалын алдаа гаргасаар байна. Тоглолтын явцад дасгалжуулагч Алексис Мак Алистерийг гүн рүү татаж, Райан Гравенберхийг илүү урагшлуулсан нь өмнөх улиралд Арне Слотын хэрэгжүүлж байсан тактикаас эрс ялгаатай өөрчлөлт боллоо.
Бямба гарагт болох Ноттингем Форесттой хийх тоглолтод Ливерпүүл өмнөх улирлын 3-0-ийн хожигдлын дараах сургамжийг ашиглах шаардлагатай байна. Ираолагийн баг талбайн төв хэсгээр сөрөг довтолгоо нэвтрүүлэхгүйн тулд тактикийн хувьд илүү нягт, хариуцлагатай тоглох нь чухал юм.
Дэлгэрэнгүйг эх сурвалжаас харах
↓Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
Over the last couple of seasons, Ryan Gravenberch has been Liverpool’s bellwether player. When the Dutchman has been on form, Liverpool have been on a title-winning level. When Gravenberch has looked tired and struggled to make a positive impact, Liverpool have often been wretched.
There’s a chicken-and-egg debate to be had there, but Gravenberch was magnificent in the first half of 2024-25 in a surprise deep position as Liverpool almost had the title sewn up by the turn of the year, then slowed down as Liverpool coasted to the title.
Last season, when Arne Slot was trying to integrate more forward-thinking players in various positions — Jeremie Frimpong, Florian Wirtz, Alexander Isak — Liverpool lacked balance, and Gravenberch’s naturally attack-minded instincts often felt misplaced.
One of Andoni Iraola’s main tasks as the new Liverpool manager is fixing the midfield balance issue — and, in turn, ushering Gravenberch back to his performances from two seasons ago.
Gravenberch has one outstanding quality: he is the best midfielder in the Premier League at receiving the ball. His trademark move, which opponents took the best part of a season to work out, is his ability to open his body out when receiving the ball and, rather than controlling it and shielding it, take a small touch to shift past an opponent and stride into attack.
Here’s an example from his standout 2024-25 season against Manchester United. An unthreatening midfield situation becomes a good shooting chance thanks to one small movement as he receives the ball.
When Liverpool struggled last season, it was often because they couldn’t feed the ball into Gravenberch. In their worst league result of the campaign, a 3-0 home defeat to Nottingham Forest, Sean Dyche tasked both his central attackers with blocking off any forward passes into the Dutchman.
In Iraola’s opening game, a 2-2 draw with Newcastle, the opposition weren’t as disciplined in midfield. And yet Liverpool still ran into problems, evidenced by their two concessions.
There are various interesting elements of Liverpool’s play in the build-up to Newcastle’s opener, scored by Anthony Elanga. First, with debutant Jeremy Jacquet in possession, Dominik Szoboszlai is gesturing for him to bring the ball forward, to keep moving until he’s confronted by an opponent. There are various reasons this is useful: simply to bring the ball up the pitch, but also to attract pressure and to keep the side compact. The final reason probably wasn’t Szoboszlai’s main thought. But it was maybe the most crucial factor.
A few seconds later, Frimpong is in possession at right-back. Here, not only does Szoboszlai fake a run into the channel, but Gravenberch also suddenly makes a movement into a position between the lines. Liverpool end up with the two deep midfielders in their 4-2-3-1 in a position between the lines. The ball goes backward to Jacquet.
Shortly afterwards, when Jacques plays the ball back out to Frimpong, Liverpool’s three midfielders — Gravenberch, Wirtz and Szoboszlai — are in a vertical line. This is just a snapshot. Usually, they were more evenly distributed. But Liverpool often end up in positions where, if possession is lost, their midfield can be bypassed easily.
And then comes Gravenberch’s trademark move, going past Lewis Miley with ease. Again, this ability is a huge strength. But his final pass goes astray, and now it feels like a huge weakness.
What is essentially a clearance on the slide from Newcastle right-back Amar Dedic suddenly becomes a perfect forward pass to William Osula. He waits for the run of Elanga, slips him in, and Newcastle are 1-0 up with an alarmingly simple counter-attack.
From another angle, it’s incredible how much space Osula — and the excellent Yoane Wissa — are afforded at the turnover. The primary reason is the positioning of the Liverpool centre-backs, who have remained deep and put no pressure on Osula.
Sure enough, the next time Liverpool build an attack, Iraola is doing a Szoboszlai. He’s gesturing at the centre-backs — probably Virgil van Dijk in particular — to push up and keep the side compact.
Eventually, they take up a position midway inside the opposition half, ready to spring forward and confront Osula if he receives possession again. They could probably be even tighter, but Iraola clearly spotted that this was an issue.
The problem is that Liverpool’s second concession came in similar circumstances. This one is a bit of a freak incident — Gravenberch was tempted forward to shoot when a loose ball dropped his way, then his shot bounced off two opponents and fell for him again, so he attempted a backheel for Isak. This pass again struck a defender and bounced to Wissa, in a position to break. Same again?
Well, yes and no. The funny thing here is that while the defenders are still quite deep, Szoboszlai is in a position to cover for Gravenberch. He gets himself goalside of Wissa and briefly holds him up. Wirtz confronts him from the other side, too. But Wissa gets past both of them, and the move eventually ends with substitute Joe Willock curling home from the edge of the box — again, a direct counter-attack through the middle.
Raising the roof. ⚡️@Joewillock pic.twitter.com/iECS4JqJf9
— Newcastle United (@NUFC) August 23, 2026
And so, for this goal, the problem is less about tactics and positioning. It’s more about players not doing their job. Wissa is excellent in these situations and was outstanding on the day. But Szoboszlai was in a position to stop him and got turned easily.
Iraola speaks with Szoboszlai after the game at St James’ Park (Molly Darlington/Getty Images)
Interestingly, Iraola subsequently introduced Alexis Mac Allister in the deep role, pushing Gravenberch higher to his old No 8 position. That’s the opposite of a move Slot often made last season — he sometimes used to withdraw a centre-back and put Gravenberch into defence to get him on the ball more when Liverpool’s build-up play was suffering.
Liverpool’s next game is at home against Nottingham Forest on Saturday, the fixture they lost 3-0 last season. It’s a somewhat different Forest side now, having changed managers twice since their 3-0 win at Anfield last season. But Liverpool are likely to face familiar issues, and Iraola must ensure his side are less vulnerable to counter-attacks through midfield.
