New players mean new problems for Liverpool and their Premier League title defence
2025/25: Match 1 - Liverpool 4-2 Bournemouth
After a disappointing Community Shield defeat to Crystal Palace, Liverpool’s 4-2 win over Bournemouth was an opening-day clash that undoubtedly showed why Arne Slot’s team have all the talent to defend their Premier League title. It was also another game that underlined how the club’s busy summer transfer window means the Anfield side are effectively approaching this season with a new team. That, in turn, has led to a few issues that Slot and his coaching team will need to fix very quickly.
Rather than struggling to put together long-form analytics pieces, I’m going to instead treat this newsletter like a blog, where I can put together talking points after every game I watch this season. It will mostly be Premier League and Bundesliga games, as well as the big Champions League clashes. If that’s something that may interest you, feel free to to subscribe.
Why are Liverpool so intent on signing Isak?
This will perhaps come across as a rather antagonistic angle to take on Hugo Ekitike’s impressive performance on Friday night, but I’ve really spent much of this summer wondering why Liverpool feel the need to break their transfer record to sign Alexander Isak, after spending €90m to sign Ekitike from Eintracht Frankfurt.
Although the 23-year-old striker was perhaps a little fortunate to break through to score his first-half goal, following a wild deflection from the nearby defenders, Ekitike spent much of the game linking up tremendously well with his team mates in the final third. As we can see in the player’s pass map over the course of the game (above), he only misplaced seven passes in 72 minutes, while completing a number across the pitch, as well as one key pass and one vital assist.
Naturally, football fans always want more good players in their squad. Aside from winning actual trophies, it’s probably the main priority of any fan. But while Isak would undoubtedly be an excellent striker for Liverpool, the question should really be what the Anfield club will have to sacrifice to get that deal over the line. Do they need another defensive midfielder? Maybe a few more central defenders? Undoubtedly. But on top of all that, Isak would also push Ekitike back to a supporting role in this team, when he is perhaps perfectly capable of being an excellent No.9 for them this season.
The midfield gap
The other query I have over signing Isak or indeed sticking with the formation that Liverpool showcased on Friday night is how Slot finds the correct balance in this team. As we can see from Liverpool’s pass map (below), the Anfield side effectively played with a front four, alongside two very attacking full-backs. This worked well when Liverpool were overloading both wings on the counter-attack, but it also left Slot’s team wide open to Bournemouth’s very direct attacks, which often involved long passes into the channel for Antoine Semenyo and Evanilson.
This, in turn, left Liverpool’s midfield looking a little lost at times. To his credit, Alexis Mac Allister had a fantastic game, but was more often than not forced to cover for the gallivanting runs of Jeremie Frimpong down the right flank. If not for the Argentine’s world class talents in not only winning the ball back but also receiving passes under immense pressure in the middle of the pitch, Bournemouth would have unquestionably caused far more problems for Liverpool in their own half.
The same was true of Dominik Szoboszlai. The Hungarian midfielder seems to be an outstanding jack-of-all-trades in Slot’s team, but in a game that saw Liverpool prioritise quick attacks down the wing and Bournemouth often go long over the top of their opponent’s high line, the 24-year-old midfielder often looked a little lost with acres of space between him and the nearest Liverpool team mate. If Slot had a plan for his midfielders, it didn’t seem to work and in many ways both players only managed to get through the game by relying on their own talent and in spite of the formation their team was playing.
Which, again, raises the question over where Isak fits into this team and indeed whether it’s the right call. Sure, the Swede could step into Ekitike’s role with relative ease, but Friday’s game perhaps showed that the temptation to play a clear No.9, alongside Salah and another forward like Cody Gakpo and two attacking full-backs leaves a lot for the midfield to accomodate. And I’m just not sure that will work against better teams than Bournemouth this season.
Wirtz’s tepid start
While Ekitike, MacAllister & Co. undoubtedly saved the day for Liverpool, one player that didn’t do a huge amount to help his team on Friday was Florian Wirtz. I’m a card-carrying member of the Wirtz Supporters Club (™), but against Bournemouth the German international looked like a player that was struggling to keep up with the physicality and pace of the game.
I’m hesitant to say the Premier League is some gladiatorial contest that Europe’s other top divisions couldn’t possibly hope to keep up with, but one thing that does stand in contrast between it and the Bundesliga is the tenacity of the challenges from opposing players. Wirtz is of course used to being closed down in Germany - it is, after all, the birthplace of gegenpressing - but players rarely knocked him over or flew into tackles against him quite like Bournemouth’s midfielder and defenders did on Friday night.
Watching the 22-year-old talent struggle, I was reminded of being at Bayer Leverkusen’s clash against Liverpool in the Champions League last season, where Wirtz was more or less marked out of the game because Ryan Gravenbech, Curtis Jones & Co. effectively muscled him out of the match. That’s the kind of physicality the young playmaker will need to quickly get used to and overcome, if he hopes to fulfill his potential at Anfield in the coming years.
And I’m more than certain that he will in time. Despite not putting on a stellar performance, Wirtz still showed moments of magic on the ball and has an ability to thread a pass that I’m pretty sure goes unrivaled in Slot’s team. For all their attacking talent, Liverpool have a number of goal-scoring players but very few genuine playmakers. As such, they really need Wirtz to get up to speed quickly and to start pulling the strings in the final third. He didn’t quite do that against Bournemouth, but he undoubtedly has the talent to get there in no time at all.