When Jürgen Klopp first arrived at Liverpool, he initially adopted the tactical shape which had brought him so much success at Borussia Dortmund. During his time in Germany, the 4-2-3-1 became the system upon which his distinct 'gegenpressing' philosophy was built, with a midfield double-pivot providing the solid defensive base which enabled him to pick essentially four attackers.
At Liverpool, though, Klopp gradually moved away from that particular blueprint towards 4-3-3 as his standard formation, with the conversion of Roberto Firmino from the attacking midfielder he once was into a unique breed of centre forward playing a fundamental role in the team's tactical evolution, as well as the emergence of the full-backs as primary creative outlets over the last two years.
Klopp has still occasionally veered away from 4-3-3 – whether for a one-off fixture, or for an extended period of time as he did when fully integrating Fabinho into the team around November-December time last season – but noticeably, he has been fairly rigid in sticking to his favoured set-up for the vast majority of the current campaign up until now.
It's a recipe which has clearly brought extraordinary results and one which has underpinned Liverpool's phenomenal title charge, but there have been several obvious signs in recent results and performances of opposition teams finding ways to combat it.
Although most of the flurry of goals Liverpool have conceded in the past few games could be attributed to uncharacteristically poor individual defending as opposed to a deep-rooted flaw in the defensive shape as a whole, most concerning has been Liverpool's inability to create clear-cut goalscoring opportunities.
Bottom-placed Norwich City succeeded in keeping Liverpool very much at bay until Sadio Mané made something out of nothing in the 78th minute, while Atletico Madrid expertly shacked them in the Champions League, with Watford limiting Klopp's side to just one shot on target at Vicarage Road. Even in the 3-2 win against West Ham United, at least two – and arguably three – of Liverpool's goals on the night were the product of major defensive or goalkeeping errors from their opponents.
Indeed, in the 3-0 defeat to Watford, none of Mané, Firmino or Salah managed a shot on target or a key pass, while the offensive threat of the full-backs was mostly very limited (bar Andy Robertson's first-half strike, drawing Ben Foster's only real save of the match).
On the one hand, there is a case to suggest Liverpool simply need to up their collective intensity and that individual players must raise their own performance levels to snap out of this slump in form – but it could also be that a change in shape might be exactly what the team requires right now as a means of re-finding their cutting edge and posing opponents a totally different set of problems to think about.
The 4-2-3-1 could therefore be a viable solution for a number of reasons, the first being that it tends to suit Fabinho well having another player alongside him rather than having an enormous amount of ground to cover by himself, particularly without Jordan Henderson in the side. It might also significantly benefit the front three, potentially allowing Firmino to be more involved by dropping into the No.10 role and able to link up more regularly with Salah, who could play through the middle as he has done numerous times previously.
Mané, meanwhile, could in theory play in any of the four attacking positions, and the switch in shape would also enable Klopp to deploy an extra forward-thinking player – perhaps a way of bringing Takumi Minamino into the fold, with the Japanese international capable of injecting a degree of unpredictability and guile between the lines which has been lacking in Liverpool's recent peformances.
Minamino also hasn't had the opportunity to find his best role in the team yet, with the majority of his game time so far coming either off the bench or in heavily rotated FA Cup lineups, so Liverpool haven't yet seen how he performs in tandem with Mané, Firmino and Salah for a sustained period.
It's not remotely as though Klopp needs to ditch 4-3-3 off the back of a handful of sub-par displays, but more that changing things up by refreshing the system can be a productive means of tackling the distinct set of problems Liverpool are frequently encountering at this point in time.
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March 03, 2020 at 06:00PM
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Why reviving past tactic could be Jürgen Klopp's ideal solution to snap Liverpool back into form - Liverpool.com
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