There was one glaring, unmissable takeaway from Arsenal’s 3-1 Premier League victory over Liverpool on Sunday – Martin Odegaard cannot operate a long-lens camera.
The celebration police were out in full force as Arsenal’s skipper celebrated his side’s victory by stealing Stuart MacFarlane’s camera to take a picture of the pitch-side photographer. When quizzed on the quality of his shots, Odegaard wryly admitted: “To be honest, I don’t know, it was a bit blurry!”
Putting aside Odegaard’s poor framing – and the needless opprobrium it inspired – there were plenty of intriguing lessons to learn from a fascinating contest.
Trent Alexander-Arnold’s frailties out of possession are nothing new. Yet, Klopp has always hailed his right-back’s defensive skill set, insisting just a handful of days before the trip to Arsenal that “it’s not as bad as everybody makes it”.
The positional tweak which has seen Alexander-Arnold wander into central midfield when Liverpool have possession – a change that began against Arsenal last April – leaves the England international even more exposed in transition. But as Klopp revealed after the match, the German had deliberately ditched that approach to make Alexander-Arnold’s life easier when faced with Arsenal’s wingers, instead sending Joe Gomez infield.
“We didn’t use Trent in the way we wanted him to be used,” Klopp fretted. “We wanted Trent more on the wing with better protection with Joey in the centre. It could have worked better but it didn’t.”
As a result, Alexander-Arnold was shunted out to the periphery of the contest while still subjected to Gabriel Martinelli’s unrelenting surges. Only two players in the Premier League have played more than Alexander-Arnold’s 140 passes into the final third this season yet he didn’t penetrate Arsenal’s blockade once. With their creator-in-chief muzzled by their own manager, Liverpool attempted just one shot on target – the club’s lowest tally in any match this term.
Klopp insisted he would “have done it again like that”. If he does replicate the failed experiment, it would not be his only repeated mistake against the Gunners.
“It is difficult to prepare for what Arsenal did tonight, especially in the first half. Kai Havertz and Martin Odegaard, more or less as ‘double 10s’ in a 4-2-2-2.” Klopp…
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