If you have ever played any form of pinball, you will recall the distinct sounds as the ball bounces around.
The pinball machine — a steel ball rolling on a sloped wooden surface — has switches and mechanical devices that are either passive or active.
Rubber bumpers and slingshots bounce the ball differently, and flippers are the controlled bats which the player has to use at the right moment to propel the ball in the right direction.
The mechanism initially starts with the ball sprung into action, similar to a build-up scenario in football. But the end goals are very different.
In pinball, the idea is to keep the ball bouncing to increase your score, but in football it’s all about moving the opposition around to progress the ball through their defensive block and create goalscoring situations.
Under Arne Slot, Liverpool have embraced the football version of pinball. During the build-up phase, it has been common to see Alisson or one of the centre-backs play a direct pass…
… towards Mohamed Salah down the right side. Meanwhile, another player — Trent Alexander-Arnold in this example — attacks the space Salah has vacated by dropping deeper or going inside to collect the long pass.
After Salah moves his marker up the pitch, the Egyptian plays the ball backwards with the final aim of finding a free team-mate who is making a third-man run into the created space while the opposition is looking to press the ball.
Here, Alexander-Arnold’s third-man run into the space Salah vacated is tracked by Brentford’s centre-back, Ethan Pinnock, which increases the distance between the defenders and midfielders, who are moving towards the ball when Liverpool’s right-winger plays it backwards towards Dominik Szoboszlai.
Before Salah plays the ball, Alexis Mac Allister is making another third-man run into the gap in midfield…
… and Szoboszlai quickly combines with Ryan Gravenberch to find him.
Mac Allister then plays wide to Alexander-Arnold, and while the ball is being bounced between the Liverpool players, Salah reverses his direction to support the attack down the right wing.
In another example, from the 4-1 victory against Sevilla in pre-season, Liverpool’s build-up is pressed and Alisson goes direct…
… towards Salah with Szoboszlai making a third-man run into the space the winger has vacated, even before the Egyptian plays the ball back to Diogo Jota.
The significance of the backwards pass to Jota is that it freezes Sevilla’s right centre-back and full-back for a moment…
… which provides an advantage for Szoboszlai, who has been accelerating forward since the beginning of the attack.
Jota finds Szoboszlai’s third-man run into the space Salah vacated…
… and the midfielder sets up Luis Diaz to score against an empty net.
Using Salah as the outlet of these long passes is logical. When receiving the ball with his back to a defender, Salah’s core strength — which is helped by the impressive physical transformation he has gone through over the years — gives him an advantage in any one-v-one situation. In addition to that, the Egypt captain knows how to use his body to shield the ball.
Furthermore, Salah’s ability to control passes or make quick decisions under pressure is immaculate. Last Saturday, in the 3-0 victory against Bournemouth, Liverpool used another version of their pinball passing to score the second goal of the game.
In this example, Bournemouth are aggressively pressing Liverpool’s build-up and Ibrahima Konate plays a direct pass into Salah. Meanwhile, Alexander-Arnold is making a third-man run into the space in midfield…
… and Salah finds the right-back’s dash with a one-touch pass…
… before reversing his movement to support the attack and prevent Bournemouth’s left-back, Milos Kerkez, from moving towards the ball.
Alexander-Arnold then carries the ball into space with supporting runs from Diaz and Szoboszlai…
… who overload Bournemouth’s right-back, Julian Araujo, with their movement. As a result, Alexander-Arnold finds Diaz in space…
… and the left-winger controls the ball with his right foot, before scoring with his left to double Liverpool’s lead.
The way this move works means that Salah could perform the role of the third-man runner because of his pace and understanding of space.
In another example from Liverpool’s pre-season, against Arsenal last July, Caoimhin Kelleher is pressed during the build-up phase and goes long.
The recipient of the long pass this time is Jota, who heads it back towards Harvey Elliott while Salah is sprinting down the right wing. Jota’s role as the outlet forces Arsenal’s centre-back, Gabriel, to move up, and playing the ball backwards…
… forces Jakub Kiwior to momentarily hold his position, instead of immediately dropping deeper. All of this provides Salah with an advantage as the Liverpool winger is accelerating into the space Gabriel vacated against two centre-backs who are starting their movement from a static position.
Elliott finds Salah’s run behind the defence…
… and the right-winger curls the ball into the bottom corner to give Liverpool the lead.
Liverpool’s pinball move is just another up-back-through passing pattern, but the characteristics of their players empower it further.
Salah’s ability to hold off defenders and play with his back to goal makes him a strong outlet, Alexander-Arnold’s third-man runs put him in dangerous positions where he can create, and the forwards’ threat in bigger spaces completes the package.
It’s the same profiles — excluding Jordan Henderson — that allowed Jurgen Klopp to introduce his “flexible triangle” down the right wing, where the rotations between the England midfielder, Salah and Alexander-Arnold caused problems for opponents and helped Liverpool win multiple trophies.
Usually those rotations came in the final third, when Liverpool were trying to break down teams, rather than the build-up phase.
Since Slot’s arrival, the Dutch head coach has been using Salah and Alexander-Arnold to build the attacks down the right through the team’s pinball move.
A smart utilisation of the players’ strengths in a different phase of play, but all towards the same goal — hearing the jackpot sound on Liverpool’s pinball Slot machine.
