The difference between the first and second half for Liverpool against Ipswich Town can’t be measured in numbers; you have to visually see the difference in the way Jarrel Quansah went into duels when compared to Ibrahima Konate.

Arne Slot when asked what it was that they changed in the second half:

First thing I said was, ‘We don’t have to speak about tactics if you lose so many duels,’ and that’s what we did. That’s not (to say) Jarell (Quansah) lost every duel; many of us lost too many duels. I think we needed (Ibrahima) Konate to win these long balls through the air from the number nine. That gave us control.

That sounds like something Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta would say but it is true in almost any team.

Jarell Quansah did win duels, but oftentimes his positioning before contact was too lax. He has picked up the defensive traits of Virgil Van Dijk. Van Dijk positions himself passively away from the attacker, and then he uses his strength and speed to challenge the ball after the pass. Ibrahima Konate is much more physical and more aggressively positions himself with his man to make sure his body is on the back of his marker before the ball comes into play.

In that way, Van Dijk and Konate balance each other out. Van Dijk can sit back and sweep a large section of the defense, while Konate can be more aggressive to help eliminate the number of passing options forward. When Quansah matches Van Dijk’s passiveness, there’s more space for the opposition in front of the defense.

The moment Konate came on after the half, he started marking Ipswich Town’s central forwards aggressively, and it made a massive difference because they no longer had safe ways of getting the ball into Liverpool’s end.

That made it easier to win back the ball and control the game, as Slot said.

Match: Ipswich Town 0-2 Liverpool, 17 August 2024