Low blocks aren’t new. We’ve been talking about them for years, and every side with a big budget has had to find answers. What feels different now is how universal it’s become, to the point where it’s not just the underdogs digging in. It’s half the league, and sometimes it’s even teams near the top happily leaning into risk-averse football and set-piece dominance.
And that’s why I struggle with the idea that Liverpool have simply missed a trick other clubs have nailed. From what I’m watching, there isn’t some magic formula doing the rounds. Plenty of good sides look blunt when the opposition drops off, closes the middle, and dares you to break them down with patience and precision.
Who’s actually good to watch every week?
Honestly, it’s slim pickings. Brighton can be interesting because they’re comfortable building from the back, but they’ll also go more direct at times and change the picture. Bournemouth, when they’re really on it, can play with a bit of bravery and tempo too. Beyond that, you’re often left watching games that feel like exercises in control and caution.
That isn’t just a Liverpool thing. It’s a Premier League thing. Everybody is terrified of transitions, terrified of losing the ball in the wrong zone, and increasingly happy to settle matches through dead balls. It makes for effective football, sure. Great to watch, consistently? Not so much.
Breaking low blocks: moments are deciding it
The other point is that even the best sides aren’t reliably carving low blocks open through pure chance creation. Manchester City score plenty, but the sense I get watching them is it’s often down to top-level finishing and creative players producing a moment. They don’t always look like that old City machine that pins you in for 90 minutes and turns the match into a steady stream of cutbacks and tap-ins.
Arsenal are an interesting comparison as well. In open play, they can look like they’ve got similar issues to us at times, even with plenty of attacking talent on paper. The difference is they’ve become frighteningly strong at both defending and scoring set pieces. So if plan A stalls, plan B still bites.
Do we really want to become a set-piece team?
Which brings us to the uncomfortable question: if that style is “ahead of the curve”, do we actually want it? There’s a trade-off. You might gain points through dominance in the margins, but you can lose something in the feel of the side, the spontaneity, the reason you can’t wait for the weekend.
Maybe the truth is the league has tilted towards control and dead-ball efficiency, and everyone’s adapting, including Liverpool. But let’s not pretend everyone else has cracked low blocks while we’re sat here clueless. Plenty of the so-called big teams look just as stuck.
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