Liverpool legend has explained how a tactical switch from new Reds boss led directly to Diogo Jota's goal against .
Jota scored the only goal of the game as beat Palace 1-0 after an excellent pass from Kostas Tsimikas found on the left wing. Gakpo then played a first-time cross to Jota, who fired the ball past Palace goalkeeper Dean Henderson. And Carragher felt Tsimikas' role in the goal was a perfect example of why Slot likes his full-back to play much narrower than normal.
In a post on social media, he explained: "Narrow fullback (Tsimikas) plays the pass for Gakpo, exactly why Slot wants his full backs narrow in the build up." Slot has previously detailed exactly why he wants Liverpool to play with narrow full-backs in an interview with Carragher on Sky Sports. "The idea of the full-backs not being that wide, it depends on the press from the other team," Slot explained.
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"But if the full-backs are all down the line and then you play [to] the full-back, then he's very far away from some other players and it takes really long to get the ball over there. So if you're playing closer to each other, then the ball goes faster from one foot to the other and that gives less time to the opponent to defend.
"The idea of full-backs, of players playing close together is to have short passes which give limited time to the other team to defend. You can switch play faster of course and receive the ball all the way down the line." Carragher has previously commented on Liverpool's use of full-backs under Slot, highlighting just how narrow Andy Robertson and played in Liverpool's win over Ipswich on the opening day of the season.
"He definitely likes to use the centre of the pitch, not just his defenders but his midfield players. He has always got numbers centrally," Carragher said on Sky Sports. "Is it about keeping the ball? The back four was very narrow. "Why would they do that? Arne Slot likes to play through the centre. The player he would like to buy, the first one he has not got over the line, was Martin Zubimendi, a holding midfielder, a technical player.
"When you think of a team being counter-attacked, more often than not we associate that with the full-backs being [wide]. Someone loses the ball and before you know it, teams are converging on your two centre-backs. The two full-backs were there."
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