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Liverpool FC news: The win over Manchester City included a similar tactic that was used during Klopp’s era
Deemed as arguably the best right-back across the past six to eight years in the Premier League, the 34-year-old has now entered the twilight of his career at this level, showing a considerable drop-off from his peak. Most recently, Timo Werner was spotted powering past him as Spurs won four-nil at the Etihad last month and during the summer European Championships, his right-hand-side was a target for international teams as the majority of the goals they conceded came from his side.
Even the final goal of the entire tournament came from Marc Cucurella’s cross from the right and it seems Liverpool looked to use Mohamed Salah to target him once again. Walker’s pace and power have always been exceptional, but there is certainly an argument that he doesn’t have that exceptional awareness that the very best defenders - he has been compared to - possessed across their careers.
And as Salah fired in a deep and threatening cross, bounced past Stefan Ortega and Cody Gakpo turned it in at the back post, while Walker watched on from behind the attacker. Far from being his fault directly, he could have tracked the run better and it is something we have seen in the past when these two sides have faced each other.
Our first stop on the journey of the past is the 2022 Community Shield final as a header down from Andy Robertson, over Walker, allowed Darwin Nunez to fire home to confirm the shield win. Then in the Premier League during their home victory in the 2019/20 title-winning campaign, Sadio Mane was there to head home at the back post ahead of Walker once again as that goal helped them to go onto stretch their lead at that time and kill any chance of a recovery from their rivals.
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Furthermore, during one of the most anticipated games of recent times in the Premier League’s recent history in the 2018/19 season, Liverpool scored a brilliant team goal that finished after an exceptional ball from Trent Alexander-Arnold that was fired over Walker, as Robertson played it across for Roberto Firmino to tap-in, making it 1-1 at the time.
It seems Arne Slot took inspiration from Jurgen Klopp in that sense; Salah was sent away on the break by an excellent Alexander-Arnold ball and used the opportunity to fire a cross into the ‘corridor of uncertainty’, which was ultimately fired into the back post. Walker could only watch as Gakpo scored and while he has experienced a lot of success over the years, one of his biggest defensive flaws was something that Liverpool have successfully continued to focus on - and it is still paying off in 2024.
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