Arsenal always found solutions in the buildup as Liverpool struggled to press in the first half. In the second, they switched to a man-to-man midfield — Szoboszlai marked Calafiori and Konaté marked Martinelli — giving them the control they needed.

In the first half, Ryan Gravenberch marked left back Ricardo Calafiori, and Dominik Szoboszlai marked the left winger Gabriel Martinelli.

That allowed Dominik Szoboszlai to stay closer to the backline, but it did create a lot of space in the middle of the pitch because Ryan Gravenberch was dragged further out wide.

It forced individual Liverpool forwards and midfielders to mark several players at once. If you could bypass one Liverpool player, there was space free in the middle of the pitch.

That meant all Arsenal had to do was execute passes in order to get into Liverpool’s half.

According to Ryan Gravenberch, in a post-match interview, he detailed what Liverpool changed in the second half:

In the first half, it was always really difficult to press them. They had always a solution. Rice dropped into midfield, Zubimendi. It was really difficult, but in the second half we changed the way that we pressed.

The left fullback from them (Ricardo Califiori) normally I had to go out. But in the second half, we changed it, and we did man-to-man in the midfield with Dom (Szoboszlai) go to the left fullback (Ricardo Califiori) and (Ibrahima) Konate to the left winger (Gabriel Martinelli). I think that was really better because in the first half we couldn’t get a grip on it.

Ryan Gravenberch and Florian Wirtz both marked both of Arsenal’s deepest-lying midfielders, Declan Rice and Martin Zubimendi.

This more balanced and straightforward approach to defending made it more difficult for Arsenal to play out from the back.

It is riskier because Dominik Szoboszlai would be far out of position if Arsenal were to cleanly break out of the initial buildupinto Liverpool’s half of the pitch, but Arsenal never had the pace on the break to consistently threaten Liverpool’s back line.

It allowed Liverpool’s forwards to expend less energy chasing players behind them and focus their time on pressing Arsenal’s defenders when they received the ball.

Szoboszlai was more useful higher up the pitch to allow Gravenberch to mark someone else, which then allowed Wirtz to mark someone else, creating more pressure.

It was a more aggressive stance, but it was a risk worth taking because it helped them create chances off simple mistakes in the buildup, it forced mistakes from goalkeeper David Raya, and they overwhelmed the midfield.

Even if Arsenal executed all their passes, it was more difficult to find the third man free, which made it increasingly difficult to play out from the back.

That is one reason why Liverpool was able to regain possession more in the second half. It was a simple yet super effective change.