Jürgen Klopp’s flexible thinking ensures Liverpool overwhelm West Ham | Sachin Nakrani

Nov 05, 2017

Liverpool’s manager adapted his tactical approach and confused their opponents in a manner that bore hallmarks of his Borussia Dortmund at their peak

Jürgen Klopp can occasionally not answer the question posed to him, and he was at it again after Liverpool’s 4-1 victory against West Ham United. Asked by a reporter to assess the contributions of Sadio Mané and Mohamed Salah, both of whom were excellent on a chilly evening in east London, Klopp decided instead to tell “the story of the game”, a blow‑by‑blow account of proceedings that lasted for four minutes.

It was a somewhat rambling response but, as is often the case with Klopp, also illuminating, and in this instance no more so than when the German spoke about Liverpool’s tactical plan for this fixture. “We changed the system,” he said. “The 4-4-2, which looked from the beginning a very offensive line-up, we had a different idea, we wanted to defend deeper, more compact.”

Tags: Football Jürgen Klopp Liverpool Sport