Eintracht Frankfurt 1 Liverpool 5: Ekitike impresses, a new system and set-piece goals – The Athletic
After half an hour of Wednesday’s Champions League game at Eintracht Frankfurt, Liverpool were facing the prospect of losing five straight matches for the first time in 72 years.
Trailing to a crisp strike from former Leeds United defender Rasmus Kristensen, Arne Slot’s decision to make five changes and leave Mohamed Salah on the bench looked questionable.
But three goals in nine first-half minutes transformed this match, which Liverpool’s head coach will hope can be a defining moment for a team that has been struggling to find its identity after a summer of change.
One of the new arrivals, Hugo Ekitike, drew Liverpool level, scoring on the counter-attack after a piercing through ball from Andrew Robertson.
Slot will have been thrilled with what came next, Virgil van Dijk heading the visitors ahead from a corner, before Ibrahima Konate repeated the trick five minutes later.
Liverpool added a fourth in the second half when Cody Gakpo tapped home from close range and, with the home team looking increasingly dispirited, Dominik Szoboszlai drilled in a fifth from long range.
This was a stirring victory for Slot and his players, who earned a second win from their opening three Champions League games.
Here, we analyse the main talking points…
Should Ekitike be Liverpool’s first-choice forward?
Ekitike’s Liverpool career continues to go from strength to strength.
With his side a goal down, the 23-year-old scored his team’s equaliser after 35 minutes as part of an excellent performance — not his first this season.
Released by Robertson, Ekitike showed his ball-carrying skills, speed and composure to run the length of the Eintracht half and finish calmly.
It raises the question of why the striker was left on the bench for Liverpool’s past two Premier League matches, against Chelsea and Manchester United, both of which ended in defeat.
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Instead, Alexander Isak has been preferred as he continues to build match fitness, but it is his fellow striker and summer signing who has hit the ground running and looks the better selection.
Playing alongside Isak from the start for the first time, Ekitike shone brighter. Isak, meanwhile, was substituted at half-time on another night when he failed to find the back of the net.
Isak did have a couple of chances in quick succession but was denied on both occasions by Michael Zetterer in the opening 15 minutes. His influence decreased as the half went on and Federico Chiesa replaced him at the break.
In selecting both strikers, Slot left out Salah. The Egypt international has been in poor form and, for probably the first time in his Liverpool career, his place in the starting XI is being questioned.
Slot was vindicated in his decision to leave out the 33-year-old as Liverpool’s attack flourished. Eintracht’s defensive unit fell apart and Salah would likely have profited from that had he been on from the start. He nearly got on the scoresheet late on but was denied — and he could have squared the ball to Florian Wirtz, who was better placed.
It offers Slot some food for thought when selecting his team to play Brentford on Saturday night.
Hugo Ekitike scores against his former club (Alex Grimm/Getty Images)
Have Liverpool solved their set-piece issues?
During interviews, Slot has repeatedly spoken about his team’s problems defending corners and free kicks. Harry Maguire’s winner for Manchester United on Sunday was the latest to hurt Liverpool, but against Eintracht, it was their opponents’ vulnerability that was exposed.
Van Dijk scored from Gakpo’s corner, powering a header home from close range to give Liverpool a 2-1 lead in the 39th minute (the red dot in the six-yard box below).
Five minutes later, his defensive partner Konate found himself unmarked at the near post to head home Szoboszlai’s outswinger (the red dot inside the penalty area closer to the right side).
It was reminiscent of Liverpool’s come-from-behind win in the league phase against Milan last season, when both defenders were on the scoresheet.
Initially, Liverpool’s corners in this game had been too deep, with several players making near-post runs only to see the ball sail over their heads. Corner takers Gakpo and Szoboszlai adjusted their delivery length and it paid off to great effect.
The Champions League appears to be the competition where Liverpool thrive from set pieces, as Van Dijk’s winner in the 3-2 victory over Atletico Madrid also came from a corner.
It was an important night for set-piece coach Aaron Briggs, who was given the job permanently in the summer. The key is transferring this into domestic fixtures.
This was a step in the right direction to achieving the ‘positive set-piece balance’ Slot wants.
Has Slot found a formation that suits his new arrivals?
The problems have been mounting for Slot and in his search for answers, he opted to change shape from his favoured 4-2-3-1 formation.
It could not have gone much better.
With Salah left out, Slot decided to play Isak and Ekitike together for the first time in a front two, with Gakpo on the left and Wirtz on the right.
It was a fluid system, with Isak and Ekitike swapping sides frequently and Wirtz given the licence to roam from the right when Liverpool were in possession, allowing him to be a lot more involved. Wirtz’s wait for his first assist since the Community Shield ended when he slid a pass across to Gakpo, swiftly following it up with another as he set up Szoboszlai to cap a promising display.
Florian Wirtz had not provided an assist since the Community Shield on August 10 (Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP via Getty Images)
Behind the front four was a midfield pairing of Szoboszlai and Curtis Jones, who were tasked with covering a lot of ground.
Liverpool controlled proceedings for most of the game and their pressing out of possession also looked more connected than in recent games.
The tweaked system also seemed to benefit Liverpool’s right-back. Both Jeremie Frimpong and then Conor Bradley took up positions higher up the pitch. Bradley forced two good saves from goalkeeper Zetterer.
Frimpong’s exit due to a hamstring injury was one of the negatives of the night. The defender appeared to pull a muscle during a tussle with Nathaniel Brown. It is another blow for the summer signing, this being the second injury he has suffered in his first three months at the club.
It is not surprising that there were some teething problems with the new system. That was evident in Frankfurt’s goal as the home side played through Liverpool very easily and saw Jones and Szoboszlai run into each other.
This is only one game and Frankfurt’s defensive record suggests nobody should be getting carried away, but after a run of four defeats that kept producing more questions than answers, this offered Slot something to build on.
What’s next for Liverpool?
Saturday, October 25: Brentford (away), Premier League, 8pm UK, 3pm ET
