By the 18th minute of their FA Community Shield penalty loss earlier at Wembley Stadium in England, Liverpool had completed three long over-the-top passes, one of which resulted in a goal.
This might be the new Liverpool under the debut league-winning Dutch manager, Arne Slot.
In what turned out to be a 53-minute first half, Liverpool had played 13 of these long over-the-top passes – six from Virgil van Dijk and three from their Brazilian goalkeeper Alisson Becker, with Kerkez, Curtis Jones and fresh recruit Florian Wirtz also chipping in.
It wasn’t the only notable change in this new-look Liverpool side.
When the second debutant, Jeremie Frimpong, scored his fluke, mistimed cross for the third goal of the match, the second for the Merseyside team, another major change was clear for all to see.
When Dominik Szoboszlai played one of those OTT passes, Frimpong was the widest Liverpool player as a fullback.
Mohamed Salah stays wide, tugging the halfway line only when Liverpool are defending. As soon as they gather the ball, Frimpong moves up and Sala inside.
Clearly, their Dutch mentor wants his players to jump into offensive slots immediately his team takes possession, but this is highly dangerous.
Liverpool use attack-minded Frimpong as a full-back on the right and, curiously, Dutchman Cody Gakpo on the left. Whatever benefit Slot thought could be extracted from Serbian-born Hungarian national Milos Kerkez tucking in as a third centre-back is unclear. However, the strategy proved ineffective, as each time the South London Steve Parish-controlled club shifted the ball to the right, Daniel Munoz found himself unrestricted and wide open. The Colombian made so many crosses that once the adrenaline of winning a trophy has worn off, his kicking leg will be heavy for weeks.
In the 47th minute, Ismaïla Sarr missed the ball with a diving header in the small box from the Colombian right foot from wide.
It wasn’t the only risky change that Slot seems to be working on for this season.
In the first quarter, Liverpool were so high—about 5 metres into the Palace half when attacking—but this didn’t seem well thought out. Mateta’s penalty in the 15th minute directly resulted from this miscalculation.
Palace intercepted in midfield and played the ball over the top through the middle. Mateta sprang the offside. Although Becker made a save, the ball subsequently fell to Ismaila Sarr. His dribble inside the D-line was interrupted by an outstretched Van Dijk leg. Referee Chris Kavanagh had no hesitation in pointing to the spot.
At under-14, when coaches teach how to spring into offensive positions, teens are told, “count to five” in secure possession. Obviously, Slot hasn′t.
This was evident in a bizarre moment in the fifth minute of additional time in the first half (45+5 min); Palace played an innocuous ball into the Liverpool box with Munoz rushing in. It is important here to note that Gakpo was assigned to watch the Colombian, but since he had drifted to the middle, the Dutch had lost him. As the floated ball came in, instead of waiting to see if Becker would collect, Gakpo turned and started running in the opposite direction.
Ultimately, Becker successfully gathered the ball at Munoz′s feet.
Slot didn’t change this for the second half, even though Palace should have scored more than once from Liverpool, either being caught too high or triggering their attacks without the ball being in secure possession.
In fact, this ill-timed offensive trigger led to Sarr’s equalising goal in the second half.
From a bit of a melee on Liverpool’s left in their own defensive third, the ball trickled to first-half Palace substitute Will Hughes. The left-footed ginger midfielder made a simple pass through for Sarr, with the Liverpool defence still in their forward trigger.
It is unclear if Slot didn’t see these obvious flaws, but they were the reason Liverpool players ended up on the floor after Justin Devenny slotted the winning penalty in the shootout for Palace.
Many will point to former Manchester United keeper Dean Henderson as the Palace hero for his saves in the shootout, and they won’t be wrong, but the main reason for the Liverpool loss was poorly executed defensive tactics.
On this display, Liverpool will be exciting with their intricate Manchester City-like interplay around the opposition box, but will leak goals at the other end.
This indicates an unlikely title defence.
Final score: 2-2 at full time, with Palace winning the shootout 3-2.
