A tidy win in Slot's first game at the helm
The Reds kicked off their US pre-season tour with a solid victory against Real Betis on Saturday morning.
While the heat was sweltering in Pittsburgh, Arne Slot cut a cool and composed figure on the touchline. This was his first match in front of a crowd, having fallen to a narrow defeat against Preston North End behind closed doors a week prior.
Against Real Betis, however, the Reds never really looked in trouble. They had the lion's share of possession and created the better chances, and overall had the look of a team teething a new play-style.
On paper, Slot trialled a formation that Klopp flirted with towards the end of his tenure at Liverpool. The back four are protected by a double pivot in midfield, who sit behind an attacking trio of midfielders. This triangle are then spearheaded by a centre forward.
But football is not played on paper, and in reality the formation was much more fluid. Tsimikas and Bradley bombed down the flanks, with the Northern Irishman putting on a particularly impressive display in possession.
The double pivot of Endo and Jones largely operated in a central and deep area, breaking up play and looking to find passes between the lines to set the more attacking midfielders on their way. Endo struggled in both regards, while Jones' replacement, 17 year-old Trey Nyoni, was brilliantly forward-thinking.
As for the the attacking quartet - Carvalho, Elliott, Szoboszlai and Salah - they were delightfully interchangeable. Carvalho, looking to impress the new gaffer after a good stint at Hull last season, mostly held the width on the left-hand side, keeping up an impressive work rate with his support of Tsimikas in defence. Elliott picked up spaces in between Betis' defence and midfield, drifting between the left and central spaces on the pitch.
Szoboszlai and Salah's positioning can perhaps be best summarised by the passage of play for the opening goal of the game. The Egyptian drifted out to right, where has thrived for seven seasons now, and played a cute pass into the surging midfielder, who slotted the ball into the bottom left corner.
The Hungarian seems to have been absolved of some defensive responsibility by Slot, pressing as much as he did under Klopp but using his extensive running power to stride into the box, rather than cover ground in deeper midfield.
Of course, it has to be acknowledged that the Reds played without a centre forward in this match, and so any attacking setups going forward will be significantly altered by the presence of Gakpo, Jota or Núñez.
As the match wore on, players on the periphery picked up minutes, with wholesale changes upon the hour mark including Morton, Chambers, Phillips, Beck, Bajcetic and Doak.
It will be a while before this team, so firmly entrenched in Klopp's ideology of football, begins to reflect their new manager's philosophy. But for now it looks like we're still very much in for quick and exciting football.