Arne Slot's Liverpool 2.0 has just had a spectacular premiere at Wembley on Sunday and people have initially been able to evaluate The Kop. Sometimes they are excellent, but sometimes chaotic and need to improve.
The four Liverpool rookies had their first official debut for the club at Community Shield, the match they lost to Crystal Palace on the penalty pen. The record contract worth 116 million pounds, Florian Wirtz began in the attacking midfielder, Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez formed a new winged defender, while Hugo Ekitike led the attack at the central striker.
The only new face not included in the starting line -up was goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili, the bench for Alisson. And there have been some clear signs that this reform can bring good results. The match ended with a score of 2-2, with goals scored by Ekitike and Frimpong. This is the first time Liverpool has two players scoring in the official debut since August 2006, when Craig Bellamy and Mark Gonzalez scored against Maccabi Haifa.
But Liverpool 2.0 also made mistakes. They were twice equalized, often loose defense and were forced at the end of the match. “We have four new players and need time to adapt,” Slot spoke at a press conference after the match at Wembley.
But in this respect, the English Super Cup is not a particular case. Because in a 3-2 victory over Bilbao on Anfield last Monday, Liverpool also conceded twice from fixed situations.
The Crystal Palace players only have two great opportunities in this match – a penalty in the 13th minute of Jean -Philippe Mateta and the dangerous shot of Ismaila Sarr when the match is only 12 minutes. But they scored both goals.
New winged defender, new play style?
Start from the defense. For many years, especially under Jurgen Klopp, one of Liverpool's outstanding features is the strong attack brought by the trent-Arnander-Arnold and Andy Robertson. The rookies Frimpong and Kerkez have similar patterns – more attacks than traditional defenders.
However, while Kerkez is almost identical to Robertson about the gameplay, Frimpong plays bigger than his predecessor Alexander-Arnold. NHM do not expect adventurers like Alexander-Arnold in the center of the midfield, but expected the effective, classic husband-running phase.
It was the sharpness in this attack that led to Liverpool's second goal, when Frimpong broke into the penalty area and put the ball through the head of goalkeeper Dean Henderson of Palace. Whether he intentionally scored or not, the rush into the penalty area was still a spectacular and bold ball.
However, the problem still exists in the defense. Liverpool hopes Frimpong will bring certainty to the defense that they are sometimes missing with Alexander-Arnold, but the Dutch player “passed the ball” to Sarr in the offside position to bring the equalizer 2-2.
And Liverpool not only showed doubts about the defense in the position of the full -back. They were overcome by the opponent so easily by the penalty in the first half, when Mateta escaped from a cross -route pass, paving the way for the attack to end with the foul phase of Virgil Van Dijk with Sarr.
No center -back really stands out on Liverpool's bench. Jarell Quanusah moved to Leverkusen, and Joe Gomez was “slightly injured”. Coach Slot hopes he will return soon, but Liverpool needs to sign a contract with at least one more center -back before the summer market closed in early September.
Is Wirtz a missing piece?
Switch to midfield, Wirtz is Liverpool's best player in Wembley. Obviously, Slot has adjusted the system to match their record contract – and the initial signs are very positive. The German player has been assigned a more free and further role than the traditional attacking midfielder. Last season, Liverpool did not even play that role.
There were times when Wirtz almost formed a striker with Ekitike, because they played very close. In fact, before being replaced, Wirtz played at the 9th position at the time when Ekitike left the field.
Free competition allows the German player to move to the left wing, receive the ball and pass to Ekitike to open the score after only 4 minutes of rolling. There are a total of 22 passes leading to Liverpool's first goal, a 66 -second combination and the participation of 9 players.
Until she was replaced in the 84th minute, Wirtz still kept the perfect balance, always controlling the ball and never showing confusion at the fierce gameplay from the Palace midfield. His influence across the yard was too clear. Wirtz leads Liverpool in terms of passes and penetrates the 1/3 of the pitch, the number of crosses and the number of touches in Palace's penalty area. He is the one who touches the ball third. All passes passed his feet.
This raises the question of Mohamed Salah's role in the team. The Egyptian player did not score at Wembley, only one shot and in the penalty shootout, he shot the penalty.
How was Ekitike made a big difference?
Ekitike has the quality of a true striker that Liverpool did not have because of the shortcomings of Darwin Nunez. The goal of the French player was beautifully scored, but it should be remembered that Nunez also had an impressive debut in the English Super Cup match in 2023 with Man City. The Uruguayan player scored, surpassed Erling Haaland – and never achieved that achievement again.
And there was something like Nunez about Ekitike missed a header in the penalty area less than a minute after the second half began, and another chance he shot the crossbar in the penalty area. Just take good use of those two opportunities, Liverpool will win.
Liverpool also has weaknesses in midfield. Ryan Gravenberch was absent because his wife was giving birth, while Alexis Mac Allister was only healthy enough to come on from the bench. This facilitates Curtis Jones to play a central midfielder with Dominik Szoboszlai and the couple plays quite well. However, when Harvey Elliot and Wataru Endo came on the pitch, The Kop's power clearly decreased.
Liverpool will be very disappointed to miss a trophy, especially when confronting the team only 12th last season and are facing some injury problems. But NHM team should not be too strict with this result. First of all, only 1 of the 14 teams won the opening match of the last season to continue raising the Premier League Championship Cup – Man City in the 2018/19 season. In the Premier League era, only 8 out of 33 teams won the Super Cup English will win the championship at the end of the season.
And in a more relevant way, Slot 2.0 is still in the process of troubleshooting – and 38 more products will be launched.
