As Arne Slot‘s preparations for his first season as Liverpool head coach step up in america, the Dutchman stays to be missing a key piece of his puzzle.
Liverpool have arrived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for the start of their first tour of the US since 2019, and the survivors from that three-stop jaunt spherical Indiana, Boston and New York may presumably be forgiven for feeling points aren’t pretty the equivalent.
Sure, Jurgen Klopp’s travelling squad 5 years previously was bulked out with youthful faces, nevertheless the supervisor might nonetheless work with practically all of his key players.
Alisson, Roberto Firmino, Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane all missed out, nevertheless Virgil Van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Andy Robertson, Gini Wijnaldum, Fabinho, Joel Matip, Jordan Henderson and James Milner had been amongst these to make the journey.
This time spherical, Salah could be the marquee determine that pulls in casual audiences throughout the US, nevertheless there are few actual first-choice starters in Slot’s preliminary group.
Robertson and Dominik Szoboszlai should match into that class, whereas Curtis Jones, Harvey Elliott, Wataru Endo and Jarell Quansah can present a convincing case for a starting spot, nevertheless there are few others previous that.
Slot will undoubtedly see it as an opportunity, and perhaps even further priceless as he can work fastidiously with these fringe players who he may not have been able to monitor in his analysis of Liverpool’s video video games in seasons handed by.
Nonetheless the uniquely tough summer time season coping with a membership overhauled can have its affect on the fine-tuning Liverpool’s new head coach will hope to undertake Stateside.
Assessing the alternatives accessible to the Dutchman and it’s abundantly clear that he’s lacking in a single key area.
Transient up prime
Whereas six attackers made the journey in Salah, Ben Doak, Kaide Gordon, Lewis Koumas, Harvey Blair and Fabio Carvalho, in the long run these are 5 wingers and a No. 10.
Koumas is closest to a typical striker, nevertheless he has further often found himself stationed on the left wing ensuing from his capability to cut onto his correct foot.
Slot is predicted to set his Liverpool side up within the equivalent fluid 4-3-3 system that launched him success at Feyenoord, nevertheless the friendlies in opposition to Precise Betis, Arsenal and Man United shall be missing one key cog: a centre-forward.
The model new head coach’s methods have often relied upon the striker to realize the targets, alongside together with his side’s attacking play designed to supply potentialities for the particular person up entrance, whether or not or not by means of passing lanes or crosses from out massive and deep.
Mexican striker Santiago Gimenez has comfortably scored better than another participant all through Slot’s educating occupation thus far, with 49 targets in 85 appearances, and it stands to objective that the centre-forward shall be a highlight in his setup at Liverpool.
Nonetheless Darwin Nunez, Diogo Jota and Cody Gakpo are nonetheless absent following their exploits at Copa America and the Euros, whereas even Jayden Danns has been dominated out with a once more hurt.
The equivalent state of affairs seen Slot start the Reds’ unofficial pre-season opener – a 1-0 loss to Preston on the AXA Teaching Centre – with Carvalho as a nominal No. 9.
It’s a operate that Klopp suggested Carvalho might play upon his arrival from Fulham, nevertheless there gained’t be many anticipating him to fulfil the operate in perhaps the easiest way Slot will hope.
Whereas Carvalho’s tendency is to drop and hyperlink play, as a pure playmaker, Slot’s strategies are constructed spherical a further orthodox striker.
Salah, Gordon and Koumas might all feasibly step in up entrance, nevertheless none would play the place in the easiest way Liverpool can rely on to see as a result of the season unfolds.
One various missed, one different gained?
It’s by way of no fault of Slot’s, nevertheless until Nunez and, to a lesser extent, Jota return, the Reds received’t be capable to utterly realise their new tactical transient.
The passes carried out to the striker shall be utterly totally different; the areas his runs would open up might be not there to make use of.
This makes it notably irritating that Danns, the 18-year-old throwback-type striker who stepped up remaining season when Klopp wished him, was unable to make the journey all through the Atlantic.
Like Bobby Clark, who moreover stayed on Merseyside to proceed remedy, the time throughout the US would have been a large chance for Danns to imprint on his new coach.
In its place, the default alternative will in all probability keep Carvalho, with Jota perhaps accessible to step in after he hyperlinks up with the squad midway by way of the tour.
It’s undoubtedly an opportunity for Carvalho to point out himself – not solely as a participant, nevertheless as a persona, selflessly stepping up in a activity he want to not settle in.
That state of affairs could also be related to numerous positions and players who landed throughout the US, nevertheless when Slot’s system is extra prone to rely so carefully on a centre-forward, various is in order that useful when the becoming personnel simply isn’t accessible to realize it.
When it could all come collectively
In spite of everything, Slot simply isn’t a dogmatic coach, and he can use this time throughout the States to work on totally different choices, perhaps along with the likes of Salah and Blair rotating up prime.
Nonetheless Liverpool followers may solely see the first precise shoots of his attacking system in full circulation when the Reds return to Merseyside in August.
By then, Nunez, Jota, Gakpo and hopefully Danns can have returned to the fold and, all being successfully, the exercises labored on in teaching could also be put into movement in opposition to Sevilla at Anfield.
Whereas it’s faraway from the right start for a model new head coach, with out practically all of his key names for a lot of of pre-season, little doubt Slot will nonetheless see double courses and warmup friendlies throughout the US as a possibility to kick on.
