Liverpool have been continuing their pre-season preparations in Austria this week as they get ready for the new Premier League campaign.
Jurgen Klopp's men will be looking to try and defend their Premier League crown, however, it won't be easy with rivals such as Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea all making a number of high profile additions to their squads as they desperately look to close the gap between themselves and the Reds.
Of course, whilst Liverpool themselves have one of the best squads across Europe, it was more than just great players that landed them their first league title in 30 years last season. It was also their ability to identify and execute small marginal edges on the pitch too.
One of the more profitable from the last campaign was their ability to create high quality chances from long passes into the attacking third.
For many years, the long ball in football was frowned upon. It was considered the staple of sides lacking technical ability, more often than not; a way to relieve pressure, but unlikely to sustain any sort of ball or territorial dominance further up the pitch.
At the end of the 2015/16 Premier League season, Watford, Southampton and Sunderland were on the podium for highest average number of long passes attempted per 90 minutes, further reiterating that point.
Now, in 2019/20, it’s Liverpool who rank top of this department. In fact, the Reds rank second across Europe’s top five divisions for the highest number of long passes attempted.
Obviously, these numbers can be enhanced by the fact that Liverpool tend to dominate possession and therefore attempt a higher amount of passes in general.
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Yet, it’s interesting to note that no other ball dominating side from across Europe ranks inside the top ten for long passes attempted last season.
A league winning side such as Liverpool showing such a willingness to play long balls has changed the perception of the action; no longer dismissed, it’s now starting to be regarded as a good attacking tool, providing you have the personnel to execute it accurately.
But why do Liverpool do it? Well, it is likely that this has been in response to the change in defensive behaviours of their opponents. Across the previous five seasons, Liverpool’s opponents have steadily pressed the ball less and less, instead opting to drop deeper and deeper, meaning there is far less space in the middle of the pitch for Liverpool to progress the ball forward.
Their Passes Per Defensive Action against (PPDA-A) has notably shot up this season to 20.4, a clear increase from 17.1 last season.
Although Klopp’s front line isn’t the tallest, they’re strong and tend to do a good job of holding off challenges from defenders. As a result, they can battle well when long balls are fired towards them, bringing the ball down and getting shots off on goal.
They also possess accurate long ball passes in the deep positions, players such as Virgil Van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Jordan Henderson.
Even when their attackers lose the initial duel, supporting players are normally positioned in areas ready to collect the second ball.
Like a Swiss army knife, Liverpool have many different features. But their willingness and ability to play long balls effectively can often see them bypass a large portion of the oppositions defending players and get them inside the final third quickly, which is one of their best current assets.
We can expect to see more of this, and other little on the pitch competitive edges from Liverpool next season.
