Tribalfootball.com's tactics expert Connor Holden pulls apart Liverpool's thumping win against Chelsea and says as much as Conor Bradley and Darwin Nunez made the difference. the Blues midfield setup invited Reds danger...

Liverpool outclassed Chelsea at Anfield, honing in on the Blues weaknesses, whilst playing to their own strengths.

Although there were some very questionable VAR decisions going in Liverpool's favour, the Reds deservedly earned the victory, out playing Mauricio Pochettino's Chelsea in every sector of the pitch.

Let's take a look at the main reasons for this…

LIVERPOOL TACTICAL SETUP - BRADLEY AND NUNEZ CAUSE HAVOC

Liverpool set up in a 4-3-3, which became more of a 3-2-5 structure… however with the absence of Mohamed Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold, the way they formed this shape was slightly different, using player profiles differently to achieve their same goal.

Conor Bradley starting instead of Alexander-Arnold gives Liverpool a different player profile, a quick and rampant fullback who loves to bomb forward and provide width, so offering the right sided option for Liverpool especially in the absence of Salah.

Diogo Jota can then drift inside to become more of an inside forward, operating closer to Darwin Nunez in the middle, in and around the box.

This then allows the midfield three to rotate centrally, one of Curtis Jones (more often) and Dominik Szoboszlai drops in to join Alexis Mac Allister and create a 2 infront of the defenders, forming that 3-2-5 shape.

Nunez caused havoc all night against the Chelsea back line, engaging the space between Thiago Silva and Axel Disasi who was filling in at right back for the Blues.

Nunez and Luis Diaz looked to get into the space between Silva and Disasi at every opportunity, whilst Bradley bombed into the space vacated by Jota drifting centrally.

This allowed Liverpool to overrun Chelsea's defence, spreading them out and using all the space on both sides to outnumber them with their front five (one joining from midfield, usually Szoboszlai) matching up against the Chelsea back four.

The big issues came with Liverpool's movement for the Blues, as Diaz would drift wide to receive the ball, dragging Disasi out wide and leaving a gap for Nunez to run into between Disasi and Silva.

On the other side, Jota drifting inside gave Ben Chilwell the question of passing him over, which gave Bradley the time and space to attack down that flank, getting into some great crossing positions, and even getting a goal where Chilwell had followed Jota inside.

CHELSEA MIDFIELD WOES

As good as Liverpool were, Chelsea didn't help themselves with their setup for this game, often creating a 3-1-6 in possession rather than a 3-2-5.

Enzo Fernandez was pushing higher into the left half spaces, leaving Moises Caicedo very isolated in a single pivot.

This left Chelsea with very few options playing out, and when they eventually tried to play the pass through the lines, Liverpool easily predicted it and cut it out.

Once Liverpool had won the ball back, they now had the advantage as Chelsea only had four players (their 3-1 in the 3-1-6) to defend the transition, this was seen for the opening goal.

Pochettino has opted to use Fernandez higher up many times this season, but they were especially found out for it in this game, the gap between Caicedo and Enzo in midfield was far too big, causing faults in both possession and transitional defence structure.

Many would argue due to this, Pochettino isn't getting the best of his two expensive midfield assets, not allowing Enzo enough touches deep to dictate play and control the tempo, and leaving Caicedo isolated where he can't use his aggressive ball winning abilities without leaving gaps behind him.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, Liverpool deserved this victory, they took the game to Chelsea, played on the front foot and used the home crowd to their advantage.

Chelsea were unable to deal with the runs in behind of Liverpool, and couldn't get close enough in midfield to stop the ball going over the top, leaving them vulnerable. Much of this was due to the spacing errors in the side, the midfielders being too far apart, and the pressing structure also being disjointed.

Bradley picked up the man of match, grabbing a goal and two assists, and causing mayhem down the right flank for the Reds, even with the absence of Alexander-Arnold.

Despite Jurgen Klopp's men deserving the victory, the headlines will again be filled with VAR questions, as Chelsea had two penalty claims waved off, whilst Liverpool were also awarded a penalty of their own, Nunez hitting the post from the spot.