Premier League 2018/19: Liverpool Vs Cardiff City

It is a commonly held belief within football that there is no point in paying attention to the league table until at least ten games have been played. Up until this point teams are still finding their feet, new signings are settling into their new teams and luck is still playing a significant role in results. After ten matches, however, we have a large enough sample size to start making more informed judgements on the performances of teams up and down the league table.

This match marked that point in the league calendar as both sides played their tenth fixture although, to this point, their league form has been markedly different, with both sides currently sitting at different ends of the table. Liverpool have been keeping pace with Manchester City at the top of the table whilst Cardiff City are currently battling to stay clear of the relegation zone.

The league form of the two sides to this point promised to make this an interesting match between two sides with contrasting styles, Cardiff, under their coach Neil Warnock, are a side intent on forcing the opposition to open them up before looking to play quickly on the counter-attack. Liverpool on the other hand, under Jurgen Klopp, are one of the most proactive and forward thinking clubs in European football and the emphasis from them is very much on taking the game to the opposition.

What we saw, in the end, was a comfortable win for the home side but it was the slight changes in tactical structure and positional slots from Liverpool that made the match interesting, from a tactical point of view.

Team News

The first thing of note when the teams were announced and lined up on the pitch was the slight positional changes for Georginio Wijnaldum and Roberto Firmino. I have long held the opinion that the Dutch international midfielder Wijnaldum would be perfectly suited to play as the 6 in Klopps system, in this match, we saw this but not as we would normally from Liverpool. The normal midfield structure from them sees a number 8 as the double pivot and then two number 8s in more advanced positions. Here though, we saw Liverpool play with two 6s in Wijnaldum and Fabinho who would form a double pivot.

The second interesting change saw Roberto Firmino line up in a more traditional 10 slot. This would see him take up many of the same positions that he normally would but from a deeper starting position and with a player ahead of him in the attacking line.

Cardiff lined up in their traditional 4-4-1-1 shape with Bobby Reid