Part of Arsenal’s recent success against Liverpool has been their ability to limit Roberto Firmino and Fabinho’s input.
Jurgen Klopp’s side set out to dominate possession and they do this by creating a mezzanine floor-like system. If the defence is the ground floor, the midfield the first floor and the attack the second floor, then what Firmino and Fabinho do is build mezzanine floors in between.
Fabinho operates between the back line and midfield, while Firmino operates between the midfield and attack. If you don’t go close them down, then you’re going to spend most of the game watching them with the ball.