[ad_1]
It was a gloriously arrogant way to deal with a genuine dilemma.
Ahead of the most difficult assignment of the Premier League season yet, Jurgen Klopp was forced to choose between the established but slightly faded Roberto Firmino and the fresh, gripping and gripping Diogo Jota.
Break the trio of Firmino, Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah that had beaten Liverpool the Champions League and Premier League in consecutive seasons to fit a newcomer who had scored six goals in four games?
Diogo Jota’s scoring form (center) gave Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp a dilemma ahead of Sunday’s trip to Manchester City: Should he replace Roberto Firmino in the three forwards?
Klopp left with Firmino (left) and Jota in an adventurous setup with four attackers
Klopp’s (left) audacious gamble was a partial success as Liverpool drew with Pep Guardiola’s City
This is not how the Liverpool manager operates. Much better to add a fourth prong to your pitchfork and see what happens.
Doing it outside of Manchester City, the team expected to push Liverpool the most in this season’s title race, was an incredibly bold move by Klopp.
His bet was, in the end, a partial success. Liverpool came out with a point that could ultimately prove valuable, and as we enter the international break in November, they sit just one point from the top.
Meanwhile, the city ranks 10th as they put down their guns for a bit.
Liverpool’s formation changed form between 4-4-2, 4-2-3-1 and attractive 4-2-4, even going as far as 3-5-2 at times when one of Trent Alexander -Arnold or Andrew Robertson came forward. .
The tactical prowess of Klopp’s team saw them tear City apart for the first half hour, but also ensured that the game did not turn into a basketball game once the legs got tired in the second half.
Liverpool’s electrifying start to the game led to Kyle Walker fouling Sadio Mane
Mohamed Salah hid the penalty and is congratulated by Roberto Firmino
After Kevin De Bruyne slipped a deflected penalty, Liverpool almost had enough on defense to come out with the draw.
Had they been largely exposed and lost, Klopp might as well have put the Salah-Mane-Firmino-Jota experiment aside, never to be seen again.
As it was, the German hinted after that we will see the ‘Fab Four’ perform again, considering it a qualified success.
“ When you can do it against City, you can also do it against other teams. It won’t be our new permanent formation, but there are times when we could use it, ” he said.
Klopp’s point is fair. If you can pull off such a bold setup against City and come up with something, then surely it can be used successfully against lesser teams.
But Gabriel Jesus was able to equalize for City once they recovered from their slow start.
City’s Kevin De Bruyne took a penalty deflected off the post as the Etihad showdown ended 1-1
After all, quite a few opponents in the Premier League would have collapsed when subjected to the kind of pressure that Liverpool exerted in the first 10-15 minutes.
This was Klopp’s ‘heavy metal football’ taken to the extreme, the intensity of Liverpool’s game at first stunned the City players and forced them to retire.
It wasn’t as dazzling as the three goals in nine minutes early in the second half to go 4-1 ahead against City in January 2018, a game Liverpool eventually won 4-3 to inflict a first league loss of the season to Guardiola. .
But he gave up a penalty in the 13th minute that Salah converted and left City shaken.
Guardiola said his pre-match preparations had included the possibility of Liverpool lining up with four attackers (one would expect a coach of such caliber to anticipate all the possibilities), but even he stared into space as his team was suffocated from the beginning.
Guardiola and his team seemed genuinely disturbed by Liverpool’s quick start to the game.
Trent Alexander-Arnold was encouraged to advance at every opportunity for Liverpool
But after sustaining an injury, Alexander-Arnold was forced to leave and Liverpool settled for a draw.
But it was never sustainable for the full 90 minutes and Klopp knew it.
To continue the ‘heavy metal’ analogy, the start of Sunday’s game was the messy chaos of the mosh pit with adrenaline pumping through each guitar riff as the band works through their classics.
In the end, you’re gutted, drenched in sweat, bleeding, and wanting to get ahead of the crowd.
It was always going to be too much to ask Jordan Henderson and Georginio Wijnaldum to keep City’s attack at bay, not to mention a defense that missed Virgil van Dijk.
So it turned out. Liverpool’s intensity slowly faded, Gabriel Jesus restored parity before the fortunate escape from De Bruyne’s missed penalty after a hand from Gomez. In the end, there was a happy acceptance of the draw.
The formation put pressure on midfielders Jordan Henderson (left) and Georginio Wijnaldum (right) to work hard to ensure that City could not counterattack.
Virgil van Dijk’s injury at Everton makes playing this formation risky for Liverpool
A map showing the Liverpool team’s middle positions revealed how the system worked with Mane and Jota tasked with carrying out more than normal midfield duties.
Firmino and especially Salah were the most advanced of this forward quartet and what is remarkable is that Alexander-Arnold essentially occupied the winger position on the right before he was forced to retire through injury in the 63rd minute.
James Milner replaced him and Liverpool seemed happy with their lot.
Liverpool had a habit a couple of years ago of blowing teams up in the first 20 minutes, racking up two or three goals with intense starts.
They scored once against City, but this attacking foursome could easily establish a dominating and winning advantage with such an explosive opening in most games.
Liverpool were happy enough with a draw against their rivals for the title, but the system could be used again in the future. Many teams smaller than City could be overwhelmed by the 4-2-4
The downside comes when they don’t. Once energy levels drop, Liverpool can find themselves in trouble after halftime if they only have a 1-0 lead.
To this end, it was not a surprise to hear Klopp calling for the return of five Premier League substitutes after the match.
The ability to bring fresh legs around the hour mark, essentially creating a second wind, would be incredibly useful for Liverpool.
Van Dijk’s absence for the season also makes the 4-2-4 system more risky than it could be otherwise.
If Liverpool knew they have Van Dijk’s lead and the anticipation of danger at the rear, their forwards and wings could advance more often.
Klopp is upset that the five substitutes who allowed the subsequent restart from last season were discarded
As things stand, a vulnerability remains that can cause Liverpool’s new ‘Fab Four’ to be used in tandem only on special occasions or when chasing a game.
Also, it is no longer a secret weapon. City were undoubtedly the best team to launch this upset, but future opponents facing Liverpool could well devote six or seven men to frustrating them and be difficult to take down.
As much as we’d love to see this season’s Premier League free spirit and goalscorer embodied each week by its reigning champions, Klopp will eventually have to make that tough decision on whether to leave Firmino for Jota.
