Premier League 2019/20: Liverpool vs Everton – tactical analysis

Derby day on Merseyside is always an event that both sets of fans are always passionate about, despite the form their respective clubs might be in. Last season, Liverpool fans took great pride in beating the Blues 1-0 at Anfield after an outrageous fluke goal from Divock Origi, who capitalised on a mistake made by Jordan Pickford in the 96th minute. On the other hand, Evertonians will happily mention that the 0-0 draw at Goodison Park last season was where Liverpool went from first place in the league to second, where they were unable to recover, eventually losing the Premier League title by one point.

With Manchester City beating Burnley comfortably 1-4 earlier in the day, Liverpool knew that dropping points against Everton would give Manchester City some much-needed momentum to attempt to close the gap. Everton needed the points, as their start to the Premier League campaign has left much to be desired, with 14 points from 14 matches before their visit to Anfield; it was quite clear that a lot was riding on this fixture for Marco Silva, who was under a lot of pressure by the board and fans alike to start getting results.

This tactical analysis will analyse Liverpools change in formation, why Everton were such disarray defensively, and how the 5-2 match played out.

Lineups

Jürgen Klopp made quite a few changes to his starting XI and formation. Klopps favoured 4-3-3 surprisingly made way for a 4-2-3-1 With Alissons reckless red card against Brighton, he was suspended for the match, which saw Adrián start in goal with a back four of Trent-Alexander Arnold, Dejan Lovren, Virgil van Dijk, and Andrew Robertson ahead of him. The midfield and the forward line was where the surprises from Klopp came from. Captain Jordan Henderson was benched in favour of Georginio Wijnaldum and James Milner in a double pivot in midfield. The front four saw only one of Liverpools undisputed starters, Sadio Mané start on the left, with Adam Lallana, and Xherdan Shaqiri, who had not started a league game since January, start alongside him. Origi lead the lineup top as a lone striker.

Silva, on the other hand, named an unchanged team to the one against Evertons 2-1 loss against Leicester City. Behind a back five of Djibril Sidibé, Mason Holgate, Yerry Mina, Michael Vincent Keane, and Lucas Digne stood in front of Pickford in net. Central midfield consisted of Tom Davies and Gylfi Sigurðsson, with Alex Iwobi and Richarlison on the right and left flanks respectively and Dominic Calvert-Lewin started up top as the #9.

To press or not to press?

From the kickoff whistle, it was clear that the Everton players were not on the same page when it came to pressing. Evertons 5-4-1 was all over the place because the backline seemed to have a different tactical idea to what the frontline was doing.

Before Evertons switch in forma