There’s a version of Liverpool’s midfield that just makes sense in your head: a proper ball-playing star ahead of Szoboszlai, with a monster holding midfielder hoovering everything up behind them. Simple. Balanced. The kind of set-up where everyone’s got a clear job.
But the truth is, that Fabinho-type specialist is basically a unicorn in the modern game. Loads of sides want one, not many can find one, and even fewer get a truly elite one who can cover space, win duels and still play through pressure. So you end up looking at alternatives, and that’s where the frustration kicks in.
The three workarounds - and why each feels blocked
When you don’t have a dedicated destroyer, there are a few common ways teams protect the middle. One is to use full-backs who can step inside and give you an extra body in midfield. Another is to build with three centre-backs and have one of them step into midfield when you’ve got the ball. The third is the classic double pivot, with two sitting players sharing the load.
The gripe here is that Liverpool don’t look properly set up for any of those solutions right now. If you haven’t got the right full-backs for consistent inverting, it’s hard to do it without leaving gaps. If you can’t regularly go to a three-at-the-back build, you lose that extra safety net. And if the double pivot isn’t staying in there, then what’s the point of calling it a pivot at all?
Vacating midfield and inviting trouble
What feels odd is the sense that Mac Allister and Gravenberch are sometimes being pulled away from the very areas where you need calm and control. Midfield is where games get messy. If your central players are vacating those spaces at the wrong moments, you can end up with a team that looks stretched in two halves: attackers ahead of the ball, defenders behind it, and not enough bodies in between.
That’s usually when you see the familiar problems: second balls landing for the opposition, transitions going straight through the centre, and Liverpool having to sprint back towards their own goal far too often. It doesn’t take a tactical diagram to spot it, you can feel it in the flow of a match.
Are we overthinking it?
The suspicion is Arne Slot is asking Szoboszlai, Mac Allister and Gravenberch to do something like a rotating, interchangeable midfield, where roles are fluid and the structure holds through movement rather than fixed positions. That can work, but it needs the right profiles and, crucially, someone who sets the tempo and tells everyone where to stand with the ball.
Right now, it’s hard to escape the feeling we don’t have that controller. If Mac Allister is off it and Gravenberch isn’t doing the basics without the ball, it becomes a midfield that looks lightweight at the worst possible times. Other sides have a proper tempo-setter in there. We don’t. And until Liverpool find a way to either protect that space or own it, it’s going to keep looking a bit strange.
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