Brighton and Liverpool made unfashionable tactical pivots at the weekend that could be the start of a new trend
Crossing isn’t exactly a dying art, but it has certainly become rarer to see the more ambitious, attack-minded teams swing crosses into the box from open play.
It just isn’t de rigueur to try something so low-percentage, something so unfashionably anti-aesthetic.
But two of the most attacking clubs (with two of the most modern, zeitgeisty tacticians) pivoted to crossing at the weekend, so it is worth considering whether this is the beginning of a new trend that will catch on.
Get it in the box
Fashion, after all, plays an outsized role in tactical theory in the Premier League, and if Brighton and Liverpool are doing it, then it must be Smart and Good.
Liverpool’s 12 open-play crosses in the first half on Sunday were the most any team have managed against Arsenal since November 2020. By the 42nd minute, when Alex Mac Allister should have scored with a header from what was their 19th cross (open or set-piece) of the match, Liverpool had almost quadrupled the five crosses they made in the whole game against Brighton the weekend before.
Brighton weren’t as consistent in their 2-0 victory over Manchester City, but there was a clear tactical plan to switch the play with long diagonals into the (very wide) wingers as often as possible. Fabian Hurzeler appeared to see City’s not-actually-full-backs as the weak spot, and it worked, leading directly to the winning goal.
Liverpool and Brighton had different reasons for their strategies, although the end result was the same: both knew that by getting balls into the box they could sew chaos. Brighton’s winner came via a deflected half-clearance, while Arsenal’s defence regularly made first contact but, now on the back foot, were penned in by the loose second ball (at their most dishevelled, Jurrien Timber pulled on Alexander Isak’s shirt).
As Iraola put it: “We’ve put them under pressure, we’ve put them inside the box, we’ve put them there.”
Arsenal, uncomfortable, were pushed back into the box; were ‘put there’. It is a simple, albeit unfashionable, idea that others may choose to follow.
