Jurgen Klopp has detailed how his team’s victory over Fulham was made possible by switching up their tactics during the match.
Alexis Mac Allister’s goal and Bernd Leno’s own goal gave Liverpool two first-half leads, but before the half, Harry Wilson and Kenny Tete pulled one back for Liverpool. Bobby Decordova-Headwards’ header in the 80th minute looked to have sealed an unlikely victory for the Cottagers.
However, in the closing moments of an intense match, goals from Wataru Endo and Trent Alexander-Arnold would see the Reds reclaim all three points.
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After substituting Cody Gakpo and Joe Gomez in the 65th minute, Klopp moved Alexander-Arnold into midfield as Liverpool switched to a double-pivot midfield formation. Later, the team dropped their inverted full-back.
And the German explained his reasoning for the adjustments, revealing how Liverpool managed to steal a late victory as a result of the changes.
After the final whistle, Reds manager Klopp told reporters, “There was a reason for that, and it was Trent in the middle.” As we saw, the eights are not particularly compact, so this game is for the six.
“I didn’t like the way we used the front line to defend. Returning, and the first half of our defensive press was mediocre at best. Because of this, it becomes extremely intense for midfielders, particularly for the six.
At that point, we also make changes to the system. Joey (Gomez) was brought on because we also required the width. That didn’t go as planned, so we once more required the wing.
“It went really well, but sometimes it doesn’t work out. The moment Dom (Dominik Szoboszlai) can underlap and we reach the crucial area is when you see Mo (Mohamed Salah) get on the ball and it was really good in the first half.
However, Joey was now present, which was beneficial. In addition, we had two midfield players. Trent and Ryan were positioned next to each other during our double six. When Joey regained control, she went inside initially before remaining outside for the subsequent change.
Therefore, whatever you try to do in these situations, if it works out, it’s because the opponent finds it difficult as well. Things take them longer to get used to.
“It went really well, but sometimes it doesn’t work out. The moment Dom (Dominik Szoboszlai) can underlap and we reach the crucial area is when you see Mo (Mohamed Salah) get on the ball and it was really good in the first half.
