Daniel’s Debrief: Ipswich Town 0-2 Liverpool

COMETH THE HOUR.

Cometh the hour, Cometh the man.

Diogo Jota opens the scoring after 59 minutes and 22 seconds with a delightful goal and sets Arne Slot on the way to his first win as Liverpool manager.

Moments earlier, he misses a great chance with a header that you’d always have backed him to score with.

But, Jota is coolness personified. The fact he missed the previous chance doesn’t bother him. He’s like a dice.

People think that if you roll a 6 you’re unlikely to roll a 6 the second time but the thing is, dice don’t have a memory. Every roll is afresh.

And for Jota, on the rare occasions he doesn’t gobble up a chance, you can bank on him not letting it affect him when the next one comes around.

When the ball is rolled into him by Mohamed Salah, he opens his left foot up and calmly slots it home for the opener.

There is no-one in this team I’d have rather that chance fallen to.

This is my 22nd season of watching Liverpool. There is no-one in that period of time that I’d rather have that chance fall to.

It’s his efficiency and his proficiency. He converts chances with the absolute minimum of fuss, and the absolute maximum of probability.

His range of finishes in his locker is extraordinary.  I’ve previously compared him to Ruud Van Nistelrooy for his power, last week’s volley against Sevilla was Marco Van Basten-esque and yet today’s goal is more reminiscent of Francesco Totti.

For Liverpool, it’s 25 right-footed goals, 20 with his left and 11 from the head. 

He can score in any way, he scores however the situation demands him to.

It is no surprise that he was chosen to start up front ahead of Darwin Nunez and the manager spoke in pre-season about how he will be using Cody Gakpo mainly as a left winger.

Keeping Jota fit for the majority of the campaign is surely a target for both club and player because his impact when available is so tangible that it amounts to points and league positions.

Jota supplies the finishing touch but there’s so much brilliant work that lays the foundations for him to be presented with the chance.

Ibrahima Konate places a tremendous amount of faith in Ryan Gravenberch’s touch as he thunders a pass into his feet. 

Gravenberch takes it no problem, with Omari Hutchinson and Massimo Luongo on him, resists the pressure and drills the pass perfectly to Salah.

Then, the Salah-Trent Alexander-Arnold connection returns. They play a delightful one-two; Salah is galloping away up-field before his first-time pass has even reached the right-back.

The pass in behind from Alexander-Arnold is exquisite. He gets the line and the length absolutely spot on, and by playing it in between Jacob Greaves and Leif Davis, he allows Salah to get in behind.

Salah’s delivery to Jota is spot on and right on the hour, Liverpool go ahead.

It is an immaculate goal in all elements of its construction. It relies on delicious technique right the way from Konate to Jota.

It’s nine touches between Konate receiving the ball in his own box and Jota scoring in the opposite one. Nine touches and Liverpool go the length of the field.

And it’s this efficiency with moving the ball, it’s this need for the technique to be perfect that Arne Slot has really worked on in pre-season. Every training video that the club put out on Twitter seemed to feature at least one instance of him bellowing “one or two touches”. 

He demands decisiveness and efficiency on the ball. It’s probably the most well-constructed goal we’ve scored in the calendar year.

It’s followed minutes later with a goal from Salah and in the space of five minutes, Liverpool have taken the game away from Ipswich.

Salah is excellent throughout. In the difficult first half, he was one of the few who looked threatening and looked comfortable with proceedings.

It’s a nice, tidy finish for his goal but more encouraging for me is the positions he takes up during the game. Playing much more narrow than he did last season allows him to get on the end of lovely little clips into the box from Dominik Szoboszlai, as he does for the goal. 

The attack will be more fluid with Salah owning the right-hand side and Jota sharing the other half with the left winger. It’s a pretty similar set-up to how we approached the first few months of 2021/22 with Jota and Sadio Mane completing the attack.

Salah ended last season so poorly and we all had doubts over whether his days were numbered. It’s too early to be making any exhortations about his contract just yet but looking at pre-season and today, the signs are more positive than I thought they’d be.

Of course, most of the conversation in recent weeks has been about the lack of signings, Martin Zubimendi and the defensive midfield role in general. 

But, Liverpool’s most important task that they must complete is tying down Trent Alexander-Arnold to a new deal. The right-back is out of contract at the end of the season and the Reds simply cannot afford to lose a generational talent on a free transfer.

I think he has a brilliant game today. In the first half, he looks after Davis and Hutchinson - Ipswich’s danger side - professionally and helps Jarell Quansah when he gets into a bit of a pickle too.

In the second half, he gets a chance to flex his creative muscles and plays some extraordinary football. There’s a period between 60 and 70 where he plays five different passes that can be described as outrageous.

It’s his best performance in a while and it’s so refreshing to see him at right-back, without having to venture into midfield as he did for both club and country until now.

In the 90 minutes, Trent Alexander-Arnold creates three chances.

In the 90 minutes, Ipswich Town create three chances.

Slot has changed things tactically in his first few months at the club and we are now looking at a team that plays 4-2-3-1, primarily.

The double pivot of Alexis Mac Allister and Ryan Gravenberch have mixed fortunes today. I think Mac Allister struggles for the most part and largely finds himself way off the pace.

I do think he’s a player than can struggle to live with early exchanges if the tempo is high from the opposition and that’s what happens today. He’s arguably the weakest player in the Sevilla game too, so will do well to keep his place next week.

Gravenberch, however, is excellent. For all of the concern about that position, he does a very admirable job.

His ball-carrying is immense, particularly in the second half and his passing continually gives Liverpool chances to play through the lines. He patrols things from deep and on numerous occasions he helps to recycle possession and spells of pressure.

He was always willing to drop deep to receive it from the goalkeeper or the centre-backs, and displayed a nice ability to receive it on the half-turn. 

Slot wants us to play through the middle, and he wants us to be decisive with the ball. Gravenberch made his case well today.

Szoboszlai has a fantastic second half in the number ten role, and really gets himself about. 

Twice, he is the first man back defending counter-attacks, his feet that lead to the Luis Diaz chance are exceptional and it’s his deft touch that supplies Salah for the second goal.

It’s the work of Gravenberch and Szoboszlai that enables us to do what Slot wants us to - continually play through the middle. Slot has helped this squad realise that there’s more than one way to make the pitch big. Under Jurgen Klopp, they made the pitch big by pushing players wider and wider. But Slot wants to do it by playing vertically and playing through the middle. Pace in wide areas will always be key to this.

The impressive performances of Gravenberch and Szoboszlai shouldn’t take away from the fact that Liverpool still need to sign a top-class defensive midfielder if they want to win the league title.

Rodri and Declan Rice are arguably the most important players to our title rivals from last season, and Zubimendi, while slightly below their level, is operating at a very high standard too.

The team that wins the league isn’t always the one who scores the most goals, and it isn’t always the one who concedes the fewest goals, but it is always the one who has the best goal difference.

Having a player that can make a bit of a difference to the balance of a game, ultimately contributing to better numbers at both ends of the pitch, is what Liverpool need to win the league.

Gravenberch does very, very well today but against City or Arsenal, would’ve been under infinitely more pressure from the opposition and I’d much rather see a specialist in the role for the tougher fixtures.

Liverpool have the money. They haven’t spent a penny all summer but have recouped money from Fabio Carvalho’s sale, and we’ve not seen sight nor sound of the £115m they were willing to pay for Moises Caicedo last summer.

If there’s no chance that Zubimendi will reconsider, they should go and buy Adam Wharton before this window is over. A defensive midfielder good enough to improve the team, and with a quite ridiculous ceiling.

There’s two other main areas that this squad can be improved.

Diaz has attributes that no other player in the squad does: his dribbling ability is better than any other Liverpool player and his energy is easily the best of the attackers.

But, he is not clinical. He is the exact antithesis of Jota in front of goal. The chance he misses today where he is claiming a penalty is worth 0.8xG.

Eight times out of ten, it should end up with a goal. But he doesn’t even get a shot away.

He carries the ball from deep so well, and he gets himself and Liverpool in good positions, but he is not decisive enough, and not cold enough between the ears, when it matters. That’s why his goal and assist output will never do his talents justice.

This may sound harsh, but you will not win the Premier League with Diaz as your starting left-winger. I’m not saying he needs to be sold, I’m saying that the left-hand side of attack needs a player of Jota’s mindset.

Sign Anthony Gordon. We know Liverpool were interested earlier in the window and the interest even got as far as a bid. Sign him. He’s a killer. 

That gives us six attackers - Salah, Jota, Gordon, Diaz, Nunez, Gakpo. That might sound a lot but it’s a long season and we will need to rotate more often now that the new Champions League format has come in. The changes this will have to squad usage should not be underestimated and Liverpool will need greater squad depth.

I’d be looking at left-back, too. Robertson is a club legend but hasn’t been at the top of his game for well over two years now and can be upgraded on, or at the very least, rotated with a better option than Kostas Tsimikas.

Sign Leif Davis. He was Ipswich’s best player last season and has a really good first hour today until Liverpool turn it on. He’s a unique profile of a left-back and in a year’s time, will be in the England squad and will have bigger clubs looking at him.

Many will say we need a centre-back too, especially if Joe Gomez leaves, as today’s squad suggests, but I think we can just about get by with Virgil Van Dijk, Konate, Quansah and Sepp Van Den Berg. I’d have actually liked Jacob Greaves, who was immense for Ipswich today, as that fourth option.

Adam Wharton, Anthony Gordon, Leif Davis.

Today’s win can’t detract from the fact that we need signings and the first half shows that there’s areas we can do better in. The first half perhaps isn’t as bad as Twitter would’ve had you believe: I think it’s really worth considering that the first half was the equivalent of a Champions League final for Ipswich so was always going to be rocky for us.

We should’ve done better with our own game but the key thing for me is that we go in at half-time having faced nothing but half-chances. Last season, the opposition were being gifted not just chances but high-value chances, at a ridiculous rate.

We go in at half time having only faced 0.38xG.

He changes things slightly, has the two centre-backs playing further apart to aid our build-up play and resist Ipswich’s press.

Liverpool win today because of their overarching philosophy that the manager wants them to perform every week. Last season, it felt desperate, it felt like we were relying on individuals to do wonderful things, and it felt like we were working game-to-game rather than having an identity.

I love that Slot says he is not happy with the first half performance and that he needs us to do better. He says he subs Quansah off because of him losing duels (he actually only loses two out of four) but it’s an example of the brutally high standards he is going to set at this club.

From the sixty-minute mark onwards, we are magnificent and could’ve scored a hatful more and end up with an xG of 3.4.

Cometh the hour, cometh the men.

Daniel