Liverpool, Brighton and the Third-Man Run Problem

Liverpool’s press thrived when Brighton stuck to building from the back, but familiar issues still showed up in midfield balance. The third-man run remains a key problem that opponents can exploit.

It doesn't take a genius to understand why Liverpool had so much joy against Brighton, and it wasn't due to Brighton playing below par or their game plan. It was actually their lack of deviation from their normal style of play which gave Liverpool the upper hand in that game.

Why Brighton’s build-up suited Liverpool

A lot of times when I have watched the Reds this season, the games have followed a similar approach from the opposition. They look to numb Liverpool's attack with either a low block or long balls to a third man deep run to bypass the press, and then look to exploit the lack of speed on defending a counter or play the ball into an area behind the defence where it doesn't fall under the goalkeeper's or defender's responsibility to clear.

For the first time this season, a "lesser" team was actually looking to utilise their own style of play against Liverpool where they tried to build up from the back instead of exploiting the lack of speed. This played into Liverpool's hands as the longer Brighton continued to build up from the back, the more precise Liverpool's press became.

The balance still looks off

Now one thing I took away from that game, which was not mentioned by my colleagues or other professionals within the sport, was how the balance of Liverpool's team still looked off. The third man deep run is still an issue for Liverpool. The two times Brighton were forced to play a long ball into the deep runner from midfield, they were able to push their team up the pitch and then look to set pressing traps against Liverpool.

Chelsea followed a similar pattern on the weekend where the third man run was made from defence to midfield instead of midfield to attack. This allowed Chelsea to split the Liverpool midfield and make it seem like there was huge gap between the Liverpool defence and centre circle.

Why the third-man run keeps hurting Liverpool

We all know the third man run is one of the most dangerous runs in football because it exposes a team's lack of mobility in defending those powerful runs. It also pegs a team back into their defending half, Jordan Henderson prime example.

Now this is what I took from the game against Brighton and mentioned to my boss as an improvement: a third man run can be stopped with man to man marking however it will leave an area for a secondary runner to go into the vacated space, or you need an athletic midfielder to combat the runs. Liverpool have been guilty of both where they used, and still do use, Mac Allister to track the third man run, which leaves another vacant space for a secondary runner to go into.

The second thing Liverpool have been guilty of is the lack of mobility in midfield. Now this can still be saved if Liverpool play with a designated ball-winning sitting midfielder instead of a rotating midfield however this will lead to them being a man down when attacking low blocks, while still being a possession based team. A Fabinho-type player is a prime example.

What needs to change under Slot

As a result, Liverpool have to come up with a way where they can still attack as they do while still having enough cover for counters and deep runs into space. This can only be accomplished by firstly moving away from an attacking possession based set-up into a counter attacking set-up. Once that has been done the next step is acquiring a designated sitting midfielder who is mobile enough to track runs on the odd occasion and clean up breaks but still being a ball player.

Slot's idea of football has always been possession based but in a sense where he wants the team to build up the play through all aspects of the pitch. Goalkeeper to defensive third, defensive third into a low midfield line, midfield line into the area between the opposition box and centre circle and finally into the attacking third.

It isn't something that can be fixed overnight however the point I made to my team was Liverpool need to adopt a counter attacking and counter pressing style of play and then evolve into a possession based team. Similar to how Klopp and Pep did in their first few years in England and how Arteta has done at Arsenal.

The reasons I suggested this drastic change is due to change in playing personnel, change in style of play and a change in management. This has left the complete footballing team Klopp created to be unrecognisable because what he built no longer exists in the club. In order to become a top possession based team, the other aspects of the game have to be on point first.

Written by MCR May 12 2026 00:09:41