Liverpool could only draw with Chelsea in the Premier League on Saturday, with Arne Slot’s side lacking intensity and attacking quality in a frustrating Anfield stalemate
Former Liverpool defender Stephen Warnock spotted Ibrahima Konate looking “petrified” as the Reds were held by Chelsea in their pursuit of the Champions League spots.
Arne Slot’s men still need another three points to confirm their top-five place this season. Matches against Aston Villa and Brentford are up next to conclude the campaign, with Bournemouth the closest challenger to Liverpool after it beat Fulham at Craven Cottage.
“There’s no pressure on the ball, there’s no intensity, they look lost in the system as Chelsea come forward. Chelsea have dominated the ball,” Warnock, working as a co-commentator, said on BBC Radio 5Live.
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“Chelsea players have got the run of Anfield at the moment. The line is really deep from Liverpool’s point of view.
“Konate drops all the time; he’s petrified of the ball in behind him. Him and Van Dijk are constantly arguing about the bravery of how to hold the line, and Konate is not strong enough to do it.”
Defensively, Liverpool actually did alright against Chelsea. They did not play particularly well in an attacking sense, though, and were unable to press high from the front.
After Ryan Gravenberch’s opener early on, Liverpool failed to press ahead and found itself level at the halfway mark. The Reds did not create much, with only three shots on target in total.
Virgil van Dijk and referee Craig Pawson during the Premier League game between Liverpool and Chelsea.(Image: Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
Slot insisted, though, that he had not instructed his team to step off the gas. Liverpool was simply unable to dominate the midfield battle, he said, with Chelsea flooding the middle of the park.
“Of course it’s not the idea for us to back off,” Slot said. “We wanted to keep going but we played against a team that got more and more comfortable on the ball.
“They didn’t have any wingers available, so they had a lot of midfielders, so they controlled the midfield and started to play and [were] passing through us more and more and more, which didn’t lead to a lot of chances but they were by far the dominant team in the game.
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“It was difficult to change that during the first half but I think you might have noticed as well, apart from other things you’ve noticed, that at half-time we changed things.
“That didn’t lead to straight away what we wanted because three minutes afterward we conceded a 2-1, which was good for us [because it] was fractionally offside. But then afterward, we were much more able to press them high to keep them in their half.
“[It was] not perfect because they were still a few times able to play through us, but not as much as in the first half.”
Liverpool.com says: While it might not have been the plan, there is no question that the Reds were passive for a lot of today’s game. Chelsea was there for the taking, but Liverpool couldn’t take advantage.