The Most Interesting Five Minutes of 2024/25

People rarely pay much attention to the nuances in the final game of a season. Arne Slot showed why they should.

The last match of a league campaign never undergoes much in the way of in-depth analysis. Everybody is ready for a break, there’s no need to rake over what went well or badly in what is frequently a dead rubber.

This is even truer when you’ve just won the league. Arne Slot was barely asked about the 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace immediately after the 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace. Who cares about the game when there’s a shiny trophy to show off?

Yet with Liverpool a goal down in the second half, the Dutchman changed the formation in a really interesting way, rolling the dice with a method that’s hard to recall seeing. Maybe the lack of jeopardy enabled Slot to go for broke in unexpected fashion. Nobody wants to lose on trophy day. Even so, there were other, safer moves he could have made.

A few seconds past the hour mark, Ryan Gravenberch is booked for diving. Fair enough; it looked like a dive. Worse was to come for the number 38, not that he knew it.

Slot calls him over to the touchline for a chat. “Wees geen idioot, Ryan,” he might be saying. It’s more likely they are discussing the tactical tweak that is about to be implemented.

While they converse, both sides make a double substitution. Palace go broadly like-for-like, retaining their 3-4-2-1 formation. Liverpool’s move hadn’t been done before. They might never do it again. It’s worth a closer look as part of the bigger picture of Slot’s tactical blueprint, nonetheless.

He opts to use Darwin Núñez to replace Dominik Szoboszlai with Diogo Jota coming on for Ibrahima Konaté. Not at centre-back, obviously.

Reshuffles of this nature had occurred before, just not so extreme. In the defeat to Nottingham Forest, Jones came on for Konaté to leave the Reds with a back three featuring Conor Bradley and Kostas Tsimikas either side of Virgil van Dijk. Various in-game personnel changes left Liverpool fielding Bradley, van Dijk and Gravenberch in defence as they chased an equaliser at Fulham. Neither shift produced a goal.

Against Palace, as the starting attacking trio of Luis Díaz, Cody Gakpo and Mohamed Salah remain on the pitch the Reds are now deploying five senior forwards. This is why Slot chats with Gravenberch, as he needs to move to the heart of the defence. This leaves Curtis Jones as the sole midfielder, so with Darwin up top, Liverpool are now in a 4-1-4-1 formation.

Rafa Benitez would baffle fans by bringing on a left-back when Liverpool needed a goal. The Spaniard reasoned that his side needed to be better in build-up, it wasn’t a lack of forwards which was their problem.

Slot unleashed the opposite of that idea with jam on top. He’s Kylo Ren in The Last Jedi, he’s the Andrea True Connection. More, More, More. How do you like it, Glasner? How do you like it?

The match resumes at 62:01 with a free-kick for the visitors. Eventually Daniel Muñoz commits a foul on the edge of the Reds’ defensive third, allowing them to regain possession.

The camera shows Slot shouting to get Trent’s attention, not that it’s clear what he asked of his departing right-back. He’s next seen in midfield, suggesting Liverpool have perhaps gone to 3-2-4-1 in possession. Formations don’t matter quite so much when the attacking is largely going in one direction.

The Reds retain possession without going anywhere until the start of the 64th minute. Jones then plays a long, high pass across half of the pitch to transfer the ball to Salah near the goal line.

Tyrick Mitchell can only find Jones near the edge of the box when he attempts to clear. His long-range shot is blocked, spinning towards Salah who was unable to control the ball. As is frequently the case when 25 yards out, shooting wasn’t the best option.

The time lost is arguably more detrimental than the squandering of a decent position. The ball went out of play with 63:13 on the clock, 32 seconds before the subsequent goal kick.

Liverpool don’t deal with the restart well. Van Djik wins the first header - inevitably - though Palace immediately regain the ball. When Muñoz fires in a cross, Virgil and Gravenberch are on opposite sides of the back four to where they should be, with Jota effectively occupying the holding midfielder spot.

Alisson Becker gathers. The Reds start to advance, with Alexander-Arnold in possession near half way. His creative value to the side waned a little in his final two years with the club. Trent created 28 Opta-defined big chances in 2022/23, then 19 and 15 respectively in the seasons which followed. That nestled him between Gakpo and Szoboszlai in Slot’s first campaign. One of the guys, rather than the top dog.

But in this moment Alexander-Arnold showed what will now be missed. Buried in the Opta data vaults will be a way to check the longest passes classified as through-balls. His was a thing of beauty.

Dean Henderson’s good work to close the space meant Núñez was unable to convert what proved to be Liverpool’s highest xG chance of the contest. I know, can you imagine?

A five-forward formation is not for the faint of heart. Palace immediately counter. Liverpool aid them by playing their way into trouble in their own box at the cost of conceding a (long) throw-in.

Van Djik wins the first header - inevitably - but the Reds are unable to clear their lines so a cross leads to a shot on target for Ismaila Sarr. Once again, the ball remains in the penalty area, so substitute Justin Devenny forces another save out of Alisson to make it one sub shot apiece for the two sides.

Thanks to television replays, it’s not clear what happened next. The Opta chalkboard suggests Jones played an unsuccessful pass in the Liverpool half then Díaz was tackled on half way. Yet when we regain sight of the action, the ball is in Palace’s left-back zone with no way to explain through the data how it got there.

Mitchell, under pressure from Salah, clears to Eddie Nketiah, then Jones is able to steal possession. Alexander-Arnold attempts a second through-ball towards Darwin, only for Maxence Lacroix to intervene. He can only divert it, though, so Jota takes over, passing to Jones in what is broadly the right-back spot. Total football or total mess?

Well, after a one-two with Salah, the number 17 fires a cross over a crowded penalty box. It evades everyone in the centre, the ball finding its way to Gakpo on the far side. He cuts inside and shoots. I know, can you imagine? His effort is blocked. Corner.

Twenty-seven seconds pass. It’s remarkable how often Liverpool squeezed several shots into very little ball-in-play time last season. Here comes another, as Alexander-Arnold’s corner is struck towards goal by Salah. There’s just the small matter of around 10 men in red or yellow shirts between him and Henderson. Unsurprisingly the ball doesn’t go in; in Opta’s view, the shot wasn’t even on target.

Palace hack the ball away. Trent is still on the left flank having taken the corner on that side. The ball reaches him, he attempts a cross, another clearance is made.

At this point, Slot’s five forward frontline experiment explodes in Liverpool’s face. By mis-controlling the ball, Gravenberch allows Daichi Kamada to get a run on him. The Dutchman commits a professional foul in his clumsy attempt to recover possession, ending his afternoon.

Referee Darren England blows his whistle at 67:01, concluding our five minutes of front five action. Did we learn anything? Probably not about the team for 2025/26, in truth. There’s every chance only two of the quintet feature, three at most. Alexander-Arnold’s gorgeous passing is now consigned to the Reds’ archives too.

This period might have told us something about Slot, though. There were seasons in which the furthest Jürgen Klopp veered away from 4-3-3 was to bring on Joël Matip as a third centre-back in the final minutes to secure a win. He’d occasionally flirt with 4-4-2/4-2-4 but it’s hard to remember anything quite like this.

Slot went to Manchester City with a 4-2-2-2, featuring Jones and Szoboszlai as false 10s, returning home with three points. He shifted his 10 men against Fulham first to 4-2-3 then something approaching 3-3-1-2 as they chased a point.

And then he unleashed a 4-1-4-1 with five forwards. Nothing is tactically off the table when there’s points to be won. It makes one wonder what he’ll try this season.

More, more, more, please, Arne.