The road to a Premier League title is rarely serene, as Liverpool are learning at the moment. Even Manchester City would go off-road for a couple games in October and November in previous years before they'd hit the gas in the spring. There are construction closures, accidents, rainstorms, and various other obstacles to get through before reaching the podium. Liverpool seem to have hit one of those of late.
It may only feel like a little blip. A draw at Everton, the Toffees' biggest game of the season, and then a pretty nervous and uneven 2-1 result over Wolves at Anfield on Sunday. What makes it feel like it could rise from the level of blip to maybe a "check engine" light, though, is just how toothless the Reds were in both matches, even if they did score four goals combined.
Against Everton, Liverpool were outshot and only mustered 0.62 xG. They were also outshot by Wolves, at home, and didn't even produce a single shot in the second half. Only some of that can be explained away by being up two goals, trying to play on the counter, and having an obvious scoring opportunity nullified by Diogo Jota's sudden urge to do a vinyasa instead of taking a shot from 11 yards out. If Jota properly buries that and makes it 3-0, the statistics of what come after are moot.
But he didn't, they are, and so this is where Liverpool are at. In the past two matches, they've come up against opponents who not only sat deep, but were determined to cut off as much of the supply line to Ryan Gravenberch as possible.
Liverpool needs to find a way to unlock Ryan Gravenberch again
The Reds have seen a lot of this:
Two of Wolves' forwards here, Goncalo Guedes in the middle and Pablo Sarabia on the right, are not allowing Virgil van Dijk to pass through them to Gravenberch. This has been the most common route for Liverpool. In the seconds before this shot, you can see Guedes repeatedly check his shoulder to see where Gravenberch is.
Everton did this consistently as well last week. Beto and Abdoulaye Doucouré were the hot gates in that match, making sure the ball went anywhere else from the Liverpool centerbacks than to Gravenberch.
The numbers are showing that. Gravenberch only had 54 touches in the full 90 minutes against Wolves, and just 32 in 60 minutes against Everton. For comparison, he'd averaged 60 in the previous five matches. He'd averaged 62 in the five matches he played the full 90 minutes in December.
The decline in touches obviously means that Gravenberch is having less of an influence. He only carried the ball any distance 18 times against Everton, 29 against Wolves. We'd seen those numbers in the mid-30s or -40s consistently for the whole season. He only completed 20 passes against Everton, 34 against Wolves, when he's averaging 50.5 for the whole season per 90 minutes. He's only managed three passes into the final third in those two games, when he's averaging over four per game on the season.
It's caused some problems down the line in midfield. Both Alexis Mac Allister and and Dominik Szoboszlai have seen fewer touches in those two matches than their season averages. Both have attempted and completed fewer passes than normal. It's not a surprise, as both Everton and Wolves sat deep and cut off that area between midfield and defense in which those two like to operate. But getting less from Gravenberch because he's getting less from his defense is also playing into the lack of creation from Liverpool in the past two games.
What are the solutions? Liverpool could start pulling Gravenberch deeper with the ball, positioning him between the centerbacks and splitting them wider. This would also give van Dijk and Konate different angles to perhaps send the ball directly to the more advanced midfielders. The drawback is that Gravenberch isn't really Andrea Pirlo, and pinging passes over longer distances isn't his main strength. Liverpool don't want him trying to dribble, his main strength, through even more defenders that would now be between him and the opposition goal.
We saw more in the first half against Wolves of Liverpool trying to switch the play from one side to the other quickly, and essentially go in the back door to Gravenberch after moving those first two opposition forwards out of the way. But cross-field balls aren't something a team wants to be constantly trying. It's also hard to just go more direct and straight to the forwards against teams that are sitting as deeply as Everton and Wolves were. Not a lot of space there.
The good news is that Liverpool's next three opponents — Aston Villa, Manchester City, and Newcastle — aren't likely to sit as deep as the previous two opponents. Villa and City at home especially are more likely to try and be on the front foot much more. That should leave more space for direct attacks over and through the midfield, as well as more space in between the lines for Mac Allister and Szoboszlai.
After that, though, Liverpool can expect to see more of this. How they counter it will go a long way to determining how smooth that road to a Premier League title will be, or how many potholes that engineer a weird clanking sound are left.