Tactical Analysis: Borussia Dortmund - Liverpool 1-1/Europa League/7-4-2016

With Liverpool and Dortmund fans singing together “You’ll never walk alone” the stage was set for what it was a really important game. Dortmund missed a plentiful of chances; however, Liverpool had the most important ones. Divock Origi put the Reds ahead, getting in behind the Dortmund defence. However Hummels was the one to even things up just two minutes after the blow was whistled for the start of the second half. The final score means nothing is decided yet between the two teams. Liverpool defended dynamically keeping quiet both Reus and Aubameyang. However some mistakes need to be highlighted to show that our defense is far away from becoming a defensive force whatsoever. 

Lovren and Sakho miscommunicate

 Early in the game, Weigl sees the run of Shmelzer behind the Liverpool defence and passes to him beautifully. The problem for Liverpool is the miscommunication between Sakho and Lovren. The Frenchman has stepped out unreasonably while his partner is sitting too deep resulting in keeping both Shmelzer and Durm onside. However the pair made up for their mistake blocking both shots which came after Shmelzer’s run.

Lovren is aware of Aubameyang

 The dangerous Aubameyang was silent throughout the game and this image proves why. Mkhitaryan makes a beautiful through pass for the striker but Dejan Lovren has followed the Dortmund attacker’s run, hence he makes a very important tackle in difficult circumstances, giving away only a corner.

Set pieces are still a problem

 This is yet another example of how poorly Liverpool defend set pieces. There are just four Dortmund players inside the box, while on the same time there are seven Liverpool players who keep a zone. However, there is no player in the far post where ultimately Hummel’s header ended up. But what is more concerning is the fact that Dortmund’s skipper, despite being by far the most dangerous player at set pieces, is left alone, with Lallana having to deal with him in the end without, obviously, ineffectively.

Liverpool counter attack dynamically

Liverpool had a huge chance to score a second goal shortly after Hummel’s levelled things up, but despite all their effort Weidenfeller produced a world class save. In this image four Liverpool players wait for the ball, while being totally unmarked, as Dortmund is slow to recover from the counter attack. Although, the defense waits for Allen to shoot, the Welshman does well to notice that his teammates wait on the edge of the box, thus he passes creating the chance.