Arne Slot's NEW idea doesn't work - but the potential is incredible | OneFootball

Arne Slot's new idea

So the wingers are out and centre-midfielders are in. If you count Florian Wirtz, Liverpool included five of them against Tottenham Hotspur, all floating behind Hugo Ekitike.

That's the key, though - they all play behind him. Liverpool don't have midfielders who frequently run ahead of the forwards or look to stretch defensive lines with their movement.

In fact, all five of these midfielders were no.10s when they arrived to Liverpool's first-team. Curtis Jones was an attacking midfielder (or left-winger) for the youth sides, while Ryan Gravenberch, Dominik Szoboszlai, Alexis Mac Allister and Wirtz were all signed from that position.

Yet Liverpool are packing a midfield with them all. It doesn't really work as they're all largely trying to do the same thing. All five of them want the the ball to feet in front of their defender.

Only Szoboszlai is really a direct player, someone who can make those runs behind. But even then he'd prefer to drop into space, receive the ball, get his head up and look to be the one playing the decisive pass.

But when all the midfielders are doing that, there's not really anyone to pass to. Especially as Ekitike isn't one to run in behind every time - he'd quite like the ball to feet, too.

And that's why you get what we saw against Spurs: Liverpool playing lots and lots and lots of passes in front of their opponents. Plenty of movement - just not into goal-scoring positions.

But the potential is huge. Elite football teams gain an advantage by leveraging something that other teams can't match and having a plethora of fantastic, versatile attacking midfielders is an example of that.

Liverpool and Slot just need to find a way to translate that into winning football. It's difficult to think of a way they can do that with all five midfielders on the pitch, given Ekitike's profile - having a forward who does just run in behind and finish may suit five attacking midfielders more.

We think the answer might be dropping one for a defender, playing with a back three and full-on wingbacks to stretch the play. The extra defender would also put less pressure on the then-four midfielders to defend and cover space in transition.

So there is real potential there, even if Slot hasn't found the right balance yet. Liverpool boast incredible midfield options who together could open up any team on the planet if they're given the right players to create those chances for.

That team could be unstoppable, in fact.