Liverpool, Brighton and third man movement issues

Liverpool’s pressing flourished when Brighton insisted on building play from the back, but familiar issues still cropped up in the midfield balance. The third man run continues to be a key issue that opponents can exploit.

It doesn’t take a genius to understand why Liverpool were so happy against Brighton, and it wasn’t because of Brighton’s sub-par performance or their game plan. In fact, it was their lack of deviation from their normal style of play that gave Liverpool the upper hand in that game.

Why Brighton’s squad suits Liverpool

When I’ve watched the Reds play multiple times this season, opponents have adopted a similar approach. They hope to paralyze Liverpool’s attack with low interceptions or long passes to a deep third man run to get around the press, and then take advantage of a lack of pace on the defensive counterattack, or pass the ball into an area behind the defence, so that it does not fall within the responsibility of the goalkeeper or defender.

For the first time this season, a “smaller” team actually looked to exploit their style of play against Liverpool, where they tried to build from the back rather than exploit a lack of pace. This works to Liverpool’s advantage because the longer Brighton continue to build up the attack from the back, the more precise Liverpool’s pressing becomes.

The balance still looks unbalanced

Now, one thing I took away from that game is that Liverpool’s balance still looks very lopsided, something that none of my colleagues or other professionals in the sport mentioned. Deep movement in the third man continues to be an issue for Liverpool. Brighton were twice forced to play long balls from midfield to deep runners and they were able to push the team forward and then look to press Liverpool.

Chelsea followed a similar pattern at the weekend, with third man movement from defense to midfield rather than midfield to attack. This allowed Chelsea to carve up Liverpool’s midfield, leaving a huge gap between Liverpool’s defense and the center circle.

Why third man movement keeps hurting Liverpool

We all know that the third man run is one of the most dangerous runs in football because it exposes a team’s lack of mobility when defending these powerful runs. It also brings teams back into the defensive half, with Jordan Henderson being a prime example.

Now, here’s the lesson I learned from the game against Brighton and mentioned an improvement to my boss: the third man run can be stopped by man-to-man marking, but this will leave an area for the second runner to move into the vacated space, or you’ll need an athletic midfielder to counter the run. Liverpool did and still use Mike Allister to track the third man’s run, which leaves another open space for the second runner.

The second thing Liverpool are guilty of is a lack of mobility in the midfield. Now, this could still be salvaged if Liverpool used a designated winning sitting midfielder instead of a rotating midfielder, but this would result in them attacking lowly while still being a possession-based team. Fabinho-type players are a typical example.

What needs to be changed under Slot?

Therefore, Liverpool have to figure out a way that they can still attack like before while still having enough cover to counterattack and get deep into space. This can only be achieved by first moving from an attacking possession-based setup to a counter-attacking setup. Once that’s done, the next step is to find a designated sitting midfielder who’s mobile enough to track runs and clean up breaks in odd situations, but still be a ball-carrying player.

Slaughter’s football philosophy has always been based on possession, but in a sense he wants his team to enhance their game through all aspects of the pitch. The goalkeeper moves into the defensive third, which enters the low midfield line, which then enters the area between the opponent’s penalty area and the center circle, and finally into the attacking third.

It’s not something that can be solved overnight, but the point I make to my team is that Liverpool need to adopt a counter-attacking and counter-pressing style of play and then develop into a possession-based team. Similar to how Klopp and Pep performed in their first few years in England and how Arteta performed at Arsenal.

The reason I bring up this huge change is because of changes in players, changes in playing styles and changes in management. This makes the complete football team Klopp created unrecognizable as the team he created no longer exists at the club. In order to be a top possession-based team, other aspects of the game must fall into place first.

Author: MCR May 12, 2026 00:09:41

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