Liverpool vs. Manchester United preview: Three midfield stories that could decide the battle for first place - CBSSports.com
Liverpool vs. Manchester Married preview: Three midfield stories that could law the battle for first place
Two of the three leading contenders for the Premier League title are facing off and yet neither side has quite clicked into gear on a consistent basis ended this season. There are few greater indications as to how challenging this COVID-defined campaign has been than the fact that neither Manchester Married nor Liverpool quite seem to have their midfield functioning to the best of its abilities.
There is talent in abundance, indeed at times that has been the pickle for the respective head coaches. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will be able to unleash the agreeable player to win four Premier League Player of the Month awards in a single calendar year in Bruno Fernandes, the most transformative hiring English football has seen since Liverpool property-owning Virgil van Dijk two years before the Portuguese international's arrival. In back are big money acquisitions such as Paul Pogba, Fred and theoretically Donny van de Beek, the $54million summer hiring who can barely get a game.
Liverpool are no less star-studded but last season they spurious an impressive symbiosis with a trio who did not particularly contribute what is usually imagined of midfielders in a title-winning side. There was no free-scoring Frank Lampard-type by Fabinho, Jordan Henderson and Georginio Wijnaldum, who weighed in with 10 goals across their 95 appearances. Nor were they creative archetypes, that work was instead left to full-backs Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold. That is not to say that they did not contribute to the attacking play of Jurgen Klopp's champions - more on that later - but that if you obligatory someone to play the defense-splitting pass you would not be flinging the ball in Wijnaldum's direction.
It attractive feels like damning this midfield with faint journal to say it built a platform for others to unimaginative themselves but that is perhaps what it was most effective at. How often were Alexander-Arnold and Robertson free to contest with abandon because they knew that Henderson or Wijnaldum had dropped into the location they vacated? At its best last season there was a symbiosis across a team that had existences of understanding built into it. One of the challenging aspects of their title defense, impressive for how it has been conducted conception such adversity, has been the struggles to find what Arsene Wenger termed "automatisms" now that their old midfield has been scattered.
Fabinho's redeployment
It starts, attractive, with the exile of Fabinho from the midfield three. Injuries to Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez reached Klopp to move his anchorman into central safety and from the outset it should be celebrated this is a role he has devoted exceptionally, as though the player who began his career at right-back had been the next Thiago Silva all his life.
No center back has recovered possession more frequently than Fabinho this season, an achievement all the more impressive considering how rarely Liverpool don't have the ball. He sits in the Premier League's top 25 for tackles won and crucially has not made an dismay leading to a shot, let alone a goal. Should a Van Dijk and Gomez-less team win the title then Fabinho plucky to be among the top contenders for persons awards this season.
But losing Fabinho from the hub of midfield has had a valuable knock-on effect across the pitch. It's true that Liverpool have been minus the Brazilian, who sits at the base of their midfield, afore and coped rather ably last season. Indeed they lost only two of 23 games that he did not play in during the 2019-20 electioneer, but that, at least in part, was because they had Naby Keita able to step in and moneys something different further up the pitch. The faded RB Leipzig man was the forward-looking dynamo that could help Klopp's side rip ended opponents.
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Perhaps if the Guinean had been more frequently available this season Liverpool would have deceptive more of that form, after all his last two Premier League starts have seen the Reds gather 10 unanswered goals. A trio of Keita, Henderson and Wijnaldum clicks together comfortably on the bowling and on paper, perhaps more so than Liverpool's more curious grouping that sees youngster Curtis Jones take the former's place.
Jones has explored a prospect of real promise but with a 19-year-old in the engine room and a backline that arranges a mixture of repositioned players and youngsters like Rhys Williams Klopp has naturally had to look for his midfield to bring him greater guarantee, hence operating with a double pivot where two players effectively do the work of one Fabinho. Rather than a classic 4-3-3 Liverpool have often operated this season with something more like a 4-2-3-1 often with Wijnaldum high up the pitch.
Whichever rules he utilizes, Fabinho's departure from the engine room has often led to Jordan Henderson dropping deeper. He has done so with aplomb but it is perhaps not fully appreciated just how different the Liverpool captain is from his predecessor in the number six position. Outside of Anfield he is often examined as the safety blanket, a steady hand at the tiller who is not causing to push a team up the pitch. And yet last season, and this, no-one in this Liverpool midfield made more progressive passes than Henderson, who has often been the one to push the pace and unlock the wing backs from the edge of the continue third.
Henderson's range was often the reason Liverpool drove lickety-split up the pitch. He might not make the succor or even the pass that led to the succor but go a few steps back in most goals and the captain would have been the one advancing Liverpool up the pitch. No Liverpool midfielder was interested in more sequences that led to goals last season than his 19.
|
Georginio Wijnaldum |
1352 |
93.3% |
68 |
41 |
|
Fabinho |
1292 |
92.3% |
45 |
44 |
|
Curtis Jones |
672 |
91.3% |
69 |
39 |
|
Jordan Henderson |
1135 |
85.8% |
161 |
112 |
| Thiago Alcantara | 243 | 89.1% | 39 | 34 |
Adding Thiago into the frame would inevitably have changed that, there would be less need for Henderson to play those progressive passes with one of the best ball-playing midfielders in the earth ahead of him, but an injury to the Spaniard employing we have largely seen a compromised back of what this midfield can be, one where players are not in quite the intelligent spots to do what they do best.
Placing Henderson that degree deeper employing that when he manages to progress play advance Liverpool are not as high up the bowling as they might be, something that perhaps goes some way to explaining why this season the spy of them advancing to the final third and just stopping has been more prevalent. Reshuffling their entire rules - and that includes losing Van Dijk's laser passes out to the flanks - has robbed this team of some of the instinctive qualities that made them so devastating last season.
United's variable pairing
Of floods United do not have that same base plan to awkwardly deviate from. It has been a celebrated refrain in Solskjaer's most trying times that he has not imbued this club with an identity that can existed regardless of personnel, a way of playing that is demonstrably reflective of his team. Certainly that comes with its downsides. When things go deplorable they can go really wrong with no basics to fall back on. But the silver lining is that instead the exclusive has been able to flex his midfield tedious Fernandes to suit the needs of a clear match up.
Against Burnley, for instance, Nemanja Matic and Pogba were introduced to match up with one of the Premier League's most robust sides. When RB Leipzig came to Old Trafford Solskjaer switched to a diamond that made it easier to arrive through the Germans' press and unleash pacey forwards in behind. It earned them a 5-0 victory. There are, nonetheless, some players who he keeps gravitating towards for the biggest games.
In clear it seems likely that Scott McTominay and Fred will be tasked with forming the midfield base. The 12 games they have played together implicated meetings with Paris Saint-Germain, Arsenal, Manchester City and Chelsea. That neither started at Turf Moor on Tuesday only heightened the sensed that they were being held in reserve.
For Solskjaer the entertaining is clear. "With Bruno [Fernandes]'s goals, Scott and Fred with that energy and in that engine room are always key for us so our creative players can go on, effect chances, show their magic," he said at what time a 3-1 win over Everton in November that bask in what seemed to be mounting pressure on the Married manager.
Neither player is particularly showy nor do they expect heavy touches or involvement in the player. They are attractive like the ideal version of the fourth and fifth starters on the Brooklyn Nets next to James Harden, Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. If McTominay and Fred want to do more than move the ball to the superstar scorers they will be disappointed.
Between them they requires 9.17 progressive passes per 90 according to fbref, only 0.28 more than Henderson alone allows Liverpool. Their job is to get the ball either from the defenders or opponents - Fred in clear has tackled rather well this season - and give it to Fernandes. There have been flashes to suggest they can do more, for instance McTominay's barnstorming above Leeds United in a 6-2 win, but when they have one of the Premier League's outstanding attacking forces up of them it is rarely the plan for them to conclude any great burden.
Of course there is a flaw in that plan. If an antagonism can restrict supply to Fernandes then there is not a mammoth deal that a Fred and McTominay pairing can do with the ball. Those teams that have enjoyed disappointed against United of late like PSG, Manchester City and even, in defeat, Aston Villa - did so by piquant the double pivot to do more than just hump the ball to the attack.
What to do with Pogba
The currently response is that if you cannot give the ball to Fernandes give it to Pogba instead. It takes enough to shut down one midfield magician, two is usually beyond the near of opponents. Yet it has been a continual fights throughout Solskjaer's reign to fit the Frenchman in contradiction of his talismanic new attacking midfielder in an effective way.
Handing two of the three central midfield progresses to Pogba and Fernandes usually places an mammoth strain on the other, more defensively-minded player. Matic grand be able to do enough against Burnley but it would be a frank to repeat that feat when Roberto Firmino is dropping deep and Thiago is finding residence for Liverpool. As he has proven for France, Pogba can sit deep and keep things simple but it can feel like such a kill of his exorbitant talent that it is easy why managers look to get more out of him.
United's most effective compromise of late has been to position Pogba wide on the left, a residence in which he is liberated from much of his defending duties and can ghost around the pitching looking to make an impact. In that residence he has excelled, earning praise from those who have not stinted in their criticism of him in the past.
"I really think Pogba's far better when he plays off that left-hand side ahead position because it frees him up," said Gary Neville this week.
"It establishes him more like a maverick, he can go and do his minor one-on-ones, his little tricks. I think when he plays deeper, he sometimes stands collected and plays and tries to look for the killer pass too early."
It is hard to see how he could unleash that "maverick" side alongside Liverpool if he comes up against a flank of Alexander-Arnold and Mohamed Salah. Equally, if Klopp's lustrous back is going to dart forward Solskjaer grand want the pace and incision of Rashford attacking the residence in behind, driving at either a recently-injured Matip or one of the young center backs who has stepped up in his place.
As such it seems eminently plausible that one of the best midfielders in the earth will begin one of the biggest games of his time at the club watching on from the substitutes bench.
That in itself is in the entertaining of these two curious contenders, clubs who thoroughly merit their residence at the top of the Premier League atrocious but still feel like lesser versions of what they could be. If only Fabinho were not obligatory in defence we might see the dynamic Liverpool midfield of last season, perhaps with Thiago to add a touchy of sparkle. Manchester United's options are a dream on paper but deploying the very best of them in a succeeding team often feels like a nightmare made real for Solskjaer.
The midfield quiz marks might be large enough for these two side as to reduce the title chase door open for Manchester City, who seem to be finding the balance neither of their title rivals quite have in the discouraged of their team. Equally it is hard to see how a season as demanding and draining as this one can have a champion that is not hamstrung in some way. One tying is clear, as these two title contenders fallacious into the second half of the fight there is room for significant improvements in both midfields. If either Solskjaer or Klopp can find that next step up it could be enough to swing the title race in their favor.
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