The Regista - Fulham vs Liverpool tactical review: Elliott thrived; Silva missed his 'overload' chance

Tribalfootball.com's tactics expert Connor Holden runs his eye over Liverpool's successful night at Carabao Cup semifinal opponents Fulham and says Reds boss Jurgen Klopp created the ideal system for Harvey Elliott to thrive. He also laments Fulham manager Marco Silva failing to take advantage of the visitors' lack of experience at the back...

In the second Carabao Cup semi final, Fulham took on Liverpool, needing to overturn a 2-1 deficit sustained at Anfield in the reverse fixture.

Despite going down early in this game, making it 1-0 to Liverpool, and 3-1 to the Reds on aggregate, Fulham managed to get a goal in the second half, making the end of the game a bit nervy for Liverpool, defending their 3-2 lead.

Liverpool prevailed in the end, but what stood out tactically about Jurgen Klopp's side? And what made that midfield tick?

LIVERPOOL'S DOUBLE EIGHTS

Liverpool lined up in a 4-3-3, with Alexis Mac Allister sitting slightly deeper in midfield, whilst Ryan Gravenberch and Harvey Elliot were either side of him.

But something that was clear in this game against Fulham was the freedom that both eights had, to pick up different positions and create overloads on the ball side.

What this often meant was one of the number eights would drift over towards the side the ball was on, so that both of them were occupying the same side, and creating mini overloads in half spaces.

This gave Liverpool ball side overloads against Fulham, creating mini 5v2/5v3 passages where they could move the ball through the lines with quick movement and one/two passing.

The way Klopp used his midfield in this game was a very relationist approach, where the players had the freedom to make movements into zones that they thought would benefit