The box midfield working is the sort of thing that makes you realise you’ve been starving for a bit of joy watching us. Not just “we won” joy, either. Proper, look-up-from-your-phone, this-is-fun again. It helped that the opponent’s shape seemed to play into our hands, but to be fair, they still had moments and chances of their own.
And it did underline something that’s been building for a while: Premier League football can be a hard watch. So many games get dragged into the same old script. A low block, a team basically living for set pieces and long throws, and us shuffling it side to side like we’re trying to patiently bore a goal into existence.
Why the box midfield felt different
What stood out here was the tempo and the angles. With that box in the middle, the ball didn’t always have to go on the scenic route, and it felt like there were more natural options between the lines. When it clicks, you can pin a side in and then punch through rather than endlessly circling.
Even more than the passing structure, the running was the point. Seeing players like Frimpong actually drive at people and threaten in behind has been a big frustration this season. It changes the mood of a game. Defenders start turning, the crowd wakes up, and suddenly space appears where there wasn’t any a minute earlier.
The Premier League problem that never goes away
The obvious question is whether that works the same way when you’re back up against another packed defence, with little room and even less patience in the stadium. In Europe, sides can be braver, or at least more open to being drawn out. In the league, plenty will happily sit on the edge of their box and ask you to solve it for 90 minutes.
So yeah, I get the worry: this can look great in one context and then feel like wading through mud in another.
Slot, the noise, and the Alonso shadow
There’s also the human side. I didn’t like a journalist asking Arne Slot if Alonso had spoken to him. It’s a low blow, and it’s disrespectful in the moment, whatever you think the club might do later.
If Slot ends up being replaced in the summer, there are still things worth saying out loud: injuries have bitten, some players have been out of form, and the squad still looks a bit light in key areas. You can argue we’re a couple of defenders and a midfielder short of the ideal balance. And that’s the uncomfortable truth, isn’t it. We might never properly know what a complete Slot squad looks like, or what his version of Liverpool is when everything is in place.
It can’t be a great feeling winning big, then hitting a drop-off, with a club legend apparently waiting in the wings. But he’s still trying things. That counts for something.
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