Arne Slot used Liverpool\u2019s victory at the V\u00e9lodrome to restate a view that already caused debate on Merseyside earlier in the week. While the Champions League trip produced a 3-1 scoreline, Slot returned to the draw with Burnley and insisted both performances were strong, albeit different in approach.<\/p>\n
\u201cAgainst Burnley we created three or four times more than we did tonight but tonight we scored three,\u201d the Liverpool boss argued. \u201cEveryone can disagree with me but we played a very good game against Burnley and another good game tonight, but the tactics were different.\u201d<\/p>\n
The match statistics underline why Slot focused on chance creation. Versus Marseille the Reds scored three goals from 11 total shots and an xG of 1.46, with 42% possession, three shots on target, three Opta-defined \u201cBig Chances,\u201d and 29 touches in the opposition box. Against Burnley Liverpool managed one goal from 32 total shots and an xG of 3.18, enjoying 73% possession, 11 shots on target, three \u201cBig Chances,\u201d and 78 touches in the opposition box. Stats via FotMob.<\/p>\n
Slot\u2019s point about creating more opportunities is supported by the shot totals; the number of Opta-defined \u201cBig Chances\u201d was identical in both games. The contrasting defensive approaches of opponents explained the different looks: Burnley\u2019s low block limited clear sightlines, while Marseille\u2019s willingness to play out created space for the Premier League champions.<\/p>\n
Roberto De Zerbi reflected on those spaces. \u201cWe played badly, we conceded a stupid goal, the first,\u201d De Zerbi moaned. \u201cThe first period was played on equal terms, or more or less … In the second half, the match opened up a little and, when you give Liverpool players space, it\u2019s obvious that you\u2019re going to suffer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Slot also noted a sliver of fortune that had been rare this season and praised Mohamed Salah\u2019s \u201cprofessionalism\u201d after the forward completed 90 minutes following a late return from the Africa Cup of Nations. Joe Gomez received a specific shoutout from the manager as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After Marseille, Slot repeated that Liverpool had also played very well against Burnley. More detail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6156,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[230,175],"tags":[1162,299,1047],"class_list":["post-6157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analytics-stats","category-liverpool","tag-analytics","tag-arne-slot","tag-champions-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}