{"id":89304,"date":"2025-09-27T18:09:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T18:09:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/89304\/"},"modified":"2025-09-27T18:09:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T18:09:09","slug":"arne-slot-explains-liverpools-failed-formation-change-and-florian-wirtzs-role-liverpool-fc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/89304\/","title":{"rendered":"Arne Slot explains Liverpool’s failed formation change and Florian Wirtz\u2019s role – Liverpool FC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Arne Slot<\/a> has detailed the reasoning behind his first-half tactics which didn\u2019t work out, as Liverpool lost 2-1 against Crystal Palace<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

With Ryan Gravenberch<\/a>, Dominik Szoboszlai<\/a>, Alexis Mac Allister<\/a> and Florian Wirtz<\/a> on the pitch, Liverpool lined up in a formation close to 4-2-2-2. <\/p>\n

Mo Salah<\/a> and Alexander Isak<\/a> were the Reds\u2019 most advanced players, ahead of Szoboszlai and Wirtz who were the two most attacking midfielders. <\/p>\n

This left just Conor Bradley<\/a> and Milos Kerkez<\/a> to provide the Reds\u2019 width, though, a problem with which Liverpool struggled to deal before the break. <\/p>\n

Slot explained why he chose not to start Cody Gakpo<\/a>, saying: \u201cWe wanted to overload the midfield with Florian Wirtz<\/a> in the first half \u2013 that\u2019s why we didn\u2019t start with Cody.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if you are 1-0 down and need a goal, you prefer to have width on both sides, and that\u2019s why we brought Cody in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once Gakpo came on at half time, Liverpool returned to a more regular 4-2-3-1, as Wirtz began to get the ball in more threatening positions.<\/p>\n

Later in the second half, the head coach also sent on Federico Chiesa<\/a> and Rio Ngumoha<\/a>, as the Reds pushed for a late equaliser which eventually came from the former.<\/p>\n

Slot added: \u201cLater on, we kept on bringing in offensive players that can score goals, taking the risk, because you\u2019re already 1-0 down. <\/p>\n

\"LONDON,<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd again, we scored. \u2018Deserved\u2019 is maybe not [the right word] to say, but if you base only on the second half and the chances we had. We were just discussing Isak, Florian Wirtz<\/a> of course had a very big chance as well. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe were closer, closer to scoring a goal. So yeah, that was the reason to bring Cody in, because the way we played the first half wasn\u2019t as I was hoping for before the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the Dutchman said, Liverpool did improve in the second half, producing 1.87 xG compared to 0.37 xG before the break. <\/p>\n

However, Palace retained their threat and made Liverpool pay for a lapse in concentration at the end through Eddie Nketiah\u2019s late winner.<\/p>\n

\"LONDON,<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the second half was a much better performance from us,\u201d Slot told the press.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe created chances, which not many teams do here or if Palace plays away. It\u2019s very hard to create a chance. We created quite a lot for us to score the goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd when we did, [there was] limited time to play and to concede another set-piece goal is then as disappointing as our first half was.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arne Slot has detailed the reasoning behind his first-half tactics which didn\u2019t work out, as Liverpool lost 2-1…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89305,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[2221,58373,18,19,17,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-89304","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-arne-slot","9":"tag-crystal-palace-vs-liverpool","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}