Chapter 654: Funnelled!

Watching the Wigan celebrations, Jurgen Klopp couldn’t help but shake his head.

It was expected, but it still stung when it was actually in front of you.

Without wasting any time, he called a few of the players closer, taking advantage of the stop in play to convey instructions to his men.

They were down, and not out.

The players nodded at their manager’s words until the Wigan players began returning to their half.

Only then did they pull away, with Klopp muttering his last set of instructions to MacAllister.

"Jurgen Klopp having a word with his men," Drury came in over the broadcast as the players all walked towards their respective positions.

"It seems the manager has something to change tactically!"

Beside him, Jim Beglin nodded but didn’t comment, and soon enough, the match got underway again.

The restart brought a noticeable change in Liverpool’s approach.

They began pressing Wigan’s defenders more aggressively, but the pressure was carefully directed.

Their forwards angled their runs to block passes into midfield, encouraging Wigan to play towards the touchlines.

Once the ball reached a full-back, Liverpool’s winger closed from the front while a midfielder cut off the route inside.

Wigan were being funnelled into areas where their options were limited.

Their first attempt to escape ended with a throw-in and the second produced a hurried pass that Liverpool intercepted, allowing the hosts to launch another attack.

As the game went on, Leo began dropping more and more towards the ball, hoping to provide an outlet, but it wasn’t done easily.

His marker followed him briefly before passing him on to a teammate, who stepped forward to block the return pass into the centre.

Since just one pressing wouldn’t be enough, they would share the task.

As instructed by Klopp, whoever was in Leo’s vicinity was the one to press, meaning Leo was going to have a man pressing wherever he went.

In one such instance, Leo received possession with his back to goal and immediately found himself under pressure.

He laid the ball off to Carlo, but Liverpool closed him down before Wigan could progress, and the ball was soon back in Liverpool’s possession as they recycled.

"A very tacit change in this Liverpool setup. Keeping Calderon down is never easy, but they seem to have handled it quite well, aside from the obvious pass to Ezra resulting in the goal," Peter Drury observed.

"They’re not necessarily following Leo everywhere now. They’re concentrating on denying him the passes that would allow him to turn and attack."

Hearing that, Jim Beglin nodded fervently, agreeing with his partner’s observation.

"It is exactly that. If he drops deep, they can live with that, provided he isn’t facing their goal. And when Wigan try to play through the middle, Liverpool have players ready to close those passing lanes. They’re making the whole team work harder to get the ball forward."

With one of their instructions already in play, Liverpool began exploiting the space they were creating through it.

In the 36th minute, a switch of play sent their full-back racing down the right, and his low cross forced a Wigan defender to stretch out a leg and divert the ball behind.

From the resulting corner, a Liverpool attacker glanced a header across goal, but it drifted wide.

Still, the Kop couldn’t help but applaud, sensing the edge their team was starting to gain.

Realising the momentum shift in the recent minutes, Dawson moved towards the edge of his technical area.

"Stay connected! Don’t get dragged across too early!"

As good a manager he was, he had just noticed Liverpool’s intention.

They were moving Wigan’s defensive block from side to side, waiting for a midfielder to step out of position or a defender to lose track of a runner.

Noticing was good, but now he had to react.

While he thought, Wigan held firm, but their clearances were rarely turning into attacks.

Liverpool’s midfield stayed close together, allowing them to contest second balls and recover possession before Wigan could get forward.

When Wigan turned over the ball again, it produced a more dangerous opportunity.

Liverpool played through the centre, where Cody Gakpo received the ball between Wigan’s midfield and defence.

He felt a body crashing into him, but he held on and did enough to shrug Henderson off.

And then without waiting, he turned and slipped a pass into the box, releasing Luiz Diaz behind the back line, but Wigan’s centre-back stepped across just in time to block the shot.

The ball spun away, and Liverpool recovered it before Wigan could mount a counterattack.

"Two promising openings for Liverpool now," Drury said.

"They’re not converting them, but they’re beginning to ask some serious questions."

"And Wigan are having to defend for long stretches," Beglin replied.

"When they win the ball, they’re not getting enough players forward quickly. That means the first player receiving possession has very few options, and Liverpool can press again."

With his tactical ingenuity overflowing, Leo was also beginning to see the problem.

Liverpool weren’t simply marking him out of the game.

They were controlling the spaces around him, forcing him to receive too deep or too close to the touchline to influence the attack.

He tried to change that by moving wider and exchanging positions with Reyes and, for a moment, the movement opened a passing lane.

Carlo found Leo, who immediately slipped the ball around the corner for Reyes to run onto, but this time, Van Dijk anticipated the pass and stepped across to intercept.

And once more, Liverpool turned defence into attack almost immediately.

Mohammed Salah, with his blistering pace, took on the ball.

The legendary winger drove towards the box before cutting the ball back to a midfielder arriving near the penalty spot.

The crowd beneath the goal leaned forward, sensing the effort to come.

"IT’S SZOBOZLAIIIII!"

The shot was struck first time, but a Wigan defender threw himself in front of it, saving Wigan once more, but Liverpool were beckoning.

"That is a wonderful block. Timely intervention because that was heading for the back of the net."

Sprawled against the ground after taking the block, O’Shea rose to his feet and then began walking towards the horde of bodies beginning to fill in the Wigan box.