‘Gone down well’ – Slot did something earlier this week that Liverpool players absolutely loved

For all the adversity which has afflicted them this season – much of it self-imposed – Liverpool proved in midweek that they’re still capable of rising to a big challenge.

The mood music going into the Champions League clash against Inter Milan on Tuesday was rather sombre, off the back of two frustrating draws in the Premier League (on top of the six defeats we’d already shipped) and the fallout from Mo Salah’s public comments last weekend.

The Egyptian was duly omitted for the fixture at the San Siro, and with Cody Gakpo and Federico Chiesa ruled out through injury and illness respectively, it left Arne Slot with a severe shortage of senior forwards to face the Nerazzurri.

However, the Liverpool head coach was sufficiently pragmatic to deploy a 4-4-2 formation with a diamond midfield in which Ryan Gravenberch sat deep and Alexis Mac Allister operated just behind a front two of Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike.

Formation tweak went down a treat with Liverpool players

The tactical shift worked a treat as the Reds came away victorious, even if it took a late Dominik Szoboszlai penalty to settle the match, and the overall team performance was one of the best that we’ve produced all season.

In his latest Liverpool Confidential roundup for Mail Sport, Lewis Steele noted that the switch to the 4-4-2 diamond had ‘gone down well’ with the players, and many within the squad believe that it helps to bring the best out of the group and incorporate as many senior figures into the starting XI as possible.

The reporter added that many of the players are firmly behind Slot in the wake of Salah’s comments last Saturday, and that the Dutchman has the backing of the Anfield hierarchy.

Will Slot stick with the 4-4-2 diamond for Liverpool v Brighton?

With so few senior forwards at his disposal, the 47-year-old was somewhat forced into that change of formation, but it evidently had the desired effect and appears to have been very well received by the squad.

Whether or not he’ll stick with it for the Brighton game on Saturday is another matter – a draw against Inter would still have been a passable result, but nothing less than victory will suffice at the weekend.

Also, with Florian Wirtz having much more of an impact after coming on than Isak had in his 67 minutes on the San Siro pitch, does Slot start the German instead of the ex-Newcastle striker? If so, where does he play in relation to Ekitike?

What works in one game is by no means guaranteed to succeed in another, but the effective imposition of the 4-4-2 diamond in Milan and the ongoing absence of Gakpo (and most likely Salah) would make it logical to stick rather than twist.

Unfortunately Conor Bradley is suspended against Brighton, thus depriving us of the attacking threat he can provide from right-back, but Joe Gomez can certainly be trusted in that role.

We trust in Slot to go with the personnel and tactical setup that he thinks would give Liverpool the best chance of picking up three points on Saturday.

You can watch Slot’s full post-Inter Milan press conference below, via Empire of the Kop on YouTube:

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