Liverpool’s success this season isn’t going to hinge on Alexander Isak, Hugo Ekitike or Florian Wirtz.
The three new forwards will, of course, play their part if the Reds are going to retain their Premier League crown. They’ll also, no doubt, be protagonists if the six-times champions of Europe go far in the Champions League this term.
But the real difference makers for Arne Slot might be two of his compatriots in Ryan Gravenberch and skipper Virgil van Dijk.
The Reds kicked off the campaign by conceding six goals in three matches. They twice gave up the lead against Crystal Palace in the Community Shield before throwing away 2-0 advantages in eventual wins over Bournemouth and Newcastle.
The optics weren’t great.
Defensively, Liverpool looked brittle. Teams could get at them. And this is the narrative that pundits and rivals decided to push. A narrative they’ve been pushing ever since.
What hasn’t helped the cause of the champions is that they’ve won all five of their matches this season in the final 10 minutes. The Reds also allowed a 2-0 lead to slip in the Champions League against Atletico Madrid in midweek before Van Dijk nodded the winner beyond Jan Oblak in the 92nd minute.
At surface level, it does appear as though the attack have been getting the defence out of jail, this isn’t necessarily the case. Yes, Liverpool have conceded six goals in five games while scoring 12 in the process. But, the defensive unit has been playing their part in these wins.
With the exception of the season opener against Bournemouth, a game that Gravenberch missed due to suspension, the Premier League champions have managed to limit every single team to an expected goals total of under 0.99.
The Cherries finished with an xG haul of 1.7 having carved open a new-look Liverpool team at Anfield with relative ease. But there’s context to that performance that is being overlooked by the masses. It was a first competitive start in red for Milos Kerkez, Jeremie Frimpong, Wirtz and Ekitike. Slot named all four in his starting XI, meaning 40% of his outfielders were making their debuts. In key areas too.
The Reds had two new full-backs and a completely new attacking double act in what was a new system entirely with the Dutch tactician moving away from a 4-3-3 and deploying a very obvious 4-2-3-1.
Liverpool were also without Gravenberch for the game. It meant the double pivot wasn’t the tried and tested formula that had anchored the team to the Premier League title last season. To say there was a lot of change would be an understatement.
And while the visitors had a lot of joy, Van Dijk put in an utterly dominant performance at centre-back. The 34-year-old, who signed a new deal at the end of last season, won the most duels (13), had a 100% success rate in ground duels and won 83% of his aerial duels. The skipper had an 85% pass success rate and made 17 clearances.
Everyone else seemed to struggle.
The return of Gravenberch to the starting XI has completely transformed Liverpool as a defensive unit though. In the four games he’s started, the opposition have averaged just 0.55 xG. This run of fixtures has seen the Reds come up against Newcastle at a hostile St James’ Park, Arsenal, Burnley and Atletico Madrid.
Yet the Merseyside club have managed to limit these teams to basically nothing. If you hadn’t watched these games and looked at nothing but the scorelines, you’d be forgiven for thinking these had been lucky victories having won by the odd goal in all four outings.
That just isn’t what is happening though. Liverpool are defensively robust. Two lapses in judgement from individuals against Newcastle resulted in two goals while Atletico scored from an offside situation and via a deflection. There’s no defensive crisis.
And this is because of the performances of Gravenberch and Van Dijk. While others in the Liverpool team have been a little inconsistent as they get to grips with everything new, these two have been almost faultless.
Against the Magpies, Van Dijk made 13 clearances, found a team-mate with almost 90% of his passes and won over half of his ground and aerial duels. Gravenberch had a 91% pass success rate and involved himself in 10 duels. In the win over Arsenal, the skipper made the most passes (73), had a 90% pass success rate, won 67% of his ground duels and made four clearances. His compatriot bossed the middle third with a 100% dribble success rate, seven ball recoveries and an 80% success rate in ground duels.
The pair were just as dominant against Burnley. Van Dijk completed the most passes (94), had a 90% success rate, won 67% of his ground duels and went eight for eight in aerials. Meanwhile, Gravenberch won three of his five aerial duels, four of his seven ground duels and carved out four chances at Turf Moor, all while completing 91% of his passes.
Atleti had no answer to the Dutch duo.
Once again, Van Dijk completed the most passes (85). This time, he was successful with 97% of his attempted passes. He won 100% of his ground duels and 86% of his aerials. The 23-year-old found a player in red with 89% of his attempted passes while also creating two chances. He made six recoveries and won 100% of his aerials as well as six of nine ground duels.
These two have been rock solid for the Reds. Their performances have given Liverpool the platform to go out and win these games late on. Not that they should be needing last minute winners, their performances certainly don’t suggest late goals should be decisive.
Once the attack clicks, and it will, Liverpool should be racking up big wins. But they’ll be able to enjoy themselves in the final third, safe in the knowledge that Van Dijk and Gravenberch are there as a security net if they are wasteful in attack.
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