Tyler Morton’s Stay at Liverpool Opens Doors to Prove Worth to Arne Slot

Tyler Morton has remained at Liverpool and now he has a golden chance to prove himself to Arne Slot. 

The England U21 midfielder was subject to several enquiries in the summer, including by Bundesliga giants like Bayer Leverkusen and RB Leipzig.

However, Liverpool have been forced, out of necessity, after failing to address a gaping void in the no.6 department, to keep hold of the young midfielder.

There is no denying Morton is on the fringes of Liverpool’s squad. He hasn’t been involved in Arne Slot’s first three Premier League matchday squads and featured sparsely in pre-season with the longest minutes he had being 45 in a single match.

Yet, there is a long road ahead for Liverpool this season and Morton will have a chance to prove himself.

Why Tyler Morton’s Profile Suits Arne Slot

Morton has always been highly appreciated at Liverpool. He stepped up for the Reds under Jurgen Klopp back when he was a mere teenager in the 2021/22 campaign and even played a blinder against AC Milan at the San Siro in the Champions League.

Afterwards, Klopp lauded his footballing brain in the subsequent post-match press conference.

“It was a big pleasure to watch the boy playing,” Klopp said in his post-match press conference at the time.

“The football knowledge, the football brain he showed tonight, was absolutely exceptional.

“If you are technically on that level – and he obviously is – and you then have such good orientation, then sometimes we have enough time to do good stuff.”

It is that footballing brain which Morton can utilise to his advantage in Slot’s system.

Slot’s Ideal No.6

The new Liverpool head coach’s philosophy centres on the no.6 being primarily very comfortable on the ball and being able to instigate attacks from the back.

It’s no surprise that Ryan Gravenberch, who has played the no.6 role effectively so far, ranked in the no.1 spot among midfielders after the Premier League’s opening two games for passes into the final third (15) as per Wyscout.

Interestingly, among U21 midfielders who played at least 2000 minutes in the Championship last season, Tyler Morton ranked second best averaging 5.91 per 90 minutes, only behind Adam Wharton (now being valued at £100m by Crystal Palace) who averaged 7.18 per 90.

Admittedly, Wharton’s numbers are closer to Gravenberch’s average (7.5 per 90) in the opening two games. However, Morton’s own data is encouraging and there’s potential there to scale it up in a better team.

Morton Deals Well With Pressure

In general, Morton is a midfielder who doesn’t misplace a lot of passes. Last season in the Championship, he ranked in the top 10 among midfielders who averaged at least 50 passes per 90 for pass accuracy (89.09%).

Last season experts at the CIES Football Observatory also named Morton as one of the top 100 midfielders for ball retention under pressure in world football.

Out of the 100 players, Morton was the third youngest on the list. Behind only Gavi of Barcelona and Warren Zaire-Emery of PSG.

He had ‘ball retention under high pressure’ rate of 86.9%, which made him the best in the metric out of all of Liverpool’s midfielders in the previous campaign.

So, to put it succinctly, Morton is excellent on the ball. And we saw that against Real Betis in pre-season, in the 45 minutes he got in that game in the second-half.

Morton attempted 29 passes in that game and misplaced just one, completing the rest of the 28 – making him the Liverpool player with the most accurate pass completion rate in that game (97%).

Improvement Needed Physically and Defensive Numbers

Undoubtedly, in order to become a top player Morton still needs to grow into his body and improve physically.

He’s quite slight and his slim frame isn’t suited to playing week in week out in the Premier League just yet.

However, he did deal well with the physicality of the Championship during his last two spells.

Last season, among U21 midfielders, only Archie Gray (60.5%) and Jordan James (61.68%) had a better defensive duel success rate than Morton (60.48%), who averaged 5.83 defensive duels per 90 for Hull City.

During the previous campaign when he was asked to do a lot more defending at Blackburn Rovers, Morton fared even better.

The youngster averaged 6.92 defensive duels and won 65.24% of them – this was the best success rate among U21 midfielders in the league.

In Slot’s system there is a demand for the no.6 to win a high volume of duels and cover a lot of ground but the emphasis isn’t as great as it was under Klopp.

Morton definitely wasn’t suited to playing as a no.6 in the German’s system. However, under Slot where he will have another midfielder alongside him, who will often act to shape a double pivot in defensive transitions, Morton’s physicality may not be exposed in the same way it might have been under Klopp.

Worth a Shot

There’s no denying that he isn’t the perfect option. Ideally, Liverpool should have signed a no.6 in order to fix a vulnerable area in Slot’s squad.

However, you cannot dwell on the past. Now, Liverpool have to look ahead, and hope that just as Jarell Quansah stepped-up last season, Morton will follow suit and grab his golden chance to stake a claim in the first team with both hands.

Based on the numbers, he’s got the potential to do it. His football intelligence alone makes him an excellent profile for Slot, and with his defensive numbers also encouraging, there is no reason for Slot not to give him a chance as the Reds embark on a busy period after the international break.