Liverpool held on against Arsenal without much attacking threat in the first half. In the second, space suddenly opened up and Jürgen Klopp’s side looked a lot more fluid and fluent. It was from there that the match was won.
Even in the absence of Mohamed Salah— now with Egypt preparing for AFCON — it was Liverpool that found a clinical edge to book its place in the FA Cup fourth round, where the Reds will hope for a considerably more straightforward tie than this one. On the day, though, there was only one winner when it came to attacking quality.
While the players on the pitch will take a lot of the credit, it was a change made by Klopp and his coaching staff that unlocked the game. At half-time, a major tweak to the line-up was made without there being a need for a substitution.
Liverpool looked a bit disjointed in the attacking third in the first half but then Harvey Elliott, who had begun the game playing the Salah role (in terms of his starting position, at least) moved back a line into the midfield and Cody Gakpo went down the middle rather than operating as a number eight.
Luis Díaz switched sides and Darwin Núñez shifted to the left flank, where he often looks best. Suddenly, everything looked much improved and Liverpool was able to build through the thirds a lot better. Everything clicked into gear and while not perfect, things were a lot smoother.
With Salah set to miss up to another seven games, that has to be the template that Liverpool uses the most in the coming weeks. Elliott, especially with Dominik Szoboszlai sidelined, was needed in midfield. Díaz offered much more threat down the right; the only reason that the Colombian has never played there before for Liverpool is because Salah is almost never absent.
Gakpo is an option for the center of the pitch because of his ability to connect but he is better further forward. The Dutchman looked much more comfortable as the number nine and Núñez sees much more of the ball when placed out wide.
Diogo Jota can play in either the central or left-sided attacking roles but this game showed why Elliott needs to be deeper and Díaz must be the man to cover for Salah over the coming weeks. With that set-up, the Reds should have more than enough to get by until the Egyptian returns and should, from this position, still be in all four competitions when he returns.
“You wonder what that’s going to be like without Salah,” Gary Neville said on his Sky Sports podcast last week. “But they owe it to him to get through the next month still in the title, still at the top of the league, and still ahead so they can give Salah a chance to come back and have a real go at the title.”
Step one of that aim is complete. The template for step two should now be clear as Liverpool continues to fight on all fronts.
