The tactical revolution behind Liverpool's Premier League collapse

Well, it worked for a while. Possession-based teams soon found they could destroy anti-football opponents by passing them to death, and tiki taka — famously used by Barcelona in the 2008-09 Champions League and Spain in the 2010 World Cup — was born. That ruled the roost until teams discovered that an aggressive high press could catch them out, which brought soccer to its current status quo.

What breaks a high press? Anti-football, that's what. And so the cycle is ready to start again.

Long balls and long throws

Anti-football is a surefire way to keep an opponent from scoring, but teams need to do more than that to win matches: they have to score for themselves, too. To manage that, anti-football practitioners leverage long balls from their own half to break offensive lines and long throws to turn simple throw-ins into dangerous set pieces. When long balls and long throws increase in frequency, it's a surefire sign that anti-football is on its way.

The Premier League recorded more long throws in the opening nine games of the 2024-25 season than it did in the entirety of the 2020-21 season. Long throws have more than doubled on a per-game basis in the league, and long balls from the back are up, too, particularly against high-pressing teams like Liverpool. No team has faced more long balls this season than the defending champion: it's fielded a whopping 571. (By contrast, Aston Villa — a team level on points with Liverpool — has fielded just 390.)

The signs couldn't be clearer: Premier League teams have figured out how to break Liverpool down.

A new guard

Liverpool and its high-pressing peers may be the clear losers in this tactical shift, but which teams are the winners?

The obvious answer is the league's top long-ball and long throw merchants: Crystal Palace, Sunderland and Bournemouth. And indeed, the Premier League table backs this up: Crystal Palace is 10th, Sunderland is fourth and Bournemouth is second. These are wild positions for these three teams, and they prove that the Premier League's tactical winds are changing direction.