REVEALED: Arne Slot's blueprint for beating Brighton TWICE this week

In another example of the footballing calendar being entertaining and frustrating in equal measure, Liverpool play Brighton twice this week.

The first comes on Wednesday night in the League Cup fourth round on the south coast, before a Premier League game on Saturday back at Anfield.

There are easier teams to play against, put it that way. Brighton currently sit sixth in the Premier League. They would be fourth if they hadn’t failed to exploit a 96th-minute four-on-one and then immediately conceded an equaliser against Wolves at the weekend.

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They have 16 points, 16 goals and only one loss to their name. It is that loss, however, that provides the blueprint for Liverpool to have a very successful week.

Chelsea beat the Seagulls 4-2 at Stamford Bridge at the end of last month. It was a bizarre game that was 4-2 by half-time and Cole Palmer scored all four.

Brighton played an astonishingly high defensive line that Chelsea had the perfect combination to exploit - creative, able passers and willing, quick runners.

Brighton’s defence, in their attacking phases, would stand on the halfway line. The aim was seemingly to catch Chelsea offside whilst condensing the pitch and pressing high to force turnovers.

And part of it did work. Chelsea were caught offside six times in the game, including one ruling out an early Jadon Sancho goal.

But, largely, it was horrendously exploited. Chelsea’s opening three goals came from playing ball in behind early and they created an additional 2.8 unconverted xG. It could, realistically, have been very ugly for Brighton.

How Liverpool can exploit Brighton

They have changed their defensive tactics in subsequent games, but only marginally. The main difference in average positioning from the Chelsea game to the three games they have played afterwards (Tottenham, Newcastle, Wolves) is that there is much less of a gap between midfield and defence.

Their centre-backs do sit deeper than the halfway line, but this space is now condensed by the midfield instead.

Yet manager Fabian Hurzeler clearly believes in getting his defenders as high up as is feasible. The centre-backs still sit around three-quarters of the way up their own half but have been spared from a Chelsea-level repeat by midfield assistance.

Liverpool, however, have the perfect skill set to exploit this. The Reds’ equaliser against Arsenal proved it. Trent Alexander-Arnold played a perfect ball into space vacated by a high defensive line, Darwin Nuñez made the run and then found a cutting Mo Salah to equalise.

Liverpool should focus on this early and often. There may be rotations in the League Cup game to experiment with speed, but the formula is there. Use Salah, Nuñez and Luis Diaz’s ability to run in behind, use Trent and Virgil Van Dijk’s passing range, and have Dominik Szoboszlai/Curtis Jones as a third-man runner to find any and all loose balls.

If they get going it could be a very fruitful few days.

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