There were an estimated 100,000 empty houses across Melbourne in 2023. A big number but easy to visualise when you see these yellow posters in your neighbourhood. This one is in Brunswick, a short walk from where I live.

Yeah, pretty much. Fullbacks basically on the touchline with goalkicks to provide width, then both inverting and pushing up next to the 6 in the attacking half. Wingers always asked to stay wide and make the pitch big to stretch the opposition defence and open up gaps for attacking midfielders.

Still think he has it wrong with Bruno though. I like Vergos but come on.

Cheers! Will give that a try

This, combined with a bit more patience when building out from the back, appears to be what is giving this Slot team a sense of control.

But if they were just a tiny bit off, or personnel were missing, they’d constantly be put under pressure.

It felt like Klopp could take that risk with those 19/20 and 21/22 Liverpool teams because Van Dijk, Matip/Konate and Fabinho just covered so much space and were so good 1v1.

But if you had fullbacks overlapping constantly they just can’t delay or impact the opposition on loss of possession.

Both games were at home so the absolute state of the pitch helped because you’d need three touches to control the ball before passing, which was plenty of time to press and win the ball back.

I tried it with my team at the end of this season for the final two games. Instructions for both fullbacks to tuck in next to the 6 when we were in our attacking half. They smothered any counterattack and meant we could apply prolonged pressure. Won both games comfortably against similar opposition.

More players in central areas when you lose the ball = less likely your centrebacks will come under direct pressure.

It appears to me to be one of the main reasons Liverpool have more control under Slot than the end of the Klopp era.