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Mohamed Salah has tested positive for coronavirus. That is what we know. What comes next is unknown.
Liverpool have already had a trio of players test positive while off international duty, as well as a couple of false positives. At this stage, we don’t know how long Salah will be out. You may be ready to go back to training. right before Leicester’s game next Sunday, but he will most likely miss it.
That leaves Jurgen Klopp with another tactical dilemma. Without Vigil van Dijk, Joe Gomez, Trent Alexander-Arnold or Salah, things look a bit tense. And although they are expected to return, we have not yet received confirmation on the status of Fabinho or Thiago Alcantara.
Whichever of the two are also out will have a significant knock-on effect on Klopp’s team selection. Things were already compromised with Alexander-Arnold, who plays such a unique role that trying to find a similar trade-off, both in terms of individual skill and tactical responsibility, is impossible.
But Klopp should head to the Leicester game, with or without Salah, with the idea of keeping the new 4-2-3-1 / 4-2-2-2. The changing look, with Diogo Jota, Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mané and Mo Salah, all exchanging positions, has been a success. And it is the best way for Klopp to maintain a decent defensive structure and at the same time try to make up for the offensive output that will be lost without Alexander-Arnold.
On Friday I mentioned how keeping 4-2-3-1 / 4-2-2-2 will allow Klopp to better protect his defense, both in terms of preventing the player from becoming isolated, as well as taking part of the burden. creative and positional demands on that player’s hands (be it James Milner, Neco Williams, or Kostas Tsimikias).
Klopp’s typical 4-3-3 setup is so thorough, so demanding, that it needs a pair of full backs at the level of Andy Robertson and Alexander-Arnold to make it all sing. Take one out, with a comparative replacement (not that there are really comparative replacements) and it’s better to reorient everything around a different configuration.
The 4-2-2-2 / 4-2-3-1 (we need a catchy nickname) would allow it. Look at the change in the team’s defensive actions since Virgil van Dijk left the lineup and Klopp switched to the new system:
The wingers are getting more deeply involved in their own half. Things are a little more solid, a little more protected, a little less tense. That It’s the kind of look that would allow Klopp to navigate through this non-Alexander-Arnold period.
Set the table with three out of four defenders, a couple of filters, and then get five players flowing into the attack phase: A front of four roaming with Roberton providing some continuity down the left.
With Salah out, the change shouldn’t be to fill the midfield. That would make sense. Salah’s fall to Naby Keita or Gini Wijnaldum is less than Salah’s fall to Takumi Minamino or Xherdan Shaqiri, and is a change that would allow the team to play to its healthiest strength: playing with three quality midfielders.
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But Klopp needs to find a way to balance a couple of things: keep the team creative without Salah or Alexander-Arnold, Y to protect his right back, whatever he may be, from having to fit into a role few players on planet Earth can fulfill; the demands, physically and tactically, are too great for Milner and Williams.
Regardless of who goes where, Klopp should resist the urge to bring Jordan Henderson, Thiago and Wijnaldum together on the field. Against Brendan Rodgers’ five-in-the-back structure, width is everything, the game plan should be to protect the right back and have enough creators and firepower on the field. Preserving the 4-2-3-1 / 4-2-2-2 system would do that.
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