Poor play from Liverpool sees Arsenal secure second trophy under Mikel Arteta

After a 1-1 draw in ninety minutes, Arsenal went on to win the FA Community Shield, their second trophy in August 2020, after beating Liverpool 5-4 on penalties.

You would be justified in thinking that Arsenal’s performance was not at the level expected of a trophy-winning team, especially when you see that their possession stats in the second half got as low as 14% during a particular ten minute spell. Having said that, Arsenal managed to net all five of their penalties in a feat their opponents did not.

Although successful in slotting home all five of their penalties, Arsenal were gifted the opportunity to lift the another trophy before the start of the 2020/21 Premier League season by Liverpool’s weak performance on the day.

The first piece of action came from the Arsenal Captain himself. Clinical Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang put The Gunners 1-0 up inside 12 minutes at Wembley stadium before scoring the decisive penalty that crowned Arsenal the FA Community Shield champions. This trophy is now Mikel Arteta’s second trophy at Wembley since he was appointed new head coach at Arsenal in December 2019.

Aubameyang’s first half curler, which left Liverpool’s second-choice right back Neco Williams stranded, silenced a couple of Liverpool’s earlier chances as it fizzed into the back of the net. Brazilian goalkeeper Allison failed to keep out the shot from the 31-year-old Gabonese forward. For the remainder of the first half, both Arsenal and the current Premier League Champions, Liverpool looked decidedly lack-lustre, with both teams also failing to excite in the second half.

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Liverpool struggles:

Although the victorious Arsenal team did not perform at their very best, last season’s league winners Liverpool were surprisingly below-par and looked like a team who are a far cry away from the clinical playmakers that fans had become accustomed to seeing before the Covid-19 outbreak postponed the football season.

As per their usual routine, Liverpool made no substitutions at half time despite looking bland in midfield. Sadio Mané had been doing all of the running in a solo effort to create exciting opportunities for his teammates prior to half time, but with little success. Despite this lack of energy across the team, Liverpool remained unchanged after the break.

“You need to have fresh legs and decision making needs to be 100% on top and it was not”

Liverpool boss Jürgen Klopp recognised after the game that the team had room for improvement before the Premier League resumes on September 12th 2020

💬:Twitter/@skysports

Influential Taki and Naby:

Having seen enough after the restart, Reds boss Jürgen Klopp made a double substitution in the 59th minute, bringing on Takumi Minamino and Naby Keita for James Milner and Neco Williams. The double substitution left Liverpool in the ascendency with Minamino and Keita livening up the midfield after their introduction.

Positively, both Minamino and Keita have started to show some real class since football games resumed after the Coronavirus outbreak. The two creative players have worked hard to break into the first team and cement themselves in Jürgen Klopp’s squad plans: the two midfielders the only exciting element in Liverpool’s squad during the Community Shield loss to Arsenal.

Minamino got his just reward for all of his hard work since arriving on Merseyside from Red Bull Salzburg in January. The Japanese international scored his first Liverpool goal as he flicked a neat one, two into the path of Mohammed Salah before slotting home the return ball for the equaliser. Liverpool were looking the more likely to come out on top at this point after retaining much of the possession in the second half.

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Creativity issues:

However, creativity was still lacking in many areas and some of the stars in the Liverpool team were just not shining when they needed to. Mohammed Salah’s inactivity has left much to be questioned, with the number 11 invisible for a large majority of the game. It would easily be justified if Roberto Firmino had felt any anger after being substituted for Curtis Jones in the 83rd minute, having produced a much more creative and threatening display than the Egyptian forward.

Salah, who was possibly missing the influence and provision of pacy fullback Trent Alexander-Arnold who usually compliments him on the right-hand side of the pitch, had few attempts and produced nothing of note throughout the game.

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Georginio Wijnaldum was also far from his usual self in the middle of the park, perhaps highlighting his desire to move on from the Anfield based side. Speculation has been rife in the last month or so that Wijnaldum is looking to leave the Premier League and perhaps join former Netherlands boss Ronald Koeman at FC Barcelona. For a man who often dominates the midfield, his spark was considerably lacking and creativity was non-existent from the Dutch national. Lack of presence from the injured Jordan Henderson may also provide another possible explanation for the poor showing from Wijnaldum.

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The absence of Liverpool captain and FWA Player of the Season winner for the 2019/20 campaign, Henderson always proves tricky for the Reds’ players. Tremendously underrated, Henderson offers both defensive stability and creativity in attack which is a necessity when expecting Liverpool’s front three to consistently perform at a world-class level. Henderson is the driving force in what makes this Liverpool team tick and his absence is always noticeable. His reliable presence often goes unnoticed until he is sidelined. When Henderson is injured, the rest of the Liverpool midfield are often unsure and unaware of how to control the game. Despite the fact that James Milner was managing the defensive aspect of the midfield role relatively well, a reckless yellow card made the decision for his substitution an easier one for manager Klopp.

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Arguably the star of Liverpool’s pre-season tour in Austria, Rhian Brewster will also come away feeling deflated from this defeat to Arsenal. Although not on the pitch for most of the game, Brewster came on in the 92nd minute, replacing Wijnaldum, with his only touch of the game amounting in the missed penalty kick that decided the outcome of the game. Brewster of course, is not to blame for the outcome of the game when his teammates could have shown much, much more in the 90 minutes.

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Although talented, Curtis Jones also failed to impress for Liverpool when bought on for Firmino. The 19-year-old Scouser looked to be feeling the impact of a longer-than-usual season having had less recovery time, despite only being on the field for 10 minutes before slotting home a penalty. His legs were looking tired and his pace slow. The level of pressing that is standard in this Liverpool squad was not evident in Jones’ game play with some lethargy clearly on show. Could it have been that more chances would have been created in the 90 minutes had Jones pressed harder and faster when looking for the ball?

“We lost the competition because of penalties and because we didn’t use our chances. We could have scored earlier and had the game in the right direction. Time was not enough”

Liverpool boss Jürgen Klopp recognised the importance of his side missing their earlier chances and not being clinical enough.
💬: #LFCLIVE via Twitter/@AnfieldWatch

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Arsenal goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez was left largely unchallenged facing only 4 shots on target throughout the game proving that the Liverpool forward trio were somewhat out of sorts. Two of these were attempts from Sadio Mané, one in each half that appeared identical in style of miss. Both attempts were feeble and both were unable to be slotted home by the Senegalese. On both instances, Mané had only Argentine keeper Martínez to beat. Both times the ball should have been lifted over the keeper, yet both times Mané tried to keep the ball on the ground, firing both shots into the body of Martínez.

What also seems surprising is that Sadio was not on the list to take a penalty either, leaving two of the five spot-kick to two youngsters, Rhian Brewster and Curtis Jones, who are relatively inexperienced in finals. Could Sadio’s earlier misses have caused his confidence to take a knock?

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Although much like Martínez, who was largely unchallenged during the game, Liverpool’s Brazilian goalkeeper Alisson also seemed a far cry from his usual self during the penalty shoot out. Diving early on multiple occasions, Alisson didn’t look capable of interpreting the direction of any of Arsenal’s spot kicks, seeming uncertain and under-confident on the big occasion.

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Set play was also a struggle, with no real targets being met from corner kicks. These were notably being taken by Andrew Robertson instead of injured Alexander-Arnold who is well known for his sublime delivery. Throughout the game, Robertson was the only player in the Liverpool team to whip in any exciting or dangerous crosses, yet they all went unmet by his teammates. Virgil Van Dijk also struggled to live up to expectations by failing to connect with two corners that came his way, meaning the efforts ended up off-target and wasted in a game desperate for attempts at goal.

In a game of little accuracy and finesse, it’s easy to see that many players are not yet playing at their usual standard. Both the Arsenal and Liverpool team struggled with possession, skill and thought for large parts of the game. It can only be hoped that by the time the season starts in two weekends time, the games are more exciting, the players are more visibly confident and the goals are more forthcoming.

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