After a weekend of Premier League drama, Alex Keble looks at key talking points and tactical lessons.
Liverpool's chaotic style is a tactical choice
Two lethal finishes from Darwin Nunez, Alexis Mac Allister’s effortless control of midfield and an imperious defensive display from Ibrahima Konate; all the pieces came together on Sunday for arguably Liverpool’s most impressive performance of the season.
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A 4-0 win at AFC Bournemouth puts them five points clear at the top - and ought to recalibrate our perception of Liverpool as a team still evolving.
The Reds have won six of their last eight Premier League matches and drawn the other two, against Arsenal and Manchester United, a sequence more or less as good as anything in the Jurgen Klopp era.
In fact, had they not gone down to nine men at Tottenham Hotspur in September, in a match they went on to lose 2-1, Liverpool would still be unbeaten and beginning to dream of an invincible season.
Why, then, have they so often been characterised as haphazard and mid-transition?
The answer to that question can be found in the study of Nunez; Liverpool’s clattering, chaotic and enigmatic centre-forward whose brace at Bournemouth summed up the Liverpool conundrum.
Nunez is wild and frantic, which are not traits we have associated with Premier League winners in the era of Manchester City dominance. But this is how Klopp plays. The chaos is built into the tactical model; the supposed disorganisation it brings an illusion.
Liverpool, as symbolised in Nunez, are a whirlwind force once again and yet, quietly finding their feet in defence and midfield, are nevertheless in total control.
If there is one caveat, it’s that Liverpool are flat-track bullies.
They are easily swatting aside mid-table clubs thanks to the depth and variety of players buzzing around in that forward line, but they have drawn four and lost one of their five matches against the traditional "Big Six" this season.
Their next two Premier League fixtures are Chelsea at home before a trip to Arsenal. With Man City breathing down their necks, now is the time for Liverpool to start winning the big matches.
Toney shows he brings more than just goals
“I'm grateful to be back playing with the lads, I've missed it so much," Ivan Toney said after the match. "The fans, everyone. Yeah, I'm back, I'm back.”
Toney’s return to action following an eight-month ban could not have gone any better.
Toney, who scored 20 Premier League goals last season, took just 19 minutes of his first match of 2023/24 to find the back of the net via a free-kick scored cheekily from the wrong position.
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But it isn’t just goals that Toney adds to the Brentford team.
His hold-up play is a vital component of Thomas Frank’s direct tactics, as we saw ahead of Brentford’s second goal when Toney, receiving a long ground pass, rode a strong challenge to nick the ball out to Keane Lewis-Potter and set away a counter-attack.
Lewis-Potter’s cross was blocked for a corner, from which Ben Mee scored.
Toney also pre-assisted the winner, dropping deep to spray a lovely pass out to Mads Roerslev, who crossed for Neal Maupay’s winner.
“It was an extremely impressive performance,” Frank said after the match. "Of course he has been training and working really hard and he was on it. But besides the goal, his link-up play, his hold-up play, the presence and the character, wow.
“He set the stage in many ways. Classic Ivan. He loves the big stage.”
Ings’ woes reveal why West Ham want a No 9
West Ham United and strikers just don’t go together. Over the last decade every single big-money No 9 has fallen short, from Andy Carroll to Marko Arnautovic, Sebastien Haller and Gianluca Scamacca.
It feels fitting that the only successful striker at West Ham over the last few years has been a right-back whom David Moyes converted out of desperation, but even Michail Antonio is no longer consistently coming up with goals.
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Antonio has two strikes in the Premier League this season, hence why Moyes is reportedly looking to sign a new centre-forward in the January window. Sunday’s 2-2 draw with Sheffield United will only have focused minds on that task.
Danny Ings played well. His link play was neat and tidy, his runs in behind deputised for the injured Antonio relatively successfully and he won the penalty from which West Ham took a second-half lead.
But unfortunately what sticks out in the memory are the two chances he missed when West Ham were leading, as both his shots from a good position were blocked.
In fairness to Ings, who once scored 22 Premier League goals in a single season for Southampton, a lack of match fitness might explain those misses. Perhaps a run in the team is all he needs for that killer instinct to return.
After all, he has been restricted to just two Premier League starts in 2023/24 and 231 minutes in total. Last season, he played the equivalent of around 18 full Premier League matches, mostly made up of substitute appearances, and still managed eight goals for Aston Villa and West Ham, which is a decent return.
But supporters will view the misses, and their team’s subsequent dropped points, as part of a wider issue; West Ham’s cursed attempts to find a proper No 9.
The search goes on.
Slide leaves Palace looking over their shoulder
The TV cameras caught Roy Hodgson staring into the middle distance, the banner in the background, and the scoreline reading 5-0 to Arsenal.
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Crystal Palace remain five points clear of the bottom three and relegation does not feel like an imminent threat, but they may start looking over their shoulders.
Yes, Palace have been in the Premier League for 11 straight seasons, but there is nothing worse for a football fan than apathy.
Regardless of whether or not that view of apathy is fair on Hodgson or the Palace owners, a banner displayed in the away end at full-time shows it is how some Palace supporters feel.
The magic touch that Hodgson brought on his return last season seems to be in shorter supply. So too has the free-flowing attacking football, replaced by conservatism.
Comparing his 10 league matches after he returned in 2022/23 with his 21 so far in 2023/24, Palace’s win percentage has dropped from 50 per cent to 23.8 per cent; their points-per-match and goals-per-match have both dropped from 1.8 to 1.0; and their goals conceded per 90 minutes have risen from 1.1 to 1.6.
It makes for unhappy reading. Up next the match against bottom-club Sheffield Utd at home on 30 January represents a great chance for Hodgson to start the turnaround.
If he cannot, the mood among the home fans is likely to worsen.
