da dobrowin： Liverpool’s explosive attacking football has been one of the defining themes of the 2017/18 Premier League season, only bested on that front by official champions Manchester City.
da realsbet： It’s taken them to the final of the Champions League, where they’ll face Real Madrid in Kiev, and has lead many to speculate that Jurgen Klopp’s side will be the Citizens’ biggest competitors next season when they look to pull off the Premier League’s only successful title defence in a decade.
The fluidity, speed and netting prowess of the front three has been the centre-piece of the Reds’ potent campaign, but a 1-0 defeat to Chelsea on Sunday highlighted how Liverpool’s greatest strength can quickly become their biggest weakness, especially when Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah aren’t enjoying their strongest form.
The unconventional nature of Liverpool’s attacking shape essentially changes the formation from a 4-3-3 into a midfield diamond, with Firmino dropping to the tip of the engine room and Salah and Mane taking up inside positions to almost become a traditional two-man strike-force.
While that structure has served Liverpool so well on the most-part this season, opposition defences struggling to contain the movement, speed and quality within it, when the Reds aren’t operating at full throttle it leaves chasms of space out wide – something Chelsea’s wing-backs were quick to take advantage of.
Victor Moses, particularly, enjoyed a productive afternoon going forward as left-back Andrew Robertson found himself continually exposed. In fact, the Nigerian international created the most chances of any player on the pitch, four, including the assist for the only goal when he moved onto his left foot and curled in a cross for Olivier Giroud – who headed home from close range. He also nearly found the goal himself with a cross-come-shot, which just fizzed past Loris Karius’ far post, and completed the second-most sprints of any Chelsea player.
And Real Madrid will surely have taken notice of that ahead of this month’s European final. While it seems unlikely Zinedine Zidane will switch to a formation that uses wing-backs – he’s stuck with a back four all season – Dani Carvajal could return from injury in time for the clash in Kiev and much like Moses, he has the attacking prowess to exploit gaps out wide that Mane could leave behind by tucking in. The same goes for Marcelo on the other side, and Salah is even less inclined to track back than the Senegal international.
For all the talk over formations, structural flaws and how that could inspire Real Madrid though, Moses’ impressive performance shouldn’t be taken away from. More than once during the latter half of this season, the industrious wide-man – who Transfermarkt value at £16.2million – has been one of Chelsea’s key offensive threats.
It remains to be seen whether Moses will enjoy the same level of importance next season should Antonio Conte leave, with Chelsea potentially moving away from their three-man defence, but the former Wigan man has been a fantastic servant during the Italian’s time at the club.
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